How to get the most out of the Web Summit.12 pearls of wisdom from industry experts

By @SimonCocking

The Dublin Web Summit is coming soon. You’ve heard all about it, the hype, the glamour, the celebrity pub crawls, discussions of ROI, the quest for investment.

Is it worth it? How do you get the most out of it? We went through our tech address book and asked the experts, Investors, VCs, Angels, founders, marketing experts, growth hackers, innovation mentors, startups,  pitching coaches and many more for their top tips.

We were amazed and delighted with what they had to tell us. So much so that we were inspired to put it all into a book too . For now though we’d like to say thanks to everyone that responded and give you a first taste of their pearls of wisdom. Here are the first 12 insights, with more to follow, or get them all here in one go.

Give yourself loads of time to loiter, to look around and feel the madness of it all. The RDS has the smell of business, a place full of shysters and chancers, many of them on stage. And the rest of us aspiring to be there too.

Billy Linehan @BillyLinehan

Be prepared – set up key meetings in advance. There will be thirty thousand people there. The chances of you meeting that potential investor/customer/partner randomly are almost zero.

Brian Caulfield @BrianCVC

If you are a startup, do something to stand out. The exhibition space is very busy, crowded and very loud; make sure your booth stands out. Do your homework; make a plan of who to meet and why. Give that person a great reason why they should see you. Say thank you. Written cards are worth their weight in gold.

Mary Carty @marycarty

Connect people together who you find who have solutions for each others problems or the same problem to solve.

Bill Liao @liaonet

Morning After Night Summits: Don’t enjoy the Night Summits too much, you only have three days at Web Summit – Don’t waste time in bed!  

DCU Ryan Academy @RyanAcademy

Get a press list from the team at Web Summit and do everything you can to help the reporters that are relevant to your business.  This is the start of building a relationship with them.

Ian Cleary @IanCleary

I find locations around the RDS are better than within Web Summit as people are in a different frame of mind to relax and chat rather than keep running to the next thing.

Daniel Ramamoorthy @mynameisdanram

For startups and Entrepreneurs. Keep your head up when in / on your booth.

“Like all great sportsmen you must play with your head up to see the opportunities as they develop”

The biggest turn off for a possible prospect is to go by and see techies on computers huddled , they want to see interpersonal confidence  to engage, understand the real world challenges and only THEN see the solution.

Garry Connolly @GconnTec 

Contact people that you really want to meet well before the event and arrange to meet them there – you will not accidentally meet the very person that you wanted to meet!

Anthony Quigley @AnthonyQuigley

Make a note after each meeting. Use the voice memo app on your phone to immediately capture your actions, sentiment and insights from the meeting. Even the crap meetings. It’s not just the positive feedback that is useful.

Karl Aherne @karlaherne

After the conference – Separate wisdom from action. Share. Follow up.

Andreea Wade @brandalisms

We hired a really great guy we meet at the 2013 Summit. He came from South America because he wanted to work in a Tech-focused Start-up.

Anthony Byrne  @Anthony_Byrne

To get all the tips in one place you can buy the ebook here

Here is the complete list of contributors and people who helped with the research for this article and the ebook that came out of it;

John Armstrong, Irish Tech News, Ronan Furlong, John Whelan, Sam Kelly (Tweeting Goddess), Andreea Wade, Ronan Leonard, Ken Finnegan, Eoin Kennedy, Andrew Parish, Aubrey Bourke, Andrew Keogh, Breandan Goss, Christopher Jimeson, DCU Ryan Academy team, Eoghan Stack, Niamh Collins, Johnny Ryan, Bill Liao, Neil Costigan, Billy Linehan, Brian Caulfield, Daniel Ramamoorthy, Cathal Garvey, Ian Cleary, Gráinne Dwyer, Gary Connolly, Anthony Quigley, Trey Harvin, Karl Aherne, Mary Carty, Aisling Foley, Vinnie Quinn, David Kerr, Jason Roe, Anthony Byrne, Kim Pham, Jennifer Arcuri, Ron Immink, Sean O Sullivan, Emily Vereker, Lynn Scarff, Ian Lucey, Peter Coppinger, Andy O’Donoghue