Brains, graft, passion and Irish charm - Web Summit

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.
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