Web Summit in Dublin next month (November 4-6, 2014) is one of the largest tech conferences in the world. At its 2013 edition, the event got 20,000+ attendees from 100+ countries with 500+ speakers talking to attendees during the event. The scale and the diversity of the conference makes it one of a kind experience for all involved.
The overall Web Summit is a collection of different summits – similar to a conference having varied tracks according to what participants are interested in within the general theme. Each summit has its own agenda, set of speakers, networking events, exhibitions and separate locations (in some cases). The important thing, however, is that for one reason or the other, the event brings the tech world to Dublin for three whole days.
Recently popular
The event has grown pretty quickly in scale since its inception in 2010 when only 400 people attended the event. Last year’s event was the largest edition of this annual conference featuring the top names in the technology sector as well as the Prime Minister of Ireland, the host country.
Notable attendees from last year included a mix of founders and corporate executives from Google, Skype, Netflix, Tesla, Huffington Post, Dropbox, Zynga, Survey Monkey, Amazon, Cisco, Stripe, Founders Fund, Formation 8 and Oculus VR. This top list is only the tip of the iceberg – the speaker list is a great collection of founders and CEOs from, what seems like, every successful tech start-up ever.
The scale of the conference has grown it to make an international event. In the words of a press statement, the event converts Dublin in to the tech capital of the world for those three days.
What is it about?
Beyond the hoopla around the tech conference being so large and well-attended, let’s see what the conference is all about for people who attend. The various themes at the conference are represented by the different summits available within the event: Marketing, Machine, Builders, Enterprise, Investor, Surf, Fringe, Music, Food and Film.
The networking potential at the conference is huge – being a confluence of parties interested and working in tech from different angles, there’s something for everyone. If you have an idea or a promising start-up, being at the conference or participating in the Investor summit to compete in pitch competitions or setting up stalls in the exhibitor area to showcase your technology and get interest for your financial and human resources needs.
The conference has 500+ speakers – which not only includes every possible founder/CEO of tech firms but also corporate executives from the larger firms and some surprise entries like the Producer of Django Unchained or the Producer of Walking Dead. If you are looking to get in on the energy of so many success stories coming together in one place or get the wisdom from these speakers, this summit is the place to be.
Showcasing New Technology
The event has also turned into a place to show off the newest technologies in each of the themed summits. For example, the Machine summit aims to have the “most innovative devices and disruptive hardware start-ups” on show, and the Enterprise summit is pegged to be a place where new technologies in the enterprise domain are exhibited and introduced.
In the bigger scheme of things, the Web Summit is also a good place to catch up on the latest and most relevant conversations in technology, and in each part of the technology world. For example, the Music Summit aims to grapple with issues such as the evolution of the music video, the economics of streaming music for the artists and how artists and media companies are engaging fans in today’s technology driven world.
Stay tuned
The technology world is advised to stay tuned to receive the latest updates from the Web Summit, even if you are not attending. The top technologies being showcased or the start-ups to receive the most recognition have a great chance to be the next big thing in the tech world.
Connect With Them
