Paulo Portas passed a happy day in Dublin, leaving turmoil of domestic politics well behind him as he addressed delegates at the Web Summit and pitched the benefits of Lisbon where the event will be held next year.
The Deputy Prime Minister wants to bring the shine of the "new economy" to the Portuguese capital as he talked of young people in this sunrise industry, young people that largely are absent from his homeland as hundreds of thousands now are working happily in other European countries.
Portas said that Lisbon offers better value than the likes of Amsterdam, Barcelona and Paris, and the summit’s delegates will enjoy the lower prices to be found in the capital when they visit next year, and in 2017 and 2018, with an option for another two years, when hordes of thirsty young tekkies descend.
Paulo Portas was accompanied in Dublin by the President of the Agency for Investment and Foreign Trade of Portugal, Miguel Frasquilho, and former Secretary of State of the Economy, Leonardo Mathias.
Paddy Cosgrave, one of the event's founders, said he is excited at the prospect of going to Lisbon as the international media recently have praised the weather as much as the environment for technology development.
Frasquilho said there already is a working group to ensure a smooth transition from Dublin and a successful event next year, when over 40,000 delegates are expected.
The Deputy Prime Minister said he had been in contact with Lisbon council all along and that, "this has nothing to do with domestic politics, we are promoting the image of Portugal overseas."
"Lisbon has good infrastructure, good prices, and is a city committed to an environment of innovation and startups," said Portas.
In only four years, the Web Summit event has grown from 400 attendees to over 22,000 from more than 110 countries. It’s been called “the best technology conference on the planet,” and Lisbon no doubt will welcome the delegates warmly.
This is just the sort of event Portas loves as it allies his image to one of youth, technology and dynamism. With the vote of 'no confidence' in the ruling coalition just days away, his CV will benefit from his delusion that he is savvy and in tune with this youthful band of business start up specialists.
In a country where state spending hardly has slowed despite promises to the Troika to ease off, the Web Summit is getting a government bung of €1.3 million each year of the event, ‘to pay for the Internet.’
Leonardo Mathias said that a goodly part of the ‘subsidy’ of €1.3 million per year that the Portuguese state will pay the organisers in 2016, 2017 and 2018 will be to ensure an efficient Internet network.
"The value is a competitive proposal to do with infrastructure," explained Mathias who took part in the negotiation process to attract the event to Lisbon.
The former Secretary of State said the failure of the WiFi system in Dublin had caused a storm of criticism from delegates so the Portuguese taxpayer is to pay €1.3 million a year for a few days of WiFi access at the conference venue.
Critics say that it is not the government’s job to spend taxpayers’ money to provide WiFi access in private conference venues.
Mathias said that the Irish authorities calculated that in 2013, the 20,000 people who participated in the WebSummit contributed about €100 million to the Irish economy so the guesstimate of the contribution to Portugal of increasingly unrealistic M. Mouse figures would be ‘lots more.’
Mathias ended his wide-eyed commentary by saying that "the Web Summit is more than that, it is more than just tourism, it is the meeting of two very important engines for our economy: the financier and the innovator."
Comments
But what about Portuguese hackers ? How often have we attempted to log on to a Portuguese Government website - or been in Financas - and it has been down due to hackers ? And how often does your ISP tell you of the dozens of 'viruses' it has stopped on their way to your computer ?
Remember that all the Portuguese government sites that take your bank account details - particularly the European funding ones are routinely blacklisted by the search engines with the warning "Whoa. Warning. Attack Virus. Do you really want to go there ?"
Maybe some side rooms will be running sessions on 'How to guard against the hackers in Portugal'.
But the idea of Lisbon weather being attractive at this time of year is interesting, Lisbon enjoys an Atlantic weather pattern, which at this time of year is of course frequently wet and stormy. Warmer perhaps than Dublin, but equally wet.