The Briefcase: Web Summit, Luxleaks and the most infamous letter in Ireland

THERE’S NO DENYING this year’s Dublin Web Summit was a big one.

We had the Taoiseach there to ring the Nasdaq bell, Bono to ring Apple’s and Eva Longoria there for no readily-apparent reason, but she’s beautiful and famous so who cares, right?

And even though there were a few glitches at the event dubbed “Davos for geeks” (itself a deeply geeky reference to the World Economic Forum’s annual conference in Davos), few could begrudge the success of a conference estimated to have pulled some €100 million into the local economy.

So here’s everything we learned from this year’s Web Summit… and a few other bits of news that washed up during week:

Need to know

The Web Summit is really big… but still really Irish

Paddy Cosgrave has undeniably pulled off an impressive coup with the Web Summit. In only five years it has swelled from a small get-together for 500-odd attendees to Europe’s premier tech love-in.

This year over 20,000 people descended on the RDS for the three-day conference where, for an eye-watering €1525 per ticket (or €649 for an early bird), you could hear luminaries from mega firms like Google, Apple and Amazon share their wisdom.

Meanwhile startups from around the world got the chance to rub shoulders with industry heavyweights and make their pitch at the big time, even if some complained the event was heavy on the geekery and light on actual investors.

But quickly the main talking point become the event’s WiFi glitches rather than the pearls of wisdom being spun at the summit, leading one Twitter wag to remark that it was the “most Irish thing ever” for the internet to go down at such a major event.

Who would have thought 20,000-or-so techies would be interested in using the interwebs?

Cosgrave pointed the finger at the RDS for failing to deliver proper broadband, adding a threat that the event “won’t be in this country very much longer” if the problems weren’t sorted out.

But he appeared to have cooled off a bit later as he thanked the RDS for helping pull together a Web Summit that was “the best yet”.

In turn, RDS boss Michael Duffy pitched in to say the venue would fix the problems by “whatever means required” ahead of next year’s event.

So enough about the WiFi, here are a few other notables from the Web Summit:

• Taoiseach Enda Kenny said he hoped images of him ringing the Nasdaq bell would be a “clarion call” for Irish emigrants to return

Source: Mark Stedman/Photocall Ireland

• The sports stage hosted stars including footballer Rio Ferdinand and UFC fighter Cathal Pendred, while Damien Comolli revealed why he was sacked from his high-profile post at Liverpool
• Oculus Rift revealed it was only months away from launching its virtual-reality headset to consumers
• About 2,000 startups jostled for the attention of investors in the hope of getting their pitch right and becoming the next big tech thing
• The sheep were spraypainted pink and yellow for the occasion. No, we’re not sure why either

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• One of the men behind Movember unleashed on why he thought not-for-profit was a “bullshit term” for charities
• GoDaddy senior vice president Steven Aldrich told his audience that the future for the world’s workers was in “very small business”
• Funny or Die CEO Dick Glover explained why so many A-listers wanted to appear on the comedy website

Nice to know

• The infamous Trichet letter which led to Ireland entering the controversial bank bailout in 2010 was finally made public after four years of waiting. While it revealed little new information, the text of the letter laid plain the threat from the European Central Bank’s former president Jean-Claude Trichet to stop giving emergency funding for the flailing economy if Ireland didn’t apply for a full bailout
• Tiny Luxembourg was thrust into the spotlight for all the wrong reasons after a horde of leaked documents revealed the cosy tax arrangements the micro nation-state had with scores of multinationals. Widely referred to as Luxleaks, the disclosure could prove embarrassing for new European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, who was prime minister of the duchy between 1995 and 2013

Source: Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP/Press Association Images

Now you know

• Controversial website Ask.FM is relocating to Ireland after it was bought out by Dublin-headquartered Ask.com. The site has previously been linked to several teen suicides after the users were subjected to serious cyberbullying through the portal
• IDA head Martin Shanahan managed to keep his cool despite being asked a series of idiotic questions on the US business show Squawk Box on CNBC. One panellist, Joe Kernan, asked: “Why do you have euros in Ireland?” among other gems
• Irish rugby star Donncha O’Callaghan is looking for a €500,000 investment for his other pursuit – “big data” startup 4Impacts. The business was set up to cash in on the fast-growing digital-out-of-home (DOOH) advertising sector

Source: Brian Lawless/PA Wire/Press Association Images

• Ireland will lead the way in European economic growth this year, and the next, and the one after that, according to the European Commission. But things are not looking good elsewhere in the eurozone

One for the road

We’ve already given it a nod, but it was impossible to resist a repeat of the cringeworthy exchange between the IDA’s Shanahan and Kernan on US television.

It starts off well enough, but just watch and wait as the car crash starts unfolding in slow motion… “You have euros in Ireland? Why do you have euros in Ireland?”

No, dig up stupid!

Originally published 2.08pm

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