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THE WEB SUMMIT kicked off in Dublin today.
The techie mecca will take over the city for the next three days, and it’s estimated that 40,000 people will attend the panels, pitches and nightlife.
While it so far seems to be avoiding the wifi fiasco of 2014, Summit attendees took to social media to express a new dismay – the quality of lunch.
While lunches had been included with tickets in previous years, a pricetag of €20 was attached to a feed for the Web Summit’s final year in Dublin.
This is the supersonic Irish artisan food 20 quid buys you at@websummit disappointing.
The lunch is part of the Food Summit with Good Food Ireland. The sub summit aims to showcase a range of Irish artisan food and local restaurants, with the likes of Bison, Saba and Kinara kitchen serving up the grub.
It’s a tokened system, and one token will get you a main and a bottle of water but will set you back €20. They say on their website a discounted rate over the three days of the Food Summit can be purchased for €50, but the price and quality combo left people dry.
A web summit spokesperson told DailyEdge.ie:
We believe that Food Summit, working with Good Food Ireland, represents good value for money at a fair price for some of the tastiest meals in Ireland, locally sourced.
With the food token, attendees get a main meal, a drink, a coffee, a snack and a dessert. Attendees have a wide choice of some of the very best in quintessentially Irish artisan produce – with an international flavour. This year because of the huge increase in the number of attendees we decided to charge €50 for three food tokens.
Due to this increase in scale it was no longer economic to serve 30,000 attendees for free as we did last year. The price reflects the very high quality of the food.
There are also numerous other restaurants and food outlets both within the RDS and in the immediate vicinity.
Written by Nicola Byrne and posted on DailyEdge.ie
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Good luck in Portugal. Off you pop.
Our loss mate. End of.
Did Paddy demand the government supply food and drink for all the attendees too ?
I heard that Portugal threw in free peri-peri chicken for all to sweeten the deal.
Attending any popular event in Ireland is a rip off
Yes, but Paddy expects hotels to give cheap rates while he creams everyone – he doesn’t even pay the students that work his events!
what do you expect with robbery going on at every turn
I’d probably book a flight to Lisbon with Ryanair for less than the cost of that!
So it’s ok to pay €20 for a burger and a bottle of water. Let’s break down the price paid by the owner of stall. The cost of renting the stall is unknown. The cost of a single bap is 0.10 cent. The cost of a burger is 0.5 cent. So far that seems like a pretty good deal for the vendor. €0.15 for just 1 burger. Let’s say it costs a minimum hourly rate to have a person flip that burger, if they are under 18 is €6.60 an hour, ( still working on the cost per burger) the next pay bracket is €6.92 per hour for an 18 year old. ( not a huge jump in wage but still, we are talking about money per burger). An adult with experience would earn €8.65 per hour. One burger sold has, by my count whether it was a 16 year old an 18 year old or an adult brought profit to the owner of the burger van. By just selling 1 burger, just 1 burger. Has made their wage for an hour. Welcome to the world of capitalism folks
Artisan Irish hot dogs! Lovely hurling!
Web Summit seems to be following the Irish hype and going the same way as the tennis event ‘Collins Cup’ in the RDS years ago with Kournikova et al. A bleedin sham is all these promoters ever are! Chancers at best. In other countries they don’t believe in the Pied Piper anymore.
I think in Portugal, artesão, means exactly artisan and the local food will be quality local produce and not gourmet hot dogs!
https://twitter.com/business/status/661448313586253824 a potential 2.7 million people read this
Defy you to tell me how Jim.
And he had the cheek to complain about hotel prices?
And spent most of his time bleating on about a “traffic plan” for the 2016 event. 15 months in advance. Before the 2015 event had even started.
I live in Ballsbridge. Traffic was absolutely fine today. Took about 5 mins extra to get home.
Pretty much sums up the WS business model. Buy €5 worth of food for a tenner, sell on for €20 = PROFIT.
That model only works if most your attendees are on expense accounts…
I watched on the web all day today – I didn’t see anything that would inspire spending 1000′s on tickets!
Wholesale 750ml bottle of RiverRock cost 48 cents, the hotdog 92 cent tops,
Total cost of purchase €1.40 Total cost of sales €20. Thats some mark up……
I would like to know how muchPaddy C charged for the food spaces then we would know why the high prices Mabe Paddy C is the rip off ?????
If those photos are a true reflection of what you get for 20 quid, it’s a fcuking disgrace. No further elaboration required.
It is Anthony, at any of these showcasing events there is always horrendous and extortionate prices for food (and usually slapped up, artisan goes out of the window). All these showcasing events are the same, be it techie or craft or whatever, the organisers know they have captured customers aka exhibitors, usually small start-ups who have to grab a bite when they can and end up being fleeced. I know, been there and learnt fast.
Don’t be a prat then and bring your own food, or eat at the many other food outlets available within a short distance.
I was most certainly a prat the fist time Oliver, but not the second time.
Rip off Ireland alive and biting.
Wouldn’t ya think Enda would make them all a packed lunch. Let’s see how Paddy C explains this or who he’ll blame
The orgainsers believe you will get 4 nights in Lisbon for €200. Good luck with that.
To be fair The WebScammit had demanded that the Government force Patrick Guilbaud’s to provide free food, but the IDA refused to co-operate.
Clearly Fine Gael doesn’t care enough to line Paddy Cosgrave’s pockets with more cash ontop of the 32 million collected in ticket sales.
If the organizers want free food provided they should provide it themselves, not up to Goverment to interfere.
I also note no traffic issues as the founders were banging on about as well today.
Because traffic calming was introduced this year.
I picked up two early bird tickets after last years event, under the impression that the food summit, along with all the other summits would once again be included. Was pretty annoyed to find they were looking to charge another 50 euro for food for the three days. Only conference I’ve ever been to where a ticket price, even the early bird price, of that level did not include some food during the day. Had I paid the money they were asking today and then seen what I was getting for it I would be furious. As it was I raised it with staff, got shunted around a bit, before finally being told there was nothing they could do. VERY unimpressed.
You haven’t been to many conferences in that case.
Dessert were extra, the would be better off absorbing the cost in the ticket than charging extras
Nice to see Paddy C getting a bitta heat for a change, says Enda. Go stick a hash tag on that baby. Boom boom. #mayo4sam2k16
Will the Journal be sending a team to Lisbon next year to do all this reporting.
I’m sure it will be free in Lisbon next year as will hotels and transport!
Paul, your irony is as meaningless as those prices. There is a sensible middle way between “free hotels and transport” and 20€ for a small and miserable takeaway lunch.
Suppose he’ll try and blame the government the same government he had the nerve to say we’re gouging them!!
People who voluntarily go to an event that costs €1200 to attend, have no credibility complaining about spending €20 on grub.
they have every right to complain if that shite in the pics was served up to them! nothing better than hangover food on a monday after a weekend festival! The best of the best tech companies came here, at €1200 a pop, attract visitors from around the world..and the best we can do is a f¿cking dodgy hot dog? Seriously..for a country that has some of the best home produce in the world..thats what we serve up? I could do a better home cooked lasagne than that. And I wouldnt have charged anywhere near that.
I really hope the Lisbon guys know that they’ve been sold a pup. Treating customers with pure unadulterated contempt. The brazenness of charging extra for the lunch at a conference is truly something to behold. Simply unheard of – maybe he’s lost his mind.
If they honestly believe that represents good value, for some of the tastiest food Ireland has to offer
I can’t wait to see what these shysters believe represents ‘good value’ investment capital opportunities to buy in to the ‘best’ start up companies Ireland has to offer.
Proof that the tech world has gone nuts and none of these people know what anything is worth these days….
That said maybe Paddy is comparing the food at his summit to the €43 club sandwich at Davos…
A load of geeks deluded with self importance talking gibberish. Better off on Lisbon
Good riddance. Just saw some pr guy being interviewed on eye news. Rude as hell- pulled the mic off and threw the reporter a filthy look.
* rte news
Yes it was the RTE News – Sgaron seemed to b goinbheavy on hom & I reckon he was just about to telk her where to go. Yeah a jumoed up PR guru. Hopefully take -away vehicles will cause grid lock at the co
20 euros is small pocket change to paddy cosgrave and fellows like the founder of that oculus rift thing. Either of them could cover the whole cost of food easily for the event and could probably throw in free pints in the deal too.
Rip Off Ireland is alive and well
#HangryNerds
It’s shows a certain mentality that when people complain the web summit organisers don’t put their hands and and say they we made a mistake – instead try start trying to argue why it is really good value actually.
Question is anyone who had to fork out 20 quid for a meal that turned out to be tiny going to turn around and say: “artisan? – fair point – it’s totally worth it now!!!”
From chatting to some of the poor food vendors seems they were sold a pup as well. They were told they’d be accepting vouchers worth I think it was around 8 euro a meal? So organisers are pocketing the difference ? And charging a simply astonishing 1200 a ticket?
Classic Cosgrave. His business model doesn’t seem to have much longevity as the people he scams will never do business with him again. He’s away to Portugal to find new suckers.
Cue Petulant Paddy throwing toys out of pram when his wifi choices fail. What a cock.
They are really cashing in on their last year in Ireland. No doubt the rip off grub will be counted in how much the event “brings into the local economy”. 40k x 20 x 3 = another €2 mill +…
Is their a bar at the web summit?
Genuine question as I am going tomorrow
Yeah 5.95 for a pint. Free pint of Guinness if you listen to Linux.com talk though!
Bring a few naggins!
I am sure there is, just bring the deeds to your house to start a tab !
Alright cheers!
Yeah and a pint is €26
Web summit is one big circle jerk
Artisan my hole. They probably don’t even know the meaning of the word.
It’s a type of well isn’t it?
The recession is over lads…
Welcome back price gouging and rip off Ireland. We missed you.
never went away
I do not know what is worse the people buying it knowing it’s expensive or the people paying for it and then moaning about it.
I suppose they were surprised to find that the €20 token got a main meal that was just a hot dog or a little box of noodles.
Rip off Banana Republic
The banana’s another €8.50!
The conference obv. slipped up on that rip off
These guys do a fantastic line in bullshit
They messed up the Motorsport show in the RDS the same way. In the early ’90′s it was amazing, but by the mid ’90′s it was like visiting any motor showroom in the country and getting ripped off at every turn for the ‘experience’ to boot.
I would demand my money back beung served that! Complete rip off! Sack the PR agent!
Why is everything to do with Internet technology, social media, all the sort of stuff to do with the web summit etc. so intimidating and excluding and snobby and haughty … Much like Irish society in the last 5-10 years .. Smug, pretentious, americanised, sterile, dead-on-the-inside, beard-wearing ..
WTFAYOA?
Ah. Ripoff Ireland still exists. Better screw the punter for as much as possible before they head to Portugal
I’ve been to plenty of events some of which even free entry on behalf of the company and sometimes free food is even offered and it looks a lot tastier than that tripe! You pay a premium at events that’s fair enough but let’s not take the mick!
Greedy git!
€1200 X 30,000 = €38millon ???
Holy artisan meatballs batman !!
There is also a leaving town tax
A fool and his money are soon part(isan)ed.
Thieving fecking robbing b*stards
Lots of excellent places to eat around the RDS.
For 20 quid a head you could go for a sit down meal at Roast, Belluccis, Baan Thai, Paddy Cullens, Horse and Hound, Base, Rolys, MAIA, Al Boschetto and The Bridge and still have change in your pocket!
Loads of places also for a take out sambo for a quarter of the price too.
Don’t buy the tokens guys!
Gouging
Kinda bored now with the moaning, self-pitying, money grabbing WebSummit.
Lisbon is welcome to the Web summit
Went into the topaz to get 2 rashers on bread girl says 4:90 I said you eat it, bye
Eh why was post removed
Oops, it’s back
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