Last week, I attended Web Summit in Dublin for the first time. Overall, it was a great conference with many highlights and some famous speakers. About 10,000 people showed up at this year’s edition. This is huge compared to both last year’s event, which saw roughly 3,900 attendees, as well as considerably more attendees than most other startup conferences in Europe.
Some of this year’s highlights were the ringing of the NASDAQ opening bell, with Elon Musk (Founder of Tesla and spaceX) together on stage with Enda Kenny (Ireland’s Prime Minister). 
The speakers list also included names such as Niklas Zennström (Skype, Atomico Ventures), Tony Hawk (The world’s most famous skateboarder), Kevin Rose (Digg, Google Ventures). Phil Libin (Evernote), Drew Houston (Dropbox), Gary Vaynerchuk (Vaynermedia) and Tim Armstrong (AOL).
Despite all the well-known speakers, startups also had enough space to present their ideas to the media and to investors. I enjoyed walking through the two halls where several hundred startups pitched their idea at their own little booths.
Long story short: Web Summit was one the most impressive startup events I’ve ever attended and I’m really looking forward to next year’s edition.
Speaking of events, do you have your ticket yet for the upcoming EU-Startups Summit?
