DemoBar/FOWA RoadTrip – You're only supposed to blow the bl***y doors off
14th of September 2007 by conor
Last night they blew the bl***y roof off Ely HQ in Dublin's South Docks! Hands down the best gathering of people working here in this business ever. Ryan Carson figures 200 people turned up. I wouldn't be surprised, we were squeezed in like sardines and loved every minute of it. As someone said It's like we've crammed our own Silicon Valley into one room
The the four events of the day; Pitch Training, Paddy's Valley Meetup, DemoBar and FOWA RoadTrip overlapped and merged in and out of each other from 2pm onwards. The feedback on the Enterprise Ireland training was all positive and a big thumbs up to Paul Fisher from Advent for sitting in on some of the sessions.
I don't think I have ever seen that wonderful mix of people collected together here before. We had developers, geeks, entrepreneurs, VCs, telcos, Microsoft, PR people, Ryan and a bunch of startups all talking at 100 mph. The enthusiasm and eagerness and adrenalin in the room was infectious. I was particularly glad to see some of the startups make links to certain serious players for the first time. If they raise a round, I hope they can say it all happened that night in Ely HQ.
The event could not have happened without Fergus Burns from Nooked, a man who has worked tirelessly for the web community in Ireland and who deserves tons of kudos for that. Apart from the event itself, Fergus also put together a great bunch of sponsors. I shouldn't call out one but I will. Clare Dillon in Microsoft Ireland has arranged sponsorship for many of the community events here. Clare gets it and we all appreciate what she and her team do.
Ryan was fantastic with making sure to talk to all the start-ups and do interviews. Conn and the Intruders guys took plenty of footage too. I somehow managed to not take one single picture for which I should be flogged. One startup managed to show the power of their soon-to-be-released product when a punter knocked a pint of beer all over their demo laptop. Joe Drumgoole calmly turned the laptop over and said It's ok, it's all backed-up with PutPlace.com
For the next one, we're gonna need a bigger building.
Comment posted by Daniel Becker
at 9/14/2007 9:52:59 AM
I've posted some photo's on our blog:
http://devblog.glowday.com/2007/09/glowday-launch-demobar.html
It was great night.
Daniel
Comment posted by Paul Campbell
at 9/14/2007 10:14:31 AM
Hear hear, Conor. It was an immense night and that vibe was simply electricity – every you turned, the enthusiasm and energy just crackling from head to head. Definitely a shame that I had to leave early, but am now so energised to startup soon and really go for it. Very, very exciting times.
Comment posted by James Gallagher
at 9/14/2007 10:24:12 AM
Great to see these kind of events going well, I'm looking forward to the move back to Ireland.
Comment posted by SocialMedia.net
at 9/17/2007 5:08:29 AM
Unexpectedly large turnout in Dublin for day of Web 2.0 related events
Dublin, Ireland saw one of its largest web technology and business gatherings last Thursday evening (September 13th). At least 200 Web 2.0 professionals from all over the country and Europe, plus others interested in the web application industry, conv
Comment posted by The B-Team Blog Blog Archive So Far.. So Good
at 10/8/2007 8:07:50 AM
[] Those of you who were there will know that Bench'd first stuck it's head up over the parapet in September at the Paddy's Valley Pitchcamp training which coincided with the FOWA Roadtrip-Dublin and Web2Ireland Demobar. The feedback from this event was massive and hugely positive and it was very exciting for us to meet with so many of the Web 2.0 community in Ireland all at once. Blognation have a great report about it here. []