Someone give Paddy Cosgrave a national award

Kermit.de.frog

His web summit in the RDS in Dublin next week looks huge this year with 100's of startups and loads of media flying in over the next few days. Apparently it's the largest technology summit in Europe now and I don't think it's been going that long (only a couple of years?).


Seems very big for Ireland. Well done that man. He surely deserves recognition for a huge achievement.

0byme75341jo28

I'd ride him.

Witchie

Good man Paddy getting an account on boards to promote the event!

All messing aside it is a phenomenal success. I am studying I the digital sector at the moment and the Web Summit is a fantastic opportunity for tech start ups to get funding and a helping hand. The likes of Elon Musk and Gary Vaynerchuk are still talking about the great time they had last year at it.

So gutted I can't afford to go but next year I hope to be there with a start up some fellow students and I are hoping to launch.

Kermit.de.frog

How does it work with so many startups making pitches? They must have very little time to convince potential investors with so many there.

Also good to see the Irish hotel industry have abandoned their rip off gouging habits:rolleyes:


http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/td-slams-hotels-for-rate-hikes-during-web-summit-295743.html

Kermit.de.frog

Seems the organisers are now saying this might leave Ireland altogether because of the wifi issues in the RDS. They seem really pissed off with the venue and rightly so.

Would be a shame but incompetence in Ireland is not that surprising really is it?

Mr. Incognito

The same International Tech Summit that doesnt have wifi???

Riiiiiiiiiiiight.

Embarrassing stuff.

fleet_admiral

Can it not be held in the modern covention centre?

VinLieger

Kermit.de.frog wrote: »

Seems the organisers are now saying this might leave Ireland altogether because of the wifi issues in the RDS. They seem really pissed off with the venue and rightly so.

Would be a shame but incompetence in Ireland is not that surprising really is it?

Any source for this?

Eircom have the license for RDS so it's their standard incompetance

mikemac1

fleet_admiral wrote: »

Can it not be held in the modern covention centre?

Was wondering the same myself

Muahahaha

VinLieger wrote: »

Any source for this?

Eircom have the license for RDS so it's their standard incompetance

rte just said it on the six one news

Kermit.de.frog

Apparently all other venues are too small. I'm not sure that is actually true. It could be they would rather not expose their guests to the sights and sounds of Dublin's north inner city.

Kermit.de.frog

VinLieger wrote: »

Any source for this?

Eircom have the license for RDS so it's their standard incompetance

Paddy Cosgrave went on the main stage today and ripped in to the RDS in front of everyone. Not happy at all. 3 days apparently without wifi in the main venue. And it was the same last year.

Johntm

How much was it to actually attend this?

hfallada

Kermit.de.frog wrote: »

Apparently all other venues are too small. I'm not sure that is actually true. It could be they would rather not expose their guests to the sights and sounds of Dublin's north inner city.

Yeah because the IFSC with its apartment blocks with swimming pools on the roof and 24 hour concierge, is on par with Damascus in Syria at the moment.

I imagine the convention center is probably booked up for the next few years. Either way Dublin needs a modern Messe like most German cities. Its a purpose built center for trade shows. Its incredibly important to cities like Munich. The RDS is freezing, dull and not fit for purpose

OU812

Johntm wrote: »

How much was it to actually attend this?

My ticket was €750 but we left it late. Was there for the three days, was quite the experience. They're launching two more summits next year, one in Vegas & one in Japan. I reckon they made the guts of €10m profit on it.

Honest opinion, it's overhyped & not worth the full price. VC are thin on the ground & exhibitor space is very small for about €1000 a day.

Great success for them but overblown.

If I see one more startup describe themselves as "the Hailo of..." Or "the airbnb of..." It'll be too soon.

There was even one company claiming to be "the Amazon for the 1%"... Got news for you buddy, the 1% either are given things for free or have people who'll go buy the item for them...

Johntm

Thats a nice amount alright for the 3 days you'd want a very good interest in the tech scene.

Did you come across any start-ups that wow'd you?

Annasopra

Kermit.de.frog wrote: »

Paddy Cosgrave went on the main stage today and ripped in to the RDS in front of everyone. Not happy at all. 3 days apparently without wifi in the main venue. And it was the same last year.

And you want to give him a medal ffs? :rolleyes:

VinLieger

Joeytheparrot wrote: »

And you want to give him a medal ffs? :rolleyes:

Eircom supply wifi to the RDS he has no control over it beyond telling them how many access points will be required, apparently they didn't listen for the 2nd year running

Wompa1

Have attended a few conferences over the last few years. This one seems a bit broad, so much so that's it's aimless. Maybe just a promotional vehicle for Ireland as a Tech hub...with crappy internet and under qualified graduates....

DesperateDan

I was I'm the room when Paddy was talking about the wifi, it was an off the cuff remark allowing him to apologise, hardly the threat people seem to be perceiving it as.

Annasopra

VinLieger wrote: »

Eircom supply wifi to the RDS he has no control over it beyond telling them how many access points will be required, apparently they didn't listen for the 2nd year running

If they didnt listen to him not once but twice why on earth should he get an award!!!!!!!!!

Annasopra

Wompa1 wrote: »

Have attended a few conferences over the last few years. This one seems a bit broad, so much so that's it's aimless.

I'm beginning to think the aim is just to promote this Paddy guy.

Beaner1

OU812 wrote: »

My ticket was €750 but we left it late. Was there for the three days, was quite the experience. They're launching two more summits next year, one in Vegas & one in Japan. I reckon they made the guts of €10m profit on it.

Honest opinion, it's overhyped & not worth the full price. VC are thin on the ground & exhibitor space is very small for about €1000 a day.

Great success for them but overblown.

If I see one more startup describe themselves as "the Hailo of..." Or "the airbnb of..." It'll be too soon.

There was even one company claiming to be "the Amazon for the 1%"... Got news for you buddy, the 1% either are given things for free or have people who'll go buy the item for them...

750? For what? Is that a business rate?

My name is URL

DesperateDan wrote: »

I was I'm the room when Paddy was talking about the wifi, it was an off the cuff remark allowing him to apologise, hardly the threat people seem to be perceiving it as.

I’m looking forward to a time when I can stand here and ask ‘Is there a problem with the WiFi?’ and nobody raises their hand and I believe that time will be 2015 or otherwise we won’t be in this country very much longer.

Doesn't sound very 'off the cuff' tbh

He has every right to be pissed off about it all the same.

Yurt2

Shot himself in the foot PR wise with the Trinity 1.1 nonsense a few months back.

Got to hand it to him for setting up a world class event in Ireland though. He has a 'strong personality' by all accounts, but you probably need an attitude like that to bring something like the Web Summit to fruition.

RDS are a bunch of morons to let that happen two years in a row. If the Summit leaves Ireland serious questions need to be answered. As far as I know the summit guys are working on similar events in the States and China so they're footloose people.

Cape Clear

Surely if the guy can't sort out WiFi for a tech conference he's not up to much or is too tight to reinvest the profits sounds half arsed either way.z

Highflyer13

VinLieger wrote: »

Eircom supply wifi to the RDS he has no control over it beyond telling them how many access points will be required, apparently they didn't listen for the 2nd year running

Eircom ah jaysus sort it out lads. My Eircom wifi fluctuates somewhere between 1.5mb and 16mb on any given day lol. Fair play to PC though, seems like a great event.

My name is URL

Cape Clear wrote: »

Surely if the guy can't sort out WiFi for a tech conference he's not up to much or is too tight to reinvest the profits sounds half arsed either way.z

He had no control over it. He wanted to bring Cisco in to handle the wi-fi but the RDS wouldn't allow it. They insisted that they be the ones in charge of it.

Axwell

He had requested that the wifi etc be leased out to a third party provider and they refused which is more so why he was so annoyed. Not alone would they not outsource it, they also messed up when it came to the event after charging an arm and a leg no doubt and telling him all would be grand on the day.

Personally I think the whole event is overpriced and over hyped. The speakers on the main stage werent great this year on any of the ones I watched. Its pretty steep in terms of price and im not a fan of these new stages like the food summit etc becoming a part of it. It just seems like an excuse to get more people paying to showcase at the event and turn it into a bigger money maker with the quality of the event suffering. The Nasdaq launch on the first day was embarrassing to watch also.

Would prefer to see a better managed event in a better location at a decent price.

Kermit.de.frog

Axwell wrote: »

The Nasdaq launch on the first day was embarrassing to watch also.

Really? Didn't see it. What happened?

Also can't imagine people were impressed with the hotels ripping them off either.

Cape Clear

My name is URL wrote: »

He had no control over it. He wanted to bring Cisco in to handle the wi-fi but the RDS wouldn't allow it. They insisted that they be the ones in charge of it.

Z
Buck stops with PC epic failure on his part if he couldn't get control of a key item

Yurt2

What was Eva Longoria doing all over the event this year btw? Does she run a tech company these days or summat?

My name is URL

Yurt! wrote: »

What was Eva Longoria doing all over the event this year btw? Does she run a tech company these days or summat?

I dunno but she's probably done more for Irish tourism in 3 days than Failte Ireland could do in a year.

Kermit.de.frog

Yurt! wrote: »

What was Eva Longoria doing all over the event this year btw? Does she run a tech company these days or summat?

I think she was looking for Tayto.

Davarus Walrus

Yurt! wrote: »

Shot himself in the foot PR wise with the Trinity 1.1 nonsense a few months back.

He didn't though. He said something that was true, but not what most people wanted to hear.

Yurt2

Davarus Walrus wrote: »

He didn't though. He said something that was true, but not what most people wanted to hear.

You'll probably say this a chip on my shoulder talking but I've worked with Trinity grads that I wouldn't trust to boil an egg correctly. Talent comes from everywhere, even from people with out degrees. Someone who runs a large organization like the Summit should be wise enough to recognize that, not arbitrary policies that favour their alma mater. Rankings and University prestige are not reliable indicators on the quality of candidates.

OU812

Johntm wrote: »

Thats a nice amount alright for the 3 days you'd want a very good interest in the tech scene.

Did you come across any start-ups that wow'd you?

Honestly, I didn't see anything that was totally wow, there were a couple of interesting concepts, but not that I thought "they've totally nailed that" (although I'm sure they thought that).

So many just looking to leverage existing tech to fill gaps "we're the halo of messenger bikes" etc... which is decent concept, but they're not creating something new.

TonyStark

Cape Clear wrote: »

Z
Buck stops with PC epic failure on his part if he couldn't get control of a key item

Indeed. If it happened last year and it happened this year its the fault of the conference organisers. He should have gotten a handle on the situation before the conference started.

Very unprofessional to rip into the Venue midway through the conference. Looks bad on everyone. Even if he had his own provider they would essentially have been piggy-backing on the core network of the RDS, its a conference centre not a data centre at the end of the day.

Can WiFi even scale to 22,000 users in such a limited area? And even at that people probably would have multiple devices.

Having attended the conference on two previous occassions I found that in general it was ok. Some of the presentations were outstanding the majority of the rest were very average with some of the attendees walking out mid session.

I see that as more of a concern than a WiFi outage.

WinnyThePoo

Where Pied Piper there?