<p>There is plenty of life in Dublin after the Web Summit’s <a href=“https://blog.websummit.net/the-next-chapter/”>decision to relocate to Lisbon</a>. Many other companies are looking to curate events to fill this Web Summit sized opportunity. One recently took place that can claim to have successfully done so. <a href=“http://techconnect-live.com/” target=“_blank”>Tech Connect Live</a> took place on May 25th at the RDS, attracting over 5,000 attendees to its range of talks, seminars, workshops and exhibitors stands.</p>
<p><a class=“twitter-timeline” href=“https://twitter.com/techconnectlive”>Tweets by @techconnectlive</a></p>
<h2>Social media marketing and FinTech topics attract keen interest</h2>
<p>As always, it is interesting to compare and contrast which speakers packed them in, and which stages and themes gathered the most interest and activity. Social media marketing, FinTech, and the headline speakers on the main stage seemed to be among the areas that attracted a lot of attention.</p>
<p>The one message that seemed to stick with people yesterday at <a href=“https://twitter.com/hashtag/TCLIVE16?src=hash”>#TCLIVE16</a>. Slides here <a href=“https://t.co/GXVijT049X”>https://t.co/GXVijT049X</a> <a href=“https://t.co/0qBGwdPKCL”>pic.twitter.com/0qBGwdPKCL</a></p>
<p>— Andi Jarvis (@andijarvis) <a href=“https://twitter.com/andijarvis/status/735753622252748800”>May 26, 2016</a></p>
<p>How to use social media effectively for marketing your company and your brand continues to be an important concern and challenge for many companies. As was demonstrated by the, at times, standing room only presentations. FinTech also attracted a lot of interest as listeners tried to work out how to incorporate these innovations into their own businesses, and ensure their business is not poached by these new tech startups.</p>
<h2>Entrepreneur success stories remain popular</h2>
<p>On the mainstage were a number of great Irish success stories. People who have successfully built up their own companies and / or invested in other successful companies, was very appealing to attendees. Brian Caulfield, Bill Liao, Colm Lyon, Silviu Preoteasa, and Louise Whelan all attracted large numbers to the mainstage.</p>
<p>I really enjoyed <a href=“https://twitter.com/hashtag/TCLive16?src=hash”>#TCLive16</a> today. It was a great event and fantastic to meet so many innovative people <a href=“https://t.co/MGUCEo5F7N”>pic.twitter.com/MGUCEo5F7N</a></p>
<p>— Louise Phelan (@louise_phelan) <a href=“https://twitter.com/louise_phelan/status/735550583600467969”>May 25, 2016</a></p>
<h2>Networking opportunities remain valuable and available</h2>
<p>Events like this still continue to offer the opportunity to meet in person people you have communicated with online. Ideally at a successful event you manage to both meet digital connections for the first time, and to also meet new people were not even on your radar previously. This event succeeded in terms of having enough useful, relevant people in the room, without there being so many that you couldn’t move due to excessive numbers of people there.</p>
<h2>What does the future hold for Dublin and Ireland’s conference scene?</h2>
<p>Tech conferences in Ireland tend to follow a seasonal nature. After early June they generally go quiet again until September. This year looks like following the same pattern. However, with the absence of the Web Summit which attempted to be all things to all people, there has been a rise in much more nice events, focussing on one key topic.</p>
<p>We look forward to more events that are carefully curated and focussed on deep level dives into specific topics. Far better than hearing for the nth time about how Facebook is the largest location for content and yet creates none of its own, and similarly for AirBnB and Uber. Here’s to smaller, high quality focussed events that can deliver value in terms of networking, tech inspiration and innovation. </p>
