Summit for the Weekend: Tech Interview with Daire Hickey

What were the highlights of this year’s Web Summit?
“Shane Smith, CEO of Vice Media, sparring with David Carr of the New York Times, was quite an interesting event. They’re two fascinating people from very different worlds. Their last major interaction was a spat that appeared in the New York Times: Page One documentary. So it was great to bring them together.”

Was it old media versus new media?
“David had some interesting things to say about the importance of new media as well as old media. It’s all about good journalism and making good content. I think Shane is trying to tell the story about other platforms. Vice, in his opinion, is currently bigger than CNN. He also talks about how young people are interested in politics and current affairs, but not necessarily through the traditional channels.”

What else?
“Elon Musk [billionaire co-founder of PayPal] was a big deal for us. He was on stage with Taoiseach Enda Kenny, which closed the Web Summit. Part of the reason some of the biggest investors in the world come is we also get some of the most interesting start-ups. We have a team of people who work incredibly hard to get these people to Dublin.”

What were some of the memorable start-ups?
“A company called Cube Sensors, which use tiny devices with all sorts of different functions – weight, heat, sensitivity. The company that won the ESB Spark of Genius, ViddyAd, allow people to make ads incredibly quickly, without huge costs. As people spend more time consuming video online, it’s important smaller companies have access to those resources. Lock8 was a company that lets you lock a bike from your app.”

Was there a common theme to the tech at this year’s Summit?
“There was a lot more hardware start-ups than we had seen previously. PCH, for example, which is run by an Irish guy, born and raised in Cork, who moved to China about 17 years ago and started a hardware company that’s worth several billion. Entrepreneurship was a theme – the appreciation of failure – people telling others to push forward. In Ireland, there’s a reluctance for people to become entrepreneurs. Society condemns people who fail.”

What’s next?
“We have big plans for next year to make it a broader festival, bringing music into the fold. There’s huge opportunity for Dublin to engage more with this festival. It’s great to bring over 7,000 people from outside Ireland to the event and we’re looking forward to increasing that number over the next few years.”