The pressure was on Paddy Cosgrave at Day 1 of the Web Summit. Having been all over the media like a rash, complaining about the lack of Government support, we all had really high expectations. Reportedly there was an army (totalling 30,000) of us that descended upon the RDS today. The line-up was looking good, with Jane Ni Dhulchaointigh, Pat Lam and Jamie Heaslip all being highlights.
Navigating the event is somewhat of an art. Everything is of interest but it all moves at warp speed and so you have to prioritise. A couple of irritating things, one being is it’s held in 2 separate buildings so it’s a constant race from the Simmonscourt (where the main event happens) and the main RDS building (where all the cool up-and-coming trendy stuff happens). The other irritating thing is that by the time you race from one to the other, the queues are ridiculous for all the hot topics. Content Summit and Data Summit are impossible to get into for the hot topics whereas the Marketing Summit is not full all of the time. Lots of discussion amongst attendees as to whether the event organisers had under estimated the level of interest in some of the events, otherwise why was it so difficult to get into them?
The Sports Summit was really interesting. Where else would you get to hang out with Pat Lam and Jamie Heaslip? Pat Lam was fascinating and told of how Connaught Rugby use data analytics to strategise. Wearable tech has become a huge feature of sports data, allowing managers like him to assess player form. He gave an insight into the training room sessions. During game breaks “players may not take in all the strategy or tactics so we use imagery and it’s amazing how the visuals really go in subconsciously.” He goes on “the use of visuals is hugely important.” “Data allows us to analyse the chances of a player getting injured.” We in business can learn a lot from Pat Lam. “At the end of the day, the only sustainable advantage you have is the ability to analyse data.”
Pat Lam giving super #strategy talk at #WebSummit using #dataanalytics pic.twitter.com/zug6ouP6TA
— Small Business Fairy (@sbfcentral) November 3, 2015
Irish rugby legend Jamie Heaslip spoke of his business ventures and his background in mechanical engineering. His love of science feeds into his tech investments including Lovin’ Dublin. “Science helps you understand what’s going on, it allows analysis.” He brings what he has learned on the rugby pitch into business. “In sport you either win or lose, you have to have that mentality otherwise you’re going nowhere.” 
By now it was time to head for lunch with our food summit vouchers (€50 for the 3 days or €20 per day). After all the rushing around we were thrilled to be offered a lift by rickshaw to yet another building over in the Herbert Park. The drivers didn’t know where they were going but this all added to the fun. Thanks ecoadvertising.ie for the lift. Much has been said about the cost of the food vouchers and yes they were fairly exorbitant. For lunch you can pick from a variety of super Irish produce which could be a burger on a Waterford Blaah, angus burger, Indian, Thai etc. A bottle of water comes with it and you can finish it off with a mini tub of ice-cream. However, we discovered many businesses around the Web Summit are doing super deals with sandwiches for a mere €7! 
We then raced back to catch some more and yet again the hot topics had huge queues. We managed to get into Creativity at Play which was in the most spectacular stage area, the Design Summit. Here Irish lady Jane Ni Dhulchaointigh of Sugru talked about her experience in building Sugru. Sugru is a mouldable glue that turns into rubber. The technology has all sorts of uses, the most interesting of which was one user creating a false leg for his chicken. What a cool story. Jane has built a strong community around the product who all love to share their stories, what they’ve built and the race is on to see who builds the coolest item. She’s learned a lot from “hacking things better” and the community. “They tell us what they want so we can learn faster.” Such an inspirational and down to earth lady.
Read about Day 2 of the Web Summit.
Our favourite quote of the day:
“Techies are just scratching an itch.” – Jame Heaslip
