Open Up Europe Podcast | Business and Entrepreneurship in Europe | Business Strategy | Technology | Online Business   /     OuE07:4 Lessons from Web Summit 2015 and 1 Surprise

Summary

Web Summit 2015 Was a blast Web Summit 2015 was huge this year and I had the chance to witness it as a reporter for you.  It was my first time and I learnt a lot. I summarized 4 quick lessons I learnt and I am sharing them with you. Enjoy! Transcript Episode 7 - 4 Web Summit Lessons & 1 Surprise    What's up everyone, great to be together with another episode of Open Up Europe Podcast, your host Sidar is here. Last week Open up Europe was at Web Summit 2015. In this episode I'll tell you 4 lessons I learnt :  and a surprise in the end.     Web Summit is this GIANT event taking place in Dublin every year, but next year it is going to be in Lisbon. Just to give you an idea on how huge it was - From the center stage to the machine stage you needed to allow 15 mins of walking indoors & outdoors. That's the time for an entire talk in Web Summit which you'll miss in your hopefully comfortable sneakers. There are 21 summits and hundreds of talks - all super interesting but impossible to attend all.    Therefore Lesson 1: Plan the sessions you would like to attend in advance. Failure to do this will result in missing the value offered by such an event. You need to factor in your walking times and your free roaming time between the interesting booths.    There were more than 30 THOUSAND people attending at web summit. That's like you and me, multiplied by 15.000. I mean it is HUGE. Everybody is interesting in a way but you are coming with certain goals in your mind.  Luckily there is an app that equips you with the basics of networking   This is crucial, Lesson 2: Do your homework and target people you would like to meet.  You'll inevitably end up meeting tons of interesting people but only a fraction of them if ever, will help you reach your goals. Are you fundraising? Reach out to the investors who have a similar portfolio of companies like yours. Are you there for PR? Notify and follow the journalists to whom you will pitch your story.   Talking about pitching, brings us to Lesson 3: Know your elevator pitch like you know your name. And then know it better. I can't count the number of Alpha startups to whom I approached to ask the simple question "what do you do?" who failed to give an answer to hook me up in the first sentence. There were brilliant pitches during the PITCH competition so the competition was brutally tough. You don't have to win a competition - but you need to spark interest to stand out, because trust me - you need it there.    To write these lessons I learnt I reached my phone and realized that the wi-fi is not working. There comes the 4th lesson: bring your roaming and data plan.    The 3 days of Web Summit was buzzing with energy and nights were no exception. They were stressing the fact that the "magic" happens after but I have to think otherwise. You'll hear the stories of UBER raising a round of funding at 3.AM in the morning in the bar. I went to all bars and tried to come back early to be fresh for the next day.        The Real Fun was after the web summit tho: Surf Summit. We have headed to Sligo - West cost ireland for beautiful landscapes, hiking, biking and surfing. Not only I have seen rainbows and I was very close to catch a few leprechauns, I also happened to get first time on a surf board in my life. The experience was a blast.    The reason why everybody loved the Surf part was easy - it was down to earth. No obligations. At Web Summit everything is business oriented in a packed timeline. It felt like speed dating. In Surf Summit you bond with friendship, with road trip and with falling-off-the-board-together type comraderie :)   That's a must have part of Web Summit that you can't afford to miss.    Now I am back home with the blues of Web Summit and Surf Summit I'll work on editing the interviews I have done during the event -...