Thoughts & Highlights from the Dublin Web Summit

Thursday saw the meeting of some 400+ internet professionals and entrepeneurs for an evening of panel discussion, key-note addresses from some big names and plenty of networking at Trinity College Dublin’s second Dublin Web Summit. From our start-up perspective it was amazing to see the strength and diversity of interest present – as overheard being asked in the crowded queue to enter, who knew there were so many ‘Internet people’ in Dublin?


If the summit was anything to go by, the Internet industry here is in pretty rude health. The atmosphere at the conference was pretty overwhelmingly one of optimism and possibility. Some of the things that struck us:

- The amazing story of DoneDeal.ie. Less than 5 years old and and now one of the busiest places to sell goods online in Ireland, with over 50,000 currently active ads. Back when this site was founded, it’s likely few thought there’d be any room left in the market for online classifieds, with the likes of eBay already so well entrenched. But as is turns out, there was ample potential for a new local startup. A very welcome sight.

- Chris Horn’s warnings about the treatment of failure in Ireland, including a startling comparison of the bankruptcy process in Ireland compared to the UK. In Ireland it seems the cost of failure is high, and there was much nodding agreement with statements about the need to destigmatise failure in business in Ireland if it is to have the kind of entrepeneurial culture we might hope for.

- Wired UK editor at large, Ben Hammersley’s advice on so-called ‘information overload’ – stop subscribing to stuff! Content filtering and the need to improve content discovery in an age of information abundance was a recurring theme at the conference. On an adjacent point, there was much skepticism over attempts to erect paywalls around news online, certainly beyond the short term. News just isn’t special anymore – but analysis and investigative reporting might still be able to command value.

- Matt Mullenweg’s one-sentence advice to everyone in the room: Learn to code! Ben Hammersley’s? Make it – whatever it is you’re making – beautiful. In time of fast and cheap commodistation of ideas, apparently it’s the beautiful things people remember in the long term. Though Craig Newmark, who was also on the panel, might have something to say about that (he of the hugely successful, but unashamedly unpretty, Craigslist).

The evening was packed with interesting case studies, shared anecdotes and insight – a big success for its organiser, Paddy Cosgrave, and his team. Looking forward to the next Dublin Web Summit, apparently due in a few months.

Posted by Peter at 4:16 AM