The friendliness of the Irish people was one of the main reasons Twitter decided to open an office in Ireland, Tony Wang, general manager of its UK operations said at the Dublin Web Summit today.
Last month the rapidly growing social network said it was establishing an office in Dublin but provided no further details on how many jobs it might create or what role the operation would take on. As a result there was standing room only when Tony Wang, general manager of Twitter in the UK spoke at the Dublin Web Summit in the RDS yesterday.
In a short interview Mr Wang said that the availability of skilled staff and good technology infrastructure were amongst the main considerations for where Twitter decided to open offices, but in Ireland the “friendliness” executives encountered when they came here was an additional factor.
Over 1,200 people are attending the Dublin Web Summit at the RDS today and tomorrow with panel discussions, presentations and on-stage interviews covering three main topics: start-ups, social media and cloud computing.
Mr Wang was followed on stage by Ronan Harris, director of online sales with search giant Google, who pointed out that his company doesn’t just create jobs directly in Ireland, where it now has over 2,000 staff.
Since Google opened its European HQ in Dublin in 2004 many talented staff have left to start their own companies, “creating jobs in Ireland” and Mr Harris pointed to two audience members as examples of former “Googlers” who have now forged out on their own.
The event began this morning with Colm Lyon from Realex Payments. The company last week announced it would create 50 new jobs after winning a major British contract that expands their business by 50 per cent.
This evening, chief executive of supply chain company PCH International, Liam Casey, will deliver the keynote.
Running in parallel with Dublin Web Summit is the invite-only F.ounders event which is pitched at web entrepreneurs from around the globe who want to network with their peers in an informal setting. It starts this evening with a “pub crawl” followed by dinner in Trinity College Dublin.
Among the 150 attendees are the founders of YouTube, LinkedIn, Bebo and Angry Birds.
