Earlier this month, I had the privilege of speaking at Web Summit in Dublin and it was a truly amazing experience. I was in Dublin for precisely four days and I don’t remember having dinner! Apparently, Guinness is as good as a meal!
Well, for a conference that saw more than 40,000 (yes – it was more than forty thousand) people, it felt cozy, never claustrophobic. Spread over the large RDS area, it had a lot of parallel tracks on all 3 days – and needless to say, each was completely filled with standing room only. It took a good 25 minute walk to go from one end of the conference the other – that speaks volumes about the scale of the conference. And they had sheep! Not just sheep – coloured sheep!
I spoke at the Code Stage about “Go” – to a varied audience – ranging from developers, designers, the media and people from all different vocations! So, I had to ensure that I kept people from all walks of technology entertained (either with code or cartoons!) I believe the hall had more than a 1,000 people and it was really inspirational to talk to so many people! I thoroughly enjoyed my talk and from what I gathered – people will never forget how to pronounce my name again, as someone told me later – “Gotham city Bob Marley Go pro”.
Well, here are the things which stood out for me at the Summit.
Internet π
Catering to internet access for all attendees, especially when the count is so high, is a nightmare. I wouldn’t say it was really awesome or very fast – but it was good enough for such a large conference. I had no complaints about it.
Speakers Lounge π π
As a speaker, I was treated like royalty! And there were over 800+ speakers and still they were able to make everyone feel special. There were stage co-oridnators, speaker guidelines, content guidelines and management that ensure that everything goes off well. The speakers lounge got you the needed peace and quite to prep up and was fully stocked with food and drinks. They even had golf carts to take you to your stage – a truly professional show!
Parallel stages π
There were at least 5 different stages to choose from at any given point. So, you never ran out of options. Add to that the startup pitches, mentor hours and the stalls never gave you a moment of boredom. Here’s what the centre stage looked like!
Startup pitches π
Over 500 different startups were there pitching about their products and their innovations. Ranging from education, IoT, Advertising, HR and hardware – there was something in it for everyone!
Food Summit π
You have your own share of problems when you have to buy coupons for food and walk quite a bit just to stand in a queue. Again, cannot complain too much about it.
The stages π π
Beautiful stages with large screens ensured everyone got a good view and did not lose out on anything!
Night Summit π π π
Pub hopping has never been so awesome. I had a wonderful time with a lot of awesome people that I met for the first time but will probably leave a lasting impression! π
The talks quality π π π
All the talks had established speakers and not a single talk that I attended every had a speaker struggle on stage or not be able to to manage the time. It was a privilege to be included in such a professional lot!
The professionalism that was shown by the organisers definitely deserves an applause. And when you are so good, it’s no surprise that the conference has it’ own brew! Cheers Paddy !
Josh Software 