'Nothing to do with Enda leaving': Web Summit has confirmed a Dublin event
MoneyConf, a financial services and fintech conference, is currently taking place in Madrid.
WEB SUMMIT has confirmed that MoneyConf, the company’s niche financial services and fintech conference, will be held in Dublin in the future.
This year’s conference is kicking off in Madrid, Spain today. According to its website, 1,800 attendees from more than 500 companies are expected at the event.
The conference will mark the Dublin-based tech events company’s return to the capital for the first time since shifting its flagship gathering to Lisbon after the 2015 fixture.
That decision marked an acrimonious parting of ways with Irish officials, with correspondence released by Web Summit after the decision showing a breakdown in the relationship between the parties.
However, this morning Web Summit co-founder and CEO Paddy Cosgrave announced that MoneyConf would be held in Dublin.
In a statement, organisers said: “We’re providing €1.5 million a year in free tickets to students from every school and college in Ireland to all our events globally.
“Brexit is transforming Dublin as a financial centre. Major banks, credit card companies and fintech startups have all signed leases in recent months. JP Morgan is moving up to 1,000 bankers alone to Dublin from London. It’s an incredible moment.
“And it’s in this moment that we’re moving MoneyConf, which is already one of the world’s leading financial services and fintech conferences, to our hometown Dublin.”
The statement added that the timing of return “has nothing to do with Enda Kenny’s departure (as taoiseach)”. It is not yet known where or when the Dublin event will be held. The company did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
€5 million boost
In a statement welcoming the news, Dublin Chamber said the conference move was “a validation of the city’s status as a global hub for financial technology”.
The group, which represents businesses in the capital, estimated MoneyConf would be worth €5 million to the local economy based on recent analysis of similarly sized events.
Chamber CEO Mary Rose Burke said “MoneyConf is obviously much smaller than Web Summit. But given the growth of financial technology around the world, there is considerable scope for the conference to grow over the coming years.”
Web Summit recently announced it planned to recruit another 40 staff to add to the 150 people already on its books. Among the positions open will be an ‘Irish government affairs manager’ based in Dublin.
The company’s latest accounts show it delivered a net profit of €128,000 in 2015 – the last year its namesake conference was held in Dublin – down from €715,000 the previous year.
Web Summit organisers are being paid €1.3 million per year by various Portuguese government agencies to stage the event in Lisbon.
Note: This article has been updated to include comments from Dublin Chamber.
Reporting by Órla Ryan and Peter Bodkin.
