Web Summit may not be held in Dublin

Dublin Web Summit founder Paddy Cosgrave was yesterday unable to guarantee that the wi-fi issues that dogged last year’s event will not be replicated this November, or indeed that the summit would be held in Dublin from next year onwards.

Last year’s gathering at the RDS in Dublin was hindered by poor internet connectivity which was referenced by Mr Cosgrave several times.

Speaking at the launch of this year’s event, he said talks on the issue were ongoing.

The founder of the world’s largest start-up gathering, which has grown from 400 start-ups five years ago to an expected 2,000 at this year’s event, didn’t rule out the possibility of relocating the summit in 2016.

We're looking for Ireland's best startup for the #WebSummit ESB Spark of Genius award. Here are the 15 finalists: http://t.co/RR5FO5Rjnd

— Web Summit (@WebSummit) September 8, 2015

In addition to being approached by Portuguese government authorities with a view to moving the event from Dublin, Mr Cosgrave revealed other overseas authorities have expressed an interest in hosting the Web Summit.

The summit will take place from November 3-5 at the RDS and will feature a number of new attractions for the expected record 30,000 attendees.

Among this year’s speakers are bestselling author of the Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown; Pixar president Ed Catmull and Tinder founder Sean Rad.