The best bits of Web Summit 2015
It is now the end for the Web Summit in Dublin, which is moving to Portugal next year. However this last occasion was a success.
This week 42,000 people and over 2,000 startups from 134 countries descended upon Dublin for three days to network, pitch to investors and listen to some of the biggest names in tech. It was a far cry from Web Summit’s launch event, a mere five years ago, which saw about 500 attendees.
This exponential growth is one of the reasons founder Paddy Cosgrave announced the summit is set to move to Lisbon next year, along with planning and infrastructure issues :
“Ireland will always be in our hearts, I love this city. I hope someday we’ll return”, Paddy Cosgrave said in his remarks closing the event.
Here are the main figures of Dublin’s biggest – and last – Web Summit :
• 42,000 people from 134 countries came to Dublin for the Web Summit.
• There were 199,054 tweets about Web Summit over the three days and four nights.
• #WebSummit, #audiPITCH and #Dublin were the top trends.
• 41,675 people who couldn’t make it to Dublin watched the Center Stage via a livestream.
• 42,000 attendees explored 21 different mini-summits under 1,500 lights and 3 miles of bunting.
• They saw 21 colored sheep (seven pink, seven blue and seven purple) in a field with one giant teddy bear.
• Over 95,000 conversations took place on the Web Summit app. The average amount an attendee spends on the app in one session is 9 minutes and 14 seconds.
• It took 54 hours before it started raining in Dublin.
• Web Summit founder Paddy Cosgrave wore two different sweaters.
• 1,000 speakers took to the stages and led roundtables.
• 1,231 of the world’s media came to report.
• 2,141 start-ups exhibited.
• 1,000 investors from the world’s leading funds came to explore.
• 2,160 office hour sessions took place for these start-ups to meet with investors.
• 650 mentor hour sessions happened where experienced entrepreneurs and investors offered candid advice to start-ups.
• On Wednesday, 10,000 free tickets were offered to women in tech for 2016; in 24 hours, 1,989 female entrepreneurs already applied.*
