#Websummit Cosgrave slams RDS for wi-fi connection issues
— Independent Business (@IndoBusiness) November 4, 2014
Quite a vitriolic rant against RDS wifi contractual obligations on Centre Stage at #websummit. — Jim Merricks White (@jimmerricks) November 4, 2014
Wifi has gone down at the #websummit & @paddycosgrave is not happy! Slating the #RDS for refusing give control of the wifi to 3rd party
— SMBclix.com (@SMBclix) November 4, 2014
CEO of RDS in Ireland forces @WebSummitHQ to pay€400k for non-working wifi #websummit @paddycosgrave we appreciate your perseverance — VelloBook (@mtuohy) November 4, 2014
FIGHT!
Anyone know algorithms?
Needs more Karl, in fairness.
Earlier: NERDS
Top pic via Jessica Kelly
Pic: Laura Hogan
Meanwhile…
Goodness gracious.
Web Summit’s Gracious Hosts: Matt Dempsey, Michael Duffy and Larry Murrin (WebSummitBlog)
(Sam Boal/Photocall Ireland)
Paddy Cosgrave’s a self-important bore.
Have to agree with you there…. can’t listen to the guy.
Still pretty sh1tty to have the wifi outage though
Well he was looking to ‘disrupt’.
X2
Also, there have been wifi issues for the past number of years – surely you change venue if you’re unable to gain sufficient control to ensure the internet is available at a web summit?!
He gets all the Kudos for organising this. When something goes wrong he passes the buck straight away. His reponsibility surely.
+1
Was there no adequate testing??
Dublin is a joke srsly……. Can we make somewhere else the capital for a little while until Dublin gets over itself???
Killkenny did well for a while
You realise it’s a city and not something that is conscious, right? It can’t get over itself.
Lets start with you, Get over yourself Bobby…
Good for Paddy. Tear them a new one, son!
He’s a techie now, not Conor McGregor!
Fair point. Throw your Starbucks cappuccino at them, son!
€400,000 for wifi for a conference…. what the hell is that spanner on about….. did Phil Hogan set it up and set the price then fupp off to Europe?
Yeah, what’s the about? I’m no IT consultant but 400k for a 3 day event seems mental, no?
I reckon the rental of the RDS is €400,000 for 3 days
That actually seems quite reasonable.
As you were.
This is a regular problem at tech conferences, apparently. Organisers say “you can’t handle wifi for this kind of event, please let us”, venue say “no, it’s part of our service offering, we’re doing it”. Organisers say “fine, but you’re gonna pay us an absolute bollock-load of compensation if the wifi goes down, because you don’t know what you’re doing”. Venue says “we do know what we’re doing, it will be fine”.
Then all the techies show up with 3 or 4 wifi devices each and the whole thing comes crashing down. The venue say they couldn’t have predicted, blah blah.
I have no sympathy for someone who thinks that wifi at this scale is easy, which seems to be the case here. Wifi at this scale is incredibly difficult to get right. Someone in the RDS is presumably learning this lesson very expensively right now.
+1
Interesting that the tweets above more or less imply this but people take it as an oppurtunity to begrudge a bit more.
Additionally it I not limited to Irish conferences.
I have been unfortunate enough to attend many in anonymous hotels around the work. This happens at every single one.
I find this incredibly believable, especially as someone dealing with a conference venue right now – fortunately it’s not a techie conference so fingers crossed we’ll be OK!
I’d say it’s a safe bet that nothing will be learned from this and it’ll happen again.
But €400k… I presume he means the RDS for the couple of days, not just wifi :)
Happens at pretty much every single tech conference, everywhere in the world, and to add to what DoM mentions, it’s all down to the venue having a contract with a provider that prevents others installing wifi. The provider normally has a standard offering that is designed for conferences full of non-techs that actually prefer to speak to each other, and that melts down under the assault of the active multi-deviced. I’ve only ever seen it done properly at ApacheCon Dublin in 2006, where they brought in their own team of probably a dozen network experts to set it up, with all their own hardware.
On pricing, I once got a quote of $25k for provision of wifi for 2 days for a room in a hotel where there was a meeting being hosted. Nice little earner.
It’s a tad embarrassing though. Hopefully there’s some penalty clauses in there. Given the Ts&Cs of the conference include things like you’ll be thrun out if you pair your phone to your laptop to get internet access, I suspect that the RDS has this disclaimer in its own Ts&Cs, and they will say that the wifi failed because all these people were pairing with their phones and using hotspots, so not their fault, etc.
jaysus – his algorithm didn’t factor that in, did it?
boom!!
is a first class honours degree from Trinners worth more than a first class WIFI setup in the RDS?
+ 2:1
Stand back everyone – this is exactly the kind of situation my PhD in physics prepared me for!
Is that red light supposed to be blinking?
Celtic Tiger roaring again>?
I live nearby. They can have my wifi password for a modest fee.
Howaya Bit Buzz.
hahahaha, laughed out loud at that
LOL!
#roversaretwats :)
Did they try turn it off and on again? You need to count to 10 in between.
Someone must have unplugged it by mistake.
…it seems to have lasted even less time than it did last year….Paddy Cosgrave Ha Ha Ha
How many Trinity BSc’s does it take to setup wifi?
Someone must have typed google into the google search bar
The shame. ..
Great little Country.
The should have had it on the Northside and used the GSOC wifi…
How are the inner city dealers supposed to sell their “I downloaded this at the Web Summit” cowboy hats now!? It’s like Garth Brooks all over again …
Hahahaha!
Almost as amusing anecdote I heard on the radio about having, “50 of the world’s top tech CEOs over to my house and the chimney caught fire”.
This guy is the Basil Fawlty of tech conferences.
The RDS management are currently attempting to resolve the issue. Unfortunately, the call centre in Pakistan has put them on hold…….. all the techs are abroad apparently and non contactable at the moment.
If only there was some kind of mobile device, like a phone, that allowed you to access the internet without relying on a wifi connection?
I haven’t used any form of public wifi for years, and I’m not a self-declared ‘futurist’.
Data roaming: not cheap.
You may not be a futurist, but you clearly like spending money unnecessarily.
I have unlimited data for €25 per month. I use three like home when abroad – http://www.three.ie/shop/international-rates/
For the US I pick up a local sim and pay similar rates.
I imagine, if as billed, the place is full of tech giants they could probably afford this.
It’s not unlimited.
Terms and Conditions apply/
im sure it will last you the conference.
It costs around 500 snots to attend. I’d expect free wifi for that.
This happens at most conferences, so is a potential problem that should have been foreseen. It should NOT happen at a tech conference with this sort of a profile, where the vital ingredient in all the subject matter on display / under discussion (connectivity) requires WIFI to function.
It’s like a barbeque without meat, and we all know, you can’t make friends with salads.
Hopefully they can sort it out today.
What’s the problem? Doesn’t most of the business take place in pubs around Dublin where there is no free wifi anyway?
I’d imagine most pubs in Dublin do actually offer free wi-fi these days.
If they just disconnect the modem and blow into the back of it, then turn it back on.. Should fix it.
This actually happened last year too. Sad that they weren’t able to sort it with 12 months notice. But saying that, Cosgrave is an insufferable knobhead so its kinda funny :)
Tell me again how the web summit is bad for Ireland?
It’s good for Ireland and good for Broadsheet commentators to moan and sneer about.
Win/win!
Have they checked to see if the light on this is still on? I reckon it is ‘cos I’m still able to view this page and leave this comment but never any harm in ruling that out. And don’t be fooled by how light it is…
http://media.boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/il_fullxfull.403564681_gahb1.jpg
Does this mean they’ll have nothing to talk about?
I’m sure they’ll get round to clarehurlers.net eventually.
Nathing to do with me.
Nathing to do with me.
Given what has been aired about Paddy WebSimmits employment practices
Did they just cut a corner too many?
I wish someone would set up a rate-your-employer website. Too many chancers around wasting people’s time.
It’s called glassdoor.com
Thanks Mark. The worst employer I’ve ever come across is advertising for staff at present and I’d love to save them the trouble.
In my experience the RDS has never been able to achieve WiFi at scale for conferences. There was talk that they did a recent upgrade: http://www.rds.ie/index.jsp?p=102&n=676
My buddy and I recently had to take that into consideration while providing a web based service in there. Small numbers and it worked ok but this is terribly disappointing.
What a joke. If a venue refuses to give you control over the WiFi, you take your web conference elsewhere. Duh.
Yeah. Obviously.
But maybe the RDS was the cheapest option.
Like what I said earlier
… Cutting corners.
Web summit charges attendees €1525 for admission and doesn’t pay speakers.
They invited someone 3 times and when they were told he wouldn’t speak for free each time they didn’t reply.
It’s embarrassing the way they bring Enda Kenny on.
same thing happens at Comicon and E3 every single damn year
nothing to see here
Wifi worked perfectly (a choice of wifi options ) at any ComicCon I’ve ever been to.