Web Summit quits Dublin

mzungu · 06-11-2015 10:04PM

gandalf wrote: »

Yeah the Web Summit version of the rhythm method :P

futonic · 06-11-2015 10:58PM

Paddy is a bit of a tosser tbh, but still I'm gutted its gone. Really enjoyed the energy of the event and the city when it was on. Lots of little fringe things going on too, like hackathons etc which won't happen without the main event. Damn. Lucky Lisbon.

Wompa1 · 06-11-2015 11:04PM

futonic wrote: »

Paddy is a bit of a tosser tbh, but still I'm gutted its gone. Really enjoyed the energy of the event and the city when it was on. Lots of little fringe things going on too, like hackathons etc which won't happen without the main event. Damn. Lucky Lisbon.

With all of the international attendees that have stated they are sad to see it leaving Dublin and that coming to Ireland was part of the attraction of attending in the first place. Plus passion from people like you to just have these side sessions outside of the summit. You'd imagine there's a great opportunity for somebody to pick up the pieces and stage something in Dublin anyways...

brooke 2 · 06-11-2015 11:05PM

Muahahaha wrote: »

The guy is rich beyond most peoples wildest dreams and he isn't yet 35 years of age. He doesn't need the LLS

So, why did he agree to appear on it? I guess he was rich before he made that
commitment to Ryan Tubridy?

brooke 2 · 06-11-2015 11:19PM

kunst nugget wrote: »

So, does it matter what way he makes his money or is it just important that he's a millionaire?

Paddy is a Master of The Universe whose philosophy seems to be encapsulated
in the 'Greed is good' mantra. What's not to admire about that? :rolleyes:

darkpagandeath · 07-11-2015 12:33AM

Any link to the company being worth 60m ? or was it a Forbes estimation ? Has anyone actually made any offer of that amount.

WarZ · 07-11-2015 12:51AM

If the government was the innocent one in all this then why did they feel the need to offer 'hush' money to WS (which the government didn't deny)

sid waddell · 07-11-2015 12:52AM

Muahahaha wrote: »

Theres a stack of similar sentiment on the thread so it is simply incorrect to say that people supported him when there was actually people jumping up and down with glee at the fact it was moving and Ireland was losing jobs and economic activity from it.

What jobs are being lost from a three day conference not being held here?

The vast majority of people working at it were not being paid.

And the food vendors will have more money in their pockets, that's for sure, because next year they won't lose thousands due to Paddy's price gouging.

WarZ · 07-11-2015 12:57AM

sid waddell wrote: »

What jobs are being lost from a three day conference not being held here?

The vast majority of people working at it were not being paid.

And the food vendors will have more money in their pockets, that's for sure, because next year they won't lose thousands due to Paddy's price gouging.

There were very little actual volunteers. There were hundreds and hundreds of people working in security, cleaning services, stewarding, marques, electricians, audio and visual people and probably a **** load more of areas that I can't think of but what you would expect at an event hosting over 30,000 people!

Then there's all the extra staff put on in hotels, restaurants and popular bars and nightclubs (places like Opium jammers on a Tuesday) to cater to the influx of people. All the extra fares for taxis and rickshaws (I saw tons of people getting rickshaws all the way to Ranelagh last night so taxis must have been very busy).

I'd imagine the event created extra shifts/jobs for thousands of workers across the city.

VinLieger · 07-11-2015 01:05AM

WarZ wrote: »

If the government was the innocent one in all this then why did they feel the need to offer 'hush' money to WS (which the government didn't deny)

Your getting more and more desperate.

That money was given over a 4 year period and its only in the last 2 weeks cosgrave has decided it was hush money.

sid waddell · 07-11-2015 01:09AM

WarZ wrote: »

There were very little actual volunteers. There were hundreds and hundreds of people working in security, cleaning services, stewarding, marques, electricians, audio and visual people and probably a **** load more of areas that I can't think of but what you would expect at an event hosting over 30,000 people!

Then there's all the extra staff put on in hotels, restaurants and popular bars and nightclubs (places like Opium jammers on a Tuesday) to cater to the influx of people. All the extra fares for taxis and rickshaws (I saw tons of people getting rickshaws all the way to Ranelagh last night so taxis must have been very busy).

I'd imagine the event created extra shifts/jobs for thousands of workers across the city.

1,468 volunteers last year according to Web Summit itself.

So some people won't get a few extra shifts.

In terms of proper, permanent jobs being lost, well, there basically won't be any.

The Dublin-Mayo All-Ireland semi-final replay had at least as much economic value as the Web Summit, and probably more.

Nobody would have lost their job had one of the teams got a late winner in the drawn match.

nxbyveromdwjpg · 07-11-2015 01:46AM

WarZ wrote: »

Then there's all the extra staff put on in hotels, restaurants and popular bars and nightclubs (places like Opium jammers on a Tuesday) to cater to the influx of people. .

No way pubs took on extra staff for the WS. If any of them were busier than usual, they were absolutely not busier than any average Saturday.

Complete baloney there.

Couple of lounge boys got an extra 4 hours or so maybe in a few places, whoop dee do.

The Rape of Lucretia · 07-11-2015 01:49AM

Never heard such a crowd of moaners make so much noise about fecking off to Lisbon that I am delighted they are now fecking off for real.

Goodbye and good riddance.

(Lisbon, hopefully they stay with you for ever - if they ever decide to move on again you are in for some whingefest).

darkpagandeath · 07-11-2015 02:16AM

WarZ wrote: »

There were very little actual volunteers. There were hundreds and hundreds of people working in security, cleaning services, stewarding, marques, electricians, audio and visual people and probably a **** load more of areas that I can't think of but what you would expect at an event hosting over 30,000 people!

Then there's all the extra staff put on in hotels, restaurants and popular bars and nightclubs (places like Opium jammers on a Tuesday) to cater to the influx of people. All the extra fares for taxis and rickshaws (I saw tons of people getting rickshaws all the way to Ranelagh last night so taxis must have been very busy).

I'd imagine the event created extra shifts/jobs for thousands of workers across the city.

link please.

flouncer · 07-11-2015 03:00AM

while all of us are critical of the web summit lets not get silly. its an event and generates business.

Muahahaha · 07-11-2015 03:17AM

mzungu wrote: »

€108m? I think its more like €37.5m, that is the figure from Fáilte Ireland.

Enda himself said it is worth €108m a year to the Irish economy. All the secret FGers on this thread dispute this figure but that's what came out of Enda Kennys mouth. €108m is a lot of economic activity, especially on a November Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday night but sure there's loads of people on this thread who would try to convince you that its worth nothing and sure they can just feck off and take their money elsewhere because 'Paddy Cosgrave Ra Ra Ra'

gandalf wrote: »

Sure the American Football Game in the Aviva next September is estimated to bring in €24 million to the economy. As I said two events in the Aviva and we'll make up for the loss of the WS.

mzungu wrote: »

Agree, the economy should be able to soak up the loss quite easily.

Whataboutery and circle jerking going on right here. Why not use the Web Summit as a shop window to attract other major conferences in the 30,000 range? Instead you two are full of "hope" that American Football events might replace the €108m loss to the economy. Perhaps ye should crash your American Football helmets together to come up with better ideas of how to fill Dublin hotels in midweek Novembers? :rolleyes:

sid waddell wrote: »

What jobs are being lost from a three day conference not being held here?

Clearly you've no idea of how conferencdes and investment works. It's not about a few jobs on the day, its about many more after connections are made. The IDA has being doing this stuff since the Apple days, they exhibit abroad in the hope of gaining jobs in Ireland. Web Summit also facilitated this, right on our very doorstep. But now it's gone and the haters remain

Steven Scrawny Mime wrote: »

No way pubs took on extra staff for the WS. If any of them were busier than usual, they were absolutely not busier than any average Saturday.

eh its Tuesday to Thursday in November when many people give up drink alrogether. Pubs in Dublin were rammed for the last four days because of the WS, you'd have to be blind not to have noticed it.

smash · 07-11-2015 03:39AM

WarZ wrote: »

If the government was the innocent one in all this then why did they feel the need to offer 'hush' money to WS (which the government didn't deny)

That is quite frankly the stupidest post you've made on the thread.

A: Paddy stated that any state support was given in exchange for advertising space.

B: Paddy gets desperate after losing the public sympathy, decides to change his mind and makes an elaborate story of how all state support wasn't in fact for advertising but instead it was hush money to cover up and distract from social issues like homelessness! Wtf?

C: A government minister says that if it was just hush money in his eyes, then he should give it back!

Paddy shuts the fcuk up. Probably after realising just how daft he sounded.

bucketybuck · 07-11-2015 03:56AM

Muahahaha wrote: »

The figure was $60m, it is linked on this thread about 2 weeks ago. iirc it was in an article about the WS in the Financial Times.

After numerous requests there still isn't any cite for this, I think a few posters should either put up or shut up at this stage.

smash · 07-11-2015 03:59AM

bucketybuck wrote: »

After numerous requests there still isn't any cite for this, I think a few posters should either put up or shut up at this stage.

Agreed. It was mentioned in an article posted yesterday that they have a cash reserve of only 1.1m.

Muahahaha · 07-11-2015 06:32AM

bucketybuck wrote: »

After numerous requests there still isn't any cite for this, I think a few posters should either put up or shut up at this stage.

Before you make demands of posters I think you should learn how to search a thread. The citation you've begged for was linked, hence the reason your demands have fallen on deaf ears.

07-11-2015 07:23AM

Lisbon seems so short sighted to me. There are so many places in Europe that have better transport links. I looked it up and there don't appear to be any direct flights from San Francisco or even LA to Lisbon, so what would be a 9 hour flight is now a 15 hour trip with at least one connection. While I'm sure it won't make a difference to some people, others it might.

It seems a bit weird as well to change the venue but then stay in that same venue for three years. It would be much more attractive if it kept moving. I think even Spain would have been a better choice given that a large proportion of Americans (who I assume are the largest group of attendees) speak Spanish.

I think next year will be make or break for them.

BMMachine · 07-11-2015 07:39AM

so many people being worked by the government here

the spirit of professional wrestling is alive.
yeah they were too demanding, yeah paddy cosgrave ra ra ra ra, yeah you cant blame hotels, it wasnt actually that good anyway etc etc

Do you ever wonder why we have had such awful Governments one after the other and why the stupidest things are just allowed to happen in this country? Why corruption is rife and why the poorest people are *repeatedly* getting absolutely screwed? You are so easy to work, to shift the blame and to bite your noses off that they can literally spin anything at you and get away with it. But let me guess, you are too smart for spin yeah?

JustTheOne · 07-11-2015 07:47AM

BMMachine wrote: »

so many people being worked by the government here
the spirit of professional wrestling is alive.
yeah they were too demanding, yeah paddy cosgrave ra ra ra ra, yeah you cant blame hotels, it wasnt actually that good anyway etc etc

Do you ever wonder why we have had such awful Governments one after the other and why the stupidest things are just allowed to happen in this country? Why corruption is rife and why the poorest people are *repeatedly* getting absolutely screwed? You are so easy to work, to shift the blame and to bite your noses off that they can literally spin anything at you and get away with it. But let me guess, you are too smart for spin yeah?

The poorest people are screwed?

Can you define the poorest?

If you mean people on social welfare or low paid workers they actually got hit the least during the recession.

700,000 workers on low pay pay little to no tax while middle income earners pay nearly 50%.

Anyway I await your reply to how the poorest get screwed the most.

VinLieger · 07-11-2015 09:09AM

BMMachine wrote: »

so many people being worked by the government here
the spirit of professional wrestling is alive.
yeah they were too demanding, yeah paddy cosgrave ra ra ra ra, yeah you cant blame hotels, it wasnt actually that good anyway etc etc

Do you ever wonder why we have had such awful Governments one after the other and why the stupidest things are just allowed to happen in this country? Why corruption is rife and why the poorest people are *repeatedly* getting absolutely screwed? You are so easy to work, to shift the blame and to bite your noses off that they can literally spin anything at you and get away with it. But let me guess, you are too smart for spin yeah?

Can you point to me the numerous examples of government spin at play here?

Cus all ive seen is paddys constant bitching and moaning via any means he could. The government sat back and let him do their work for them. The only acknowledgement or mention I saw by them was the request to give the money back apart from they they stayed shtum cus their PR people advised them pretty well. Id say paddy is wishing now he hired whoever they were using instead.

gandalf · 07-11-2015 10:07AM

Muahahaha wrote: »

Enda himself said it is worth €108m a year to the Irish economy. All the secret FGers on this thread dispute this figure but that's what came out of Enda Kennys mouth. €108m is a lot of economic activity.

Lol I am definitely not a secret FGer! So you trust the amount that "ATM Enda" quoted. I prefer to trust Failte Ireland's figure over the word of a man who has been caught on numerous occasions telling porkies. Paddy and Enda are well suited both are liberal with the truth and have a neck on them like a jockies bollix!

machiavellianme · 07-11-2015 10:24AM

Muahahaha wrote: »

Exactly. As Tubridy said yesterday once you get successful in Ireland people are out to clip your wings. Perhaps the best example of this is the developer Tom Gilmartin who made a fortune in the UK and came home to invest in Ireland. His treatment was shocking and resulted in the Flood tribunal.

A bit rich coming from Tubridy. Both have things in common alright, they have limited "talent" and got extremely lucky with their work but are too self obsessed to realise it. At least paddy is willing to try and test himself abroad. Pity Tubridy wouldn't do likewise. Then we'll find out if they're really worth the huge paychecks.

Calina · 07-11-2015 10:28AM

Muahahaha wrote: »

I dunno, cos his company has been valued at $60m and at the young age of 32 he is clearly far more successful than most people? Jealousy is a pretty common trait you know.

Only if you measure success in purely monetary terms. There are med staff saving lives up and down the country every day and I think that while they don't get rewarded with an unknown number of millions, their success is probably more essential to humanity.

BMMachine wrote: »

so many people being worked by the government here
the spirit of professional wrestling is alive.
yeah they were too demanding, yeah paddy cosgrave ra ra ra ra, yeah you cant blame hotels, it wasnt actually that good anyway etc etc

Do you ever wonder why we have had such awful Governments one after the other and why the stupidest things are just allowed to happen in this country? Why corruption is rife and why the poorest people are *repeatedly* getting absolutely screwed? You are so easy to work, to shift the blame and to bite your noses off that they can literally spin anything at you and get away with it. But let me guess, you are too smart for spin yeah?

One of the biggest things I see in this country, as it happens, is the desire to eulogise the undeserving. Paddy Cosgrave is not a tech entrepreneur, he's an event organiser. By the sounds of things, he doesn't appear to be very good at the underlying organising side but talks a good talk, or at least did. If you think you're immune to spin, I think you need to consider whether you're just selective in the spin you accept to be spun by.

As an industry show where deals are done, Websummit is more useful small and select than it is big and chaotic. I don't have a start up on the go at the moment, but the last time I looked at putting one together, if I were looking for funding, websummit as it exists now is absolutely not where I would have started looking for glory or contacts. Being one of 100 selected is worth more to be than being one of 1000 selected. If I've got a product worth considering, then being selected or not by Websummit is not going to make any great difference to my life. Do I think I'll do good networking business at websummit?

Based on some of the people I know who've gone - mostly in the marketing and PR sector it must be said - the argument has to be no. Other people's experience may vary.

You're free to think that the lose of this trade show is a catastrophe of catastrophes. While I'm not going to castigate them for getting 30,000 people through the door, the point remains that as an event, it is not now as useful or as effective for a start up as it might have been 3 years ago when it was smaller. There are just too many people flooding the place now and there's a lot of bandwagon hopping. By growing the attendance beyond all order, and aiming for celebrity rather than effectiveness, I think the brand has diluted anyway. And the highest profile deals done at it, I am certain would have happened anyway without it.

The reason we get bad governments by the way is that people generally vote in the general direction of their own self interest plus, the way people treat politicians in this country makes it an unattractive option. If you want really competent politicians, then you change the value proposition to something that doesn't involve the savagery that goes on in political discourse here where image and perception are everything and reality has scant regard.

SEPT 23 1989 · 07-11-2015 10:28AM

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Lisbon seems so short sighted to me. There are so many places in Europe that have better transport links. I looked it up and there don't appear to be any direct flights from San Francisco or even LA to Lisbon, so what would be a 9 hour flight is now a 15 hour trip with at least one connection. While I'm sure it won't make a difference to some people, others it might.

It seems a bit weird as well to change the venue but then stay in that same venue for three years. It would be much more attractive if it kept moving. I think even Spain would have been a better choice given that a large proportion of Americans (who I assume are the largest group of attendees) speak Spanish.

I think next year will be make or break for them.

Lisbon is the cheapo option any other major European city would cost a lot more

fungie · 07-11-2015 11:04AM

WarZ wrote: »

There were very little actual volunteers. There were hundreds and hundreds of people working in security, cleaning services, stewarding, marques, electricians, audio and visual people and probably a **** load more of areas that I can't think of but what you would expect at an event hosting over 30,000 people!

Then there's all the extra staff put on in hotels, restaurants and popular bars and nightclubs (places like Opium jammers on a Tuesday) to cater to the influx of people. All the extra fares for taxis and rickshaws (I saw tons of people getting rickshaws all the way to Ranelagh last night so taxis must have been very busy).

I'd imagine the event created extra shifts/jobs for thousands of workers across the city.

There were 2000 volenteers.

my friend · 07-11-2015 11:37AM

Won't someone think of the Adrian Weckler?

Web Summit quits Dublin

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