Bono was among the final speakers at this year’s Web Summit
By Will Goodbody, Science & Technology Correspondent
The Web Summit is over for another year. The three day event was broadly speaking a tremendous success for the organisers, the tech community here in Ireland and the wider economy. Time will tell what business was actually done at and around it. But anyone who was in Dublin City over the last week, couldn’t but have noticed the buzz, the people, the packed restaurants and bars, and the smiling visitors.
There were many highlights and memorable moments. But here are five things I’ll remember about Web Summit 2014.
Production values were high at this year’s event
1. 2014 was the year the event matured: When it first took place in 2010, the vision might have been big. But the attendance of 400 was small. Since then, however, Web Summit has “scaled” (to borrow that annoying tech phrase) at a blistering pace. Last year, when 10,000 people attended, there was a feeling that perhaps it had grown too quickly. It felt rough around the edges, like the organisers had taken on more than they could handle. And if it hadn’t been for an impressive list of speakers, they might not have got away with it. This year, however, the event had grown up. It was polished, professional, slick even. And that was despite the fact that it had doubled in size since last year. It’s an impressive achievement, and much credit is due to the Web Summit team for what they have managed to do in a short space of time.
Wifi became a story at Web Summit 2014
2. Wifigate: That said, there were some problems with the wifi again this year, which mushroomed into an unfortunate sideshow on the final day. The issue first arose on the morning of day one. What exactly happened after that depends on which side you listen to. Web Summit co-founder, Paddy Cosgrave, maintained the problems persisted in certain areas of the RDS complex for the remainder of the event. And even went so far as to warn on the Centre Stage that unless the issue could be sorted in the future, the Summit might have to move abroad, as there was nowhere else big enough in Ireland to host it. The RDS, on the other hand, claimed the problems had been limited. It went on a PR defensive, releasing statements highlighting the quantity of data the infrastructure was successfully handling. For those who needed wifi to do business, interruptions to service would no doubt have been annoying. But anyone who has ever attended an event of this scale will know, wifi is rarely if ever reliable. And my guess is that most delegates would have come prepared for that. So it was perhaps unfortunate that the Web Summit chose to play out a private row with the RDS in public, highlighting what was already an embarrassing situation for all concerned. Though a hastily cobbled together joint statement released on Thursday evening did commit both sides to working together to resolve the issue ahead of next year. Detente, it would seem, for now.
3. The “Double Irish” isn’t an issue: It’s just a few short weeks since the government announced it was going to phase out the so-called “Double Irish” corporation tax loophole. Allegedly one of, if not the main reason, that profitable tech multinationals choose to locate in Ireland. And so it was naturally going to be a talking point at the summit. But what was really revealing was that of all the company founders, CEOs, chairmen, Presidents and Vice-Presidents that I spoke to, not one admitted on, or off the record for that matter, that they were concerned about it, or that it would impact their decision to remain in Ireland into the future. Well, they would say that, you might say. And perhaps it was just good PR. But I certainly came away feeling that for now at least, as long as the corporation tax rate remains at 12.5%, there is no problem.
4. Talent is the issue: If the phasing out of the “Double Irish” is not the reason why tech companies are flocking here, then talent it seems certainly is. I had been somewhat sceptical about the claims that we’ve all heard time and time again in recent years – that it is the skills ecosystem that has made Ireland really attractive to tech businesses coming in from abroad. But when you hear it said enough times, you start to believe it. And this week, I listened to the same message repeated again and again by tech leaders in a way that left me thinking, maybe they actually mean it. Ireland, it seems, does offer a near unique blend of indigenous and imported IT and language skills, that cannot be found elsewhere in Europe. But this does provoke another question – can supply keep pace with the demand for such skills here into the future? And if not, what will happen then?
Peter Thiel was one of the main keynote speakers this year
5. The tech industry is overburdened with fluff: In every industry there are those who go native. Who forget the ability to speak using normal language, adopting instead the nonsense speak of jargon and hyperbole. Who lose the ability to differentiate a good idea from a bad one. Who lose sight of the world outside their own bubble. The technology industry has more than its fair share of them, and they were out in force at the Web Summit. The tragedy is that many fantastic ideas and many brilliant people get lost amid the sea of noise and under the piles of fluff. Indeed, the technology industry would do well to listen to one of its own most successful founders, investors and leaders. In an interview with me at Web Summit, the PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel spoke about how tech entrepreneurs should look to do something new and unique, to become monopolies and avoid trends and buzz words. Sensible advice which could lead to many more successful businesses and far less nonsense for the rest of us to have to listen to.
Watch back RTÉ interviews with leading Web Summit speakers
Comments welcome via Twitter to @willgoodbody