Summit Rotten

at

Web-Summit-2014

FIGHT!

Dublin Web Summit 2014

Jay Rayner?

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72 thoughts on “Summit Rotten

    1. PaddyIrishMan

      Absolutely! I marked as spam a year ago and have had no further pseudo chummy nonsense.

  1. Johnjoe

    Glad to see Web Summit lads being called out publicly. Bunch of cowboys in my opinion, one and all…

    1. Medium Sized C

      Well now.

      While I have particular issues with the web summit and the Silicon Valley/Docks bubble it seems to exist in,
      “cowboys one and all” is unfair and pretty much wrong.

          1. Loony Loo

            Ya. So sorry.

            But these lads have created a global summit from nothing and got top people to attend.

            I hope they sell it for millions, and fair play to them.

          2. Loony Loo

            Actually clampers it is genuinenessly priced IMHO.

            They have a whole science around the timing of the price increases, and it is an excellent way to create a continual stream of buzz and hype. Their ticket pricing strategy is at least part of their success.

            Each round of price increases prices certain people out of attending and makes it more of an elite event. All the five star hotels in the area are sold out each time it comes to town.

        1. Medium Sized C

          Criticism isn’t begrudgery.
          Being successful doesn’t give you a free pass from criticism.

        2. Paolo

          They most certainly have not created a global ANYTHING. It is a local parochial summit and is not taken seriously in industry.

          1. Loony Loo

            Paolo at the first event there was the founder of twitter, youtube, myspace, and at the first pub crawl Mark Zuckerburg attended.

            I have not seen a similar event on planet earth that has given access to founders of these companies.

            In has since increased in size and scale so access is not as available, but it is absolutely a global event.

  2. Selfie Sensation

    What I heard about the Websummit last year from attendees was not good, extortionate prices exhibitors, pathetic facilities and no working WiFi, they said it was a bit embarrassing.

    Also lots of “interns” staffing the place, unpaid allegedly.

    1. Brucie

      I interviewed for an internship there… I got to the THIRD round and in the end I did not get the job.

  3. Davey T

    This is a great deal for Paddy Cosgrave and the lads….. Charge a grand a ticket, get over a 1000 volunteers to run a conference that you dont pay speakers for. Add “pub crawls” and the likes….. F**k it, just put on Leprechaun hats for the silicon valley lads, show them the craic….

  4. The People's Hero

    Word on the street is he’s looking to flog the event to the highest bidder – €20m apparently… to one of those giant event companies…..

  5. John Smith

    I applied for an administration position in the Dublin Web Summit company, €35,000+ and 1 hour after I applied they called me and gave me an interview. At the end of the interview they said ‘you sound great for the job, but we think you might be better suited for an internship position in the office. The internship is just under €15,000 and we can’t guarantee you a job after the summit. Completely wasted my time.

  6. Anon

    The interns are paid, however it is below minimum wage for the hours worked. Permanent staff are also grossly underpaid for their work. With the high number of staff walking out in the recent past for reasons yet to unearth, this level of disorganisation does not surprise me.

  7. Johnny

    This will probably be the last Web Summit run by the current organisers. They seem hopelessly out of their depth, they’re making far too many embarrassing mistakes and surely they have made enough money now to stop.

    Their problem – like so much of Ireland’s tech bubble – is their obsession with money, and famous people with money.

    They’re like the lovindublin guy but without his charisma or people skills!

  8. spork

    i know they’ve been booking up hotel rooms around the area for the event, but have been cancelling them when deposit requests intensify. i reckon they were planning to sell them on (at a profit probably). that plan seems to be imploding.

  9. garthicus

    It’s been a featured/sponsored post in the middle of my FB newsfeed for months, it ain’t cheap to post it there for so long, that’s for sure.

    I’m in recruitment (in-house, not agency) and all of my agency contacts are creaming themselves at the thoughts of all the ‘prospects’ they’ll meet at it. Blegh.

    1. Loony Loo

      Do you mean company owners/entrepreneurs? or tech people who work in companies (developers)?

      Who are your friends excited to be meeting?

      1. garthicus

        Recruiters excited about meeting IT/Tech type people who in turn may turn into candidates for them.

      1. Crank

        People who read the Mail Online who might be able to spin this to their employers as a work thing and get them to pay for it.

      2. Brucie

        Apparently Eva Longoria has invested in a number or tech start ups and Lily Cole started some website.

  10. Beluba

    I work at the Web Summit. Long hours but get paid well. Better salaries than at Accenture, Deloitte and stuff.

  11. Anon

    Beluba, I would love to see where you gathered salary info on those companies listed. Interns at the Web Summit receive 15k and when you transition to permanent this goes to 22k. These are all below averages for Graduates who, in my opinion, are lost in that company. It is a disgrace the stories emerging about staff treatment. I welcome a report from Mr Cosgrave on his staff turnover rates for 2014 and let’s see the explanations

    1. Davey T

      “Wait a minute, they get paid more than 15k/22k at Accenture, Deloitte & stuff? But the leader never lies!!!”

    2. Anon

      ‘…Graduates who, in my opinion, are lost in that company. It is a disgrace the stories emerging about staff treatment’

      Can you elaborate?

  12. Optimus Grime

    I don’t mind the summit, what I do mind is the constant lauding of Paddy as some tech savant when all he has succeeded in doing is organising a really big meeting

  13. Johnny

    On Twitter, Daire Hickey has told Jay Rayner that “unfortunately” they do not pay speakers.

    Where does all the ticket money go?

    And how much have they received from EI, IDA and other state agencies?

    Someone somewhere is making a killing here.

  14. Frilly Keane, Anyone?

    Am I supposed to know who Jay Raynor is?

    BTW. Sounds like this Web Sum’ting need a professional CEO

      1. bisted

        …have been hoping one his shows would come this way…I’ve heard they are good. His weekly food reviews are worth seeking out …even if you are not interested in food.
        He turns down any request that has the slightest hint of PR or corporate sponsership that might be perceived as compromising his honesty….something our ‘restaurant reviewers’ could learn a lesson from.

          1. will-billy

            he is a complete bollox. i like him also. his hilarious expurgations at the cutting edge of Uk masterchef are to die for.

  15. Jay Rayner

    Amusingly when finally Hickey called me, he announced that the pestering emails followed by silence was not how they ‘like to do business’. I pointed out that by refusing to pay me, they weren’t doing business at all. Or at least not with me.

    Then he spouted a lot of bollocks about how people do stuff for free all the time. I imagine Hickey gets paid. Weird that.

    Someone has to stand up for the notion that there is a value to content. I don’t need to hang with Zuckerberg or Lily Cole, however delightful they might be. I’d love to pop over to Dublin at some point, but if it ain’t a holiday of my choosing it needs to be a paying gig. Kids. Mortgage. The usual.

    Plus when they’re charging hundreds for entry it’s only reasonable to ask to be paid.

    Isn’t it?

    1. Bibi Baskin Robbins

      As usual, Mr Rayner nails it. Someone is making a lot of money, and to expect hard working professionals, whether profiled or behind the scenes, to contribute to their profits for free is insulting. Exposure? You can die of exposure.

  16. David Roe

    I spoke at it once, which went okay, but the whole thing seemed very amateurish. The A/V setup for the speaker before me was critical to his (highly visual) presentation. He was assured, repeatedly, by Paddy that he had checked the A/V setup and it was fine. It wasn’t. The video did not work and as a result the presentation was an embarrassment. Cosgrave didn’t even apologise.
    They’ve done well to make it as big as it is, but it’s more of a media/networking/PR thing than a tech conference. ‘Web Summit’ implies something other than the media-friendly schmoozing that goes on. It passes most tech companies by.

  17. Clara

    I had a similar experience with their job interview process back in 2012. Went through 4 rounds of bullshitty online forms and then went into what could only be described as a shambolic group interview. They were all over the place and apologetic for their own questions. All in all, it was a complete waste of time, especially since no one even bothered to contact me afterwards to say that I had not been successful, which would have been welcome given the arduous application process! A year later I got a “We are hiring again.” email so I gave them a piece of my mind!

  18. Maxi

    Hard to know why speakers bother with this, if last year is any guide. Each panel session seemed to last 15 minutes and I remember a few sessions getting cut off in their prime by Paddy Cosgrave coming onstage and saying “f*** off the stage” to the panelists. Lovely behaviour. A real case of an event which has started to run before it could even stand on its feet. And let’s not mention the ridiculous SXSW-to-buy-Summit rumour that went around a few weeks ago. Talk about an inflated sense of importance.

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