Web Summit lost to Lisbon

I think there is a bit of he said/she said...

Is the government handling of the event poor? Absolutely... No question there.. No joined up thinking...
But one of the things that annoyed me was the web summits complaint about hotels price goughing when they were charging prices from €450 to in excess of €2k for tickets...
 
This article is also good on it:

http://www.newstalk.com/Emails-show-events-that-led-to-move-of-Web-Summit-to-Lisbon

“Since that time I’ve received a single email, which took nearly three weeks. During that period I’ve had two trips across Europe meeting with other nation’s Ministers, senior civil servants and relevant state agencies. We’ve also been in near daily contact with these countries by phone and email working through detailed plans to potentially host Web Summit in 2016.”

Mr Reddy replies that day and promises to get back to Cosgrave. Three days later, on September 21, having received no reply, Mr Cosgrave contacts John Callinan – the Assistant Secretary General in the Department of the Taoiseach. It is a final request for “a plan.”

I've been in this position with officials many times over the years. They really don't care all that much about Irish business as far as I can see, or at least they have no urgency about it. We launder multinational money, that's basically our business. The government don't support Irish entrepreneurs.
 
I think there are always two sides to these things. I'm always suspicious when one party releases confidential correspondence like this. Why did Paddy feel the need to release these - what benefit is there in doing so? Would it not have been much better to keep working on resolving these differences internally without publishing these emails (which on the face of it are very one sided in what they portray). The emails don't necessarily paint Paddy in the best light either (for example email 1 is Friday night and by Monday night he's back on demanding a response!). Maybe it was exasperation on his part at the end of 2 years of trying but I'm not sure it was handled in best way on either side.
Certainly it looks like the government handling was poor here (and it looks like it was a case of too many chiefs with no one ultimately having responsibility) but I think it reflects equally badly on the Web Summit organisers that they're airing their dirty laundry in public like this, it shows a certain immaturity on their behalf. One thing is for sure, it doesn't help future discussions when one side behaves like this.
 
Whilst I agree there are 2 sides to every story, the Government should have been all over this. Considering how attractive we've made this country for FDI in the tech sector and the doubtless good & hard work done by various government agencies in bringing FDI to Ireland, it seems quite farcical that we've managed to let this slip through our hands. Perhaps they just assumed the Web Summit would be held here every year?
 
... It appears other counties were tripping over to get this Web jamboree.
Normally others having too much other interest in anything , tells me that the value in the Summit is lost in the overall costs of getting or retaining it.

Could well be Government lost sight of the ball , but I worry when squacking hits the airways!
I always think of {he doth complain too loudly } !
 
The likes of Lisbon are also desperate for things like this that they think might boost employment. It's a nice easy box for them to tick to say they're doing something to attract investment. Much easier than reaching out to potential investors / markets.

Main problem for us in IT is lack of qualified talent and increasing shortage of suitable office space. The summit wouldn't do anything to address the real estate issues, and I'm not sure how many people it would attract to relocate here.
 
High taxes are a problem too. IT pay and tax rates are much more attractive in the UK for example, so it has a better chance of attracting talent.
 
While it was a pity to lose it, I'm not too impressed with the carryon on of our friend Paddy. Seems he feared a backlash (why should he care) so got his retaliation in first by blaming the government. Seems they made a right hash of the food situation themselves (rip off Ireland) so if you want to claim the high moral ground you'd better be above reproach yourself. A lot of these entrepreneurs have a huge sense of entitlement and see themselves as modern day saviours (probably from being told so by everyone they meet) - I applaud them but realise that their motivation is primarily money or that they just love what they do - which is great but is NOT feeding the worlds starving children (....which is how they go).
 
Paddy was happy to go on Morning Ireland and slag off the Government because:
- hotel prices were too high (Enda should have issued a dictat banning hotel price increases)
- traffic delayed all these high-tech guys getting to the RDS ( Enda should have banned ordinary Dubs from using the roads on these 3 days)
- Government ministers did not cow-tow sufficiently to all the "celebrities" in town for the Summit (Paddy was not consulted in advance about who the Ministers/ Enterprise Ireland were meeting during Paddy's Summit)

But when News at Six challenges the Summit organisers, Paddy ran scared and sent one of his minions to take the flak. And now he won't go on the Late Late!!!

Sure, the Summit has been a huge event. But it seems to me that Paddy has not just outgrown Dublin but also his own boots.
Already we are seeing hotel prices in Lisbon doubling for next year's Summit. Maybe the new Socialist Govt in Portugal will intervene and force the market to subsidies Paddy and his mates. But I would not bet on it. I hope the sun does shine in Lisbon in Nov next year.
 
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