The Summit has grown exponentially since its rather more ‘boutique’ dimensions in 2010, and that relentless growth has seen the event take over most of Ballsbridge, with stages and exhibition space stretching from the Simmonscourt to Herbert Park.
With that growth comes inevitable growing pains – the event has become notorious in recent years for unreliable wifi, and this year was no different.
But the first morning of the Summit has also shown evidence of how it is maturing as an event – there’s a more polished edge to the whole shebang, with a pleasing attention to detail and design, from the arches of keyboards over the entranceways to the stunning backdrop of glowing cubes on the centre stage.
Amid the frenzy of a crowd of 20,000 attendees getting their bearings, there has also been some excellent talks. Sports writer David Epstein kicked things off on the new sports stage, rather incongruously taking place in an old Spiegeltent, with a fascinating discussion on the application of big data in improving sporting performance.
Meanwhile, Stripe's John Collison might have a lower profile than his older brother Patrick, but a discussion on the centre stage revealed he is every bit as impressive discussing the challenges of building a groundbreaking payments platform.
“The reason we started Stripe was we felt nobody understands the developer - you either had to use Paypal or build it yourself. It’s a natural evolution for the process of buying online to make it simpler.”
On Bitcoin, he said: “I don’t think Bitcoin is a threat to Stripe. And no, we are not investing in Bitcoin.”
The star of the show so far - at least for the general attendees if not the business-minded start-ups - was the interview with actor and business woman Eva Longoria.
In an interview with Jemima Khan she said the best thing about women is the power they have over men and encouraged the women in senior positions at the Web Summit to take on the role of mentor to younger women.
“Women start businesses at three times the average yet can’t get funding,” she said issuing a challenge to the women in the audience. “ I want to challenge all the women here today to be mentors to younger women.”
Other highlights this morning included Brendan Iribe, founder of Oculus Rift on the rise of virtual reality and its applications in everyday life and Skip Rizzo and early stage developer of Oculus Rift, who gave a demonstration of the technology’s uses for post-traumatic stress disorder for returning war veterans.
From being shot at to street explosions, the virtual reality exposure therapy has assisted veterans in dealing with their PSD, explained Rizzo, outlining how in one recent study, of 23 completers of the therapy, 16 showed gains and benefits resulting from it. Next stage development will be treating civilians who have experienced stressful situations in their lives.
