First Day Reflections from #WebSummit

I’ve just got home from day one of the Dublin Web Summit and thought it would be a good idea to record some of my reflections whilst they are still fresh in my mind.

My initial impression of DWS was very strong having picked up my ticket the day before, however this morning I turned up and was told by one of the ‘Live Team’ that I’d have to re-register. After 20 minutes and some confusion it became clear this was not the case. First impressions count and this was not the best start.

The day kicked-off in earnest with the impressive Paddy Cosgrave telling a dodgy joke and introducing what was the best talk of the day, given by David Shing, Digital Prophet at AOL. He gave an unorthodox, yet hugely impactful and memorable talk; sharing his take on emerging digital trends.

Next up was Patrick Collison, Co-Founder of Stripe. He’s part of the super-bright Collison clan and it was great to hear the story of Stripe and what it takes to be part of an emerging start-up. I then had a look round at some of the exhibitor stands and attended a couple of talks.

Some of today’s highlights include talks by Dharmesh Shah of HubSpot, Simply Zesty’s Niall Harbison and analytics expert Stephen O’Leary, as well as Anthony Noto and Tony Florence talking about the characteristics VCs look for in start-ups and Paul Sciarra discussing Pinterest.

Outside of the hall, the continuous pitching schedule is a fantastic idea and a move that, judging by the number of people in suits; attracted a lot of Venture Capitalists. There were also some great networking opportunities and I came away with a few business cards from start-ups which I genuinely believe will make a difference to what we’re trying to achieve at Chill Insurance.

My other takeaways are:

• The short format of 10-25 minutes per talk is perfect.
• Top journalists don’t necessarily make great live presenters.
• Within the written programme I could do with more information on what each speaker will be talking about.
• Some of the talks were sales pitches; I want trends and insights.

So that’s day one in a nutshell and personally I really enjoyed it. From a digital marketing perspective, tomorrow looks a slightly more interesting and exciting line-up, and in the meantime I’m off to the DWS drinks on Dame Lane for some more networking and reflection.