Today was the first day of the Web Summit in Dublin and it didn’t disappoint. The lineup of speakers was great and the floor was filled with friendly startups and attendees. And then there was the speakers dinner as well as the organised drinks on Dame Lane.
Paddy Cosgrave, the founder of the Web Summit opened the summit with a tale from his childhood (won’t spoil it but it included a funny tale of misunderstanding what something is). After that David Shing from AOL took the stage talking about context, curated experiences, the future of the web and what really is the first screen. A great talk, brilliant slide designs and so much energy. For a taste of the topic there is an interview with him by RTÉ Digital on YouTube.
For what was actually a pretty large conference (4000+ attendees, 300 startups & exhibitors and 200 speakers) it was one of those conferences that under the surface still felt like a small one. Everyone was incredibly friendly and open to chat with anyone and though you’ll always have the few exceptions where you after asking “What do you do?” get a 10 minute monologue of company name, history, secured funding and future plans for funding, most seemed to be there to enjoy themselves and get to know people.
As someone who didn’t know anyone in person before I arrived, other than through Twitter, it was lovely to meet so many welcoming people and soon having made new friends. Up in the speakers, media and sponsors area people were incredibly talkative just as during the speakers dinner in the evening. And accidentally running into startups and people that you’ve read about online and gone “wow, that’s great” is always a particular honour. There are so many people out there trying to make the world that little bit better and nicer and this conference felt like a testament to that. It’s also the first conference I’ve been to where they’ve organised blocking off a street to create one big evening party.
Tomorrow – Day 292 | Web Summit Day 2
Image: Beer mat with the Dublin Web Summit logo
