Brains, graft, passion and Irish charm - Web Summit

If anyone was in the slightest doubt how much technology touches all our lives, they only have to look to the success of the annual Web Summit in Dublin.

From small beginnings four years ago, more than 22,000 people from 109 countries are at the RDS to attend the three-day event which has been dubbed ‘Davos for geeks’. That includes representatives of more than 3,000 start-up businesses, 1,500 journalists from 70 countries, 1,000 exhibitors and - most importantly - 800 investors who have access to billions of euro. The summit also contributes in the region of €100m to the Irish economy, with around 13,000 hotel rooms and B&Bs booked for the event.

The Web Summit is itself a start-up and was co-founded by Paddy Cosgrave, Daire Hickey and David Kelly. It has come a long way from what they now call a ‘meet-up’ in a room attended by 400 techies in 2010. Back then the only food they could afford to give those attending was a truck-load of sausage rolls from the local chipper. This year, attendees are being fed by 250 Irish artisan food producers. Another innovation is a number of mini-summits, based around music, film, sport, food and technology.