London Web Summit

by Ethan Loughrey

London Web Summit

The London Web Summit launches on Friday and is, by most professionals’ reckoning, one of the ‘must attend’ features of the start up calendar. Designed to bring together a multitude of minds from various tech fields, it proclaims to be an exciting amalgamation of multi-nationals, start-ups, media, finance and investment, and advertising specialists.

Said minds consist of an impressive cast of 50 high profile speakers from around the world, including Dan Coobley of Google, Matt Mullenweg of Wordpress, Shakil Khan of Spotify and the man who apparently created the Internet meme, Ben “Cheezburger” Huh.

The Web Summit annual meet ups have grown enormously in the last few years since organiser Paddy Cosgrove – himself a UN Global e-leader – and friends formed the plan in his living room in 2010. Last year’s summit in London sold out with 40 speakers and over 1,000 people attending. This year organisers expect almost half as many again to attend and at least part of this draw is the opportunity for start-ups.

Their “Spark of Genius” competition in particular has proved popular, giving entrepreneurs the chance to win a substantial cash prize if they sufficiently impress a panel of judges. On top of that are all the usual opportunities to network, learn and enjoy a few days meeting the upper echelons of the tech and journalistic worlds.

Whilst obviously benefiting from an excellent catalogue of speakers, the Summit continually gets strong feedback from the media which is an unquestionable bonus. The Guardian is one of a long list of reviewers on London Web Summit’s website, including Wired, CNN and Mashable.

Tickets aren’t particularly cheap however you’re at least guaranteed to meet many of the upper leagues of the industry over the course of the day and work your monthly quota of networking into just a few hours.

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By the way...did we tell you that you're looking rather splendid today?

Ethan Loughrey

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Published on: 25th February 2013