The final day of Web Summit is the coldest yet and I’m back in thermal tights. I’m not seen many dresses here. Not especially surprising – the women here want to be taken seriously, which means wearing powerful pant-suits and business-casual jeans.

I’m not especially concerned with being taken seriously – these dresses are just the easiest way of dressing more formally for a girl whose wardrobe is overwhelmingly full of rave gear.
I’m a little worried about coming off as an insecure early-transition trans girl who only wears dresses.
I take a minute to try and unpack whether that worry represents internalized transmisogyny on my part but I’m not smart enough to figure it out.
If it does, tell me I’m a transmisogynist in the comments!

I find myself already planning for next year’s Web Summit. What would I do differently?
Last year I tried to attend everything. All the talks and “super firesides” and Q&As that looked even remotely interesting.
This year I’ve mostly ignored the talks (although I’ve caught a few) and focused more on drifting and networking.
That feels like a better use of my time. It’s easy to see the scheduled talks as the main value to be gained here, and some are compelling and insightful.
But trying to attend them all means a lot of stress rushing around between pavilions attending a lot of talks, most of which are ultimately marketing pitches.
And the real kicker is I still missed some of the most interesting talks! I missed Jolyon Rubenstein’s protest against Shell, for example, and only learned about it by talking to another journalist after the fact!
This year I planned to attend a few talks that seemed particularly interesting but I’ve mostly drifted. I’ve chatted with a lot of startup stalls and my experience of Web Summit has been much more social than last year. That’s definitely an improvement.
I apparently missed a Ukrainian protest of a talk given by Yulia Navalnaya from the Russian opposition to Putin. That would be frustrating if attending talks had been my main focus.

My experience of Web Summit 2024 has been much more focused on the people here and that feels much more complete. I’ve not just existed in this space as a spectator.

So what would I do differently?
Next year, I’d use the Web Summit app to network more ahead of the event. I wasn’t added to that “LGBTQ+ Web Summit” WhatsApp group until the first official Night Summit event.
I’m confident that my experience of Night Summit would have been smoother and more fulfilling if I’d already been in some group chats ahead of Web Summit.
I’d definitely prioritize unofficial Night Summit events over official ones. The unofficial event I attended, for all its flaws, was better and better organized than either of the official ones.
I think having a startup idea to pitch, even one that I have no intention or capacity to realize, would make smalltalk a little smoother at both daytime Web Summit and Night Summit. Perhaps another game I plan to make.
I’d also have a two-sentence explanation prepared for what exactly I’m doing here as a reporter. What form does my reporting take and what is russianireland.com all about?
I know the answers to those questions but they need to come smoothly. If it doesn’t come smoothly it sounds like you’re bullshitting because everyone here is bullshitting about something. Tags: Websummit