For those who havent heard of the Web Summit before it is 500 speakers, 100 tech CEO’s, 900 exhibitors and 20,000 attendees gathering at the RDS in Dublin for 3 days of talks, demo’s and networking.
Back in September I spotted a tweet about joining the Live Team at “Europe’s most global tech event”. Essentially the Live Team was 180 people from 16 different countries whose job was to create and share content from the various sections of the Web Summit. I filled out a quick application form and was lucky enough to get accepted. In return for our efforts we were given a free ticket (worth around €1500) and a handful of us, such as myself, received a free hotel room near the event.
What better way to summarise a Tech event that using a collection of my own tweets (highlights / key takeaways) from the event itself? (Apologies for any slow page loading as there are 37 tweets embedded below)
DAY 1
When I arrived at the summit venue it seemed to be organised chaos. There was people cleaning, building stands etc and it was due to start in 40 minutes.
Henry Hoover is getting some serious promotion at #WebSummit2014. Are they a sponsor?
— Profoundry (@ProfoundryCo) November 4, 2014
Perhaps the biggest problem right from the start of the summit was the lack of Wi-Fi. Paddy Cosgrave made his feelings on this very clear during several justified rants:
BT providing the nonexistent Wi-Fi at #websummit. Paddy Cosgrave apologising. Awkward that BT CEO is a speaker here… — Profoundry (@ProfoundryCo) November 4, 2014
Sadly the absurdity of no Wi-Fi at a tech summit was noticed by large Irish brands such as Guinness and the Independant:
Oculus Rift was a huge topic of discussion at the summit, partly because the team were there:
Skip Rizzo from Oculus Rift talking through the tech. Definite doppelgänger for Steven Seagal… #websummit pic.twitter.com/FWaNItGgiq
— Profoundry (@ProfoundryCo) November 4, 2014
Demo showing Oculus Rift being used to successfully treat soldiers for post traumatic stress. #websummit pic.twitter.com/aSUDGA5h89 — Profoundry (@ProfoundryCo) November 4, 2014
“Face to face communications will be the game changer for Oculus Rift” @brendaniribe #websummit
— Profoundry (@ProfoundryCo) November 4, 2014
.@brendaniribe addressing the “elephant in the room”: disorientation and sickness from Virtual Reality. #websummit — Profoundry (@ProfoundryCo) November 4, 2014
With so many young CEO’s and founders around the topic of “Entrepreneurship” was a popular one:
55 million people on Facebook interested in “Entrepreneurship”. #Dublin has most people within that figure. #websummit
— Profoundry (@ProfoundryCo) November 4, 2014
Digital payments popped up in a number of discussions:
John Collison from @stripe thinks the online payment market is in its infancy with much more to come. #websummit pic.twitter.com/YHaiiedMPp — Profoundry (@ProfoundryCo) November 4, 2014
Phil Libin, CEO of Evernote, gave insight into the internal structure and plans for the business:
.@Evernote vows to be a hundred year startup & claim a properly thought out price/payment model is key to that. #websummit
— Profoundry (@ProfoundryCo) November 4, 2014
One of the most popular speakers at the (85% male) event was Desperate Housewives star Eva Longoria who discussed females in the tech industry, philanthropy and fame with Jemima Khan.
.@EvaLongoria on the Main Stage talking to @Jemima_Khan at #websummit pic.twitter.com/c75LUYQJEZ — Profoundry (@ProfoundryCo) November 4, 2014
.@EvaLongoria discussing the negatives of Fame as about 60 people including paps crowd round her at #websummit pic.twitter.com/EKotcwgNRn
— Profoundry (@ProfoundryCo) November 4, 2014
Being a tech conference there was the obligatory creepy robots:
Some weird and wonderful robotics being showcased at #WebSummit. Unsettling how they both stared at me… pic.twitter.com/Jb5xZ1BuCy — Profoundry (@ProfoundryCo) November 4, 2014
DAY 2
This quote from Tony Strudwick, Head of Athletic Development at Manchester United, is something all brands should be doing:
“If it’s measurable, measure it. If it’s controllable, control it. If it’s both, record it.” @Struds1972 #websummit pic.twitter.com/wTTK06PyyL — Profoundry (@ProfoundryCo) November 5, 2014
The folks at Ideapaint had a whiteboard wall where anyone could write a message. I decided to be sneaky and use a freebie sticker to affix a business card instead. I managed to inspire Unique Sound to copy me:
I watched an interview with Cathal Pendred who really reversed the clichés that come with MMA/UFC fighters:
Very eloquent and honest talk from @PendredMMA at #websummit. Clearly a great asset for #MMA — Profoundry (@ProfoundryCo) November 5, 2014
This image during Dan Siroker’s (CEO of Optimizely) talk showed the power of A-B testing:
“This image & button increased sign ups 40% for Obama’s Campaign after AB testing.” Dan Siroker at #websummit pic.twitter.com/1WMYolzLp8 — Profoundry (@ProfoundryCo) November 5, 2014
A discussion with Getty Images CEO Jonathan Klein brought out some interesting lessons/points:
“Our investors told us to go into the consumer market. We did and it failed. Don’t listen to your investors.” CEO @GettyImages #websummit — Profoundry (@ProfoundryCo) November 5, 2014
“Search engines moving away from original purpose, trying to keep you on longer & make it easy to steal images” CEO @GettyImages #websummit — Profoundry (@ProfoundryCo) November 5, 2014
DAY 3
The Machine Summit hosted Rob Coneybeer, Founder of Shasta Ventures, who came up with some valuable insights for those looking for investment:
‘I look for simplicity in the value proposition & an offering that the market hasn’t had before.’ @robconeybeer #websummit — Profoundry (@ProfoundryCo) November 6, 2014
“Crowdfunding is a great way of avoiding delusion” @robconeybeer at #websummit pic.twitter.com/JcoLnJn65h — Profoundry (@ProfoundryCo) November 6, 2014
There was a group discussion at the Marketing Summit that brought out the following interesting points:
“If content is king then Mobile (marketing) is all about context” #websummit — Profoundry (@ProfoundryCo) November 6, 2014
“The problem with Mobile Advertising was leveraging effective ad units.” #websummit — Profoundry (@ProfoundryCo) November 6, 2014
There’s 3x more conversation about TV shows on Facebook than on Twitter & FB haven’t begun to target that with native ads.” #websummit — Profoundry (@ProfoundryCo) November 6, 2014
“The amount of time we spend on our mobiles is not being reflected in the advertising industry. Brands need to catch up.” #websummit — Profoundry (@ProfoundryCo) November 6, 2014
“Mobile advertising should of leapfrogged Cinema, Magazine, Outdoor & Print as the 3rd highest medium.” #websummit — Profoundry (@ProfoundryCo) November 6, 2014
“Users only get creeped out when you show them you have used their data without permission.” #websummit — Profoundry (@ProfoundryCo) November 6, 2014
CEO of CKSK, Cillian Kieran, had a short prezo full of great insights for digital marketers. I recommend you check it out: http://slidesha.re/1zzW9wQ
“Break with our industries best practices. Assume nothing. Forget about consumers.” @cillian on digital marketing at #websummit — Profoundry (@ProfoundryCo) November 6, 2014
This quote from the guys at Elite Daily really shows what type of social content brands should be producing:
“The most socially shared articles are actually at an 8th grade reading level.” @EliteDaily at #websummit — Profoundry (@ProfoundryCo) November 6, 2014
David Butler, VP of Innovation at Coke, talked about Coca Cola Founders and their plans to invest in early stage startups:
When looking for startups to invest in Coca-Cola look for “People, Product and Promise.” #websummit — Profoundry (@ProfoundryCo) November 6, 2014
Two great quotes from Julia Hartz, Co Founder and President of Eventbrite:
“It’s really important to tap into a clear direction and vision to succeed.” President of @eventbrite #websummit pic.twitter.com/6fOiiP59ZC — Profoundry (@ProfoundryCo) November 6, 2014
‘Our biggest lesson was to not be fearful. Don’t let fear lead to you NOT trying things.’ President of @eventbrite #websummit — Profoundry (@ProfoundryCo) November 6, 2014
I couldn’t resist creating my own version of Conference Bingo:
Don’t forget to play #websummit Bingo: pic.twitter.com/Fhvvtj2ywU — Profoundry (@ProfoundryCo) November 6, 2014
A number of insights came from a discussion between John Hayes, CMO at American Express and David Karp, Founder of Tumblr:
“American Express was 108 years old when we released the payment card. We will do it again without the card.” John Hayes at #websummit — Profoundry (@ProfoundryCo) November 6, 2014
“We want to make sure we integrate with all video platforms.” @Davidkarp on video at @tumblr #websummit — Profoundry (@ProfoundryCo) November 6, 2014
Interesting hearing a massive corporate brand (@AmericanExpress) working with a maverick content platform (@tumblr). #websummit — Profoundry (@ProfoundryCo) November 6, 2014
American Express use their @tumblr partnership to reach out to key influencers to get tremendous impact for the brand. #websummit — Profoundry (@ProfoundryCo) November 6, 2014
Adrian Grenier, of Entourage fame and founder of SHFT.com, discussed Music in a Digital Age.
“Music has been democratised so that musicians don’t owe the label anymore.” @adriangrenier at #websummit — Profoundry (@ProfoundryCo) November 6, 2014
My last session of the conference was watching the Coca Cola Pitch Competition where thousands of startups were whittled down to 6 (3 alpha stage and 3 beta stage) businesses. These 6 had to do a 4 minute pitch on the main stage infront of a team including Coca-Cola CTO and 5000 audience members. There was some superb business ideas and the pitches were one of the highlights of the summit.
Final 4 min pitches for Pitch Comp starting on the main stage at #websummit pic.twitter.com/40Fbwge2Jb — Profoundry (@ProfoundryCo) November 6, 2014
Having finished the conference it was time to go back to Manchester. I waited for the AirCoach back to the airport in the poring rain at a bus stop. After 50 minutes and no sign of a bus I got talking to two very nice folks also heading to the airport who recommended we share a taxi. After a 1 hour taxi ride getting to know these folks I realised I had just €5 left. They very kindly offered to pay my 3rd of the fare (about £9). This was a great example of the kind of people I met at the conference and the friendly vibe in Dublin.
I really recommend anyone in a startup, marketing or tech head to the Web Summit in 2015. I will certainly be re-applying for the 2015 Live Team so hope to see you there!
I would love to hear your highlights from the Web Summit in the comment section.