We all had a blast last week in Dublin, some of us for the first time! How to best describe this experience? Let me say it was a pleasant mix of delightful people, shiny stages with renowned speakers and inspiring entrepreneurial projects. Was it even more pleasant because I ended up getting a free Web Summit ticket? I’m not sure, but I will definitely do it again.
An International Human Experience
That's what you are looking at if you want to attend Web Summit for free. A couple of months before Web Summit, you can go on their website and apply as a Volunteer. Some of us had seen a Facebook ad about this program, others from word of mouth. I was just really interested in attending, as it sure sounded like it would be a great professional and personal experience.
So I applied, and after a few weeks of dramatic tension, I was in! Don’t worry, they accept people from everywhere – more than 100 nationalities were represented among the 2,000 volunteers who helped make Web Summit a success.
In my group of new friends only, here were the countries that were represented: Mark and Awais from the United Kingdom, Tristan and Gaile from the Philippines, Leonor from Portugal, Jim from Greece, Berkay from Turkey/studying in the Netherlands, Federico from Italy/studying in Scotland, Lucy and Andrew from Ireland…
But believe me it was easier to call them by their country’s name rather than remember all their names from the first day!
A few tips if you want to be a volunteer:
- Apply early: by applying in September I almost didn’t get my spot!
- Be nice to the Volunteer Supervisors: they handle about 2,000 of us!
- Try and figure out quickly which days you will be in Dublin/Lisbon so you can best decide how to place your shifts throughout the week.
So How Free Is It, Really?
When you are a Web Summit Volunteer, you have to complete 3 shifts in order to earn your well-deserved ticket. Careful, shifts are very long and sometimes intense (some other times cold, so cold – but this shouldn’t be such a big deal in Lisbon next year!).
I signed up for the Registration team, so I was able to do an 8-hour shift at the airport on Sunday 2nd – it was the longest shift I did, but it was definitely one of the best times I had during my stay in Dublin! That’s also where I met the lovely team you can see on the picture above.
Plus, free pink T-shirts with our handwritten names on it, you didn’t even get that as a regular attendee ;)
After 3 long shifts, I was done on the Tuesday morning. And I had a blast meeting amazing people!
Oh, Right! The Night I Stole A Bike
Dublin is a beautiful city, and I won’t deny it: Temple Bar is awesome. All the Dubliners I have met during my stay were outraged when I declared that it was. I get it: the most touristy parts of a city are usually the ones locals avoid at all costs. Fair enough, I wouldn’t call the Barcelona Ramblas the best place on Earth (oh, God no!).
Anyway, we did get a chance to discover other downtown neighborhoods during the epic Night Summit!
But first, we went to The Academy, which is apparently a famous venue for bands and DJs (don’t ask me for details, ask the Dubliners!) and it is located on the North bank of the Liffey River. My friends and I went back to the South bank, walked through lovely Temple Bar (sorry, Dubliners) in order to go to the Night Summit, which had taken over Dame Lane.
Well, for those of you who have never wandered through the streets downtown Dublin, know that some hard working guys have those electric bikes with carriages for people who don’t want to walk. As we saw this apparently unattended carriage bike at 1AM on our way to Dame Lane, I thought it would be genius to try it out.
So I rode it for about 100 meters and boy was it heavy! Its owner came after me, laughing with my friends as I painfully made my way to the end of the street. We had a good laugh about it with him afterwards! I swear you Dubliners are friendly as hell!
And that’s how I stole a bike in Dublin. Okay, it had nothing to do with me getting a free ticket to Web Summit, but it did get me faster to the Night Summit! (It actually didn’t, without electrical assistance, I would have gone faster walking).
Web Summit 2016
To top all that, there are several cool events to come for 2016: New Orleans, Hong Kong, Bangalore and of course Web Summit in Lisbon next year!
So if you are a born globe-trotter, if your work allows for or encourages business trips or if you have outsourced your way out of the 9 to 5 and the physical office (thanks for the gold Tim Ferriss), you know where to go!
Share your Web Summit experiences in the comments!
To connect with some of the amazing entrepreneurs that were at Web Summit, you know what to do:
