Allow me to eat some humble pie. When Paddy Cosgrave launched the first Web Summit four years ago, I thought he faced an enormous challenge to progress from an initial set of occasional individual talks by some significant technology figures to an entire conference.
But the event went well. Some 400 people attended, impressive enough. Most notable was the honest enthusiasm of the many prominent speakers for the summit and especially for Dublin and the whole Irish experience.
But when Cosgrave talked about doing it all again I had my sceptic’s hat set firmly on my head. Everything about the enthusiasm for Web Summit one seemed to shout one-off.
Sure, all those guys (and it was mostly guys) came over and had a great time networking, pub-crawling and diving into some after-event R&R. Dublin was a novelty for the tech names who are more used to endless Valley, Las Vegas and New York conferences.
Most of them hadn’t done the Irish pub thing, nor been to events with people who were genuinely interested in talking but not plaguing them with adulation or pestering them relentlessly with questions.
It helped, no doubt, to not be quite as recognisable here as in Palo Alto. Frankly, most were unlikely to be noticed by anyone outside the actual summit attendees. All of which brings a certain freedom and pleasure to the rich and famous.
But doing it all again? I was dubious. I was pretty sure that while the first summit might have been a productive laugh for speakers – not least because the whole organisation of the event would not have been overly polished – they’d not be attracted back.
How wrong I was. Lots of the original speakers returned for year two, and plenty more new faces were on the vastly expanded agenda. Organisers claimed around 4,000 attendees.
The summit now has about doubled in size each year in attendees, with a matching expansion of what is on offer. The third year saw 10,000 going along, according to organisers, and this year 20,000.
Whether those numbers are real or not – and technology conferences and user-events regularly overhype attendance – doesn’t really matter. The numbers are huge. The event is packed.
The summit is also on the calendars of start-ups all over the world now. At a French embassy reception for French start-ups I learned that 120 of their young companies are here, with 11 given special sponsorship by their government. The ambassador said they hoped to sponsor double that number next year. Fine event So kudos, Paddy Cosgrave. What a fine event you have built. I was wrong.
That’s not to say I don’t have some ongoing quibbles, of course, many of which the organisers acknowledge. Some come from experimenting and innovating – rightly – to see what works.
Most frustrating is the low representation of women as speakers, a prominent problem highlighted by several of the women speaking this year. Yes, the lack of women in the tech sector is an obvious factor, but women are not as non-existent as the summit roster and list of chief executive speakers imply.
Only three of the 100 listed chief executive speakers are female, for example. And, as last year, the (rather depressing) overall conference figure of 15 per cent women “speakers” on the agenda is misleading in that a significant proportion of those are women journalists moderating sessions, which isn’t quite the same.
More women on the agenda would likely draw more women attendees. That this is low is easily determined by the reliable old toilet metric. There are no lengthy queues for the women’s toilets. That says it all.
I’m also not sure the Web Summit is best suited to its new vast size. Some of the French start-ups, a few of which had also been to the summit last year, felt this made it harder rather than easier to network.
How do you find or meet anyone in the thousands roaming about or attract people to your stall? Complexity The numerous micro-summits within the overall summit help somewhat, but also add complexity, and, for many I spoke to, simply too much choice. Personally, I think the summit loses focus by moving into sport, film and music, an unneeded duplication of the famed Texan South by Southwest conference.
Like many I also wish the individual sessions were longer. Speakers only really talk for about 15 minutes, which doesn’t allow for depth, especially on panel discussions. As a result you hear a lot of the same thing. That’s why the longer sessions on the Library stage are amongst the most rewarding and interesting.
Where does the Web Summit juggernaut go next? Cosgrave ambitiously will launch similar events in Las Vegas and in east Asia next year, and is already offering tickets for 2015's Dublin Web Summit.
That’s some Irish story. Starting with a modest event to celebrate entrepreneurs and founders, Cosgrave has become a significant Irish and international entrepreneur and founder in his own right.
