Volunteering At Web Summit… Kinda Sucked!
If you are planning to be a volunteer at Web Summit, start thinking about it now. Web Summit 2018 is coming, and it’s coming soon. This article aims to provide you a high-level feedback on what is to be a volunteer at such a notorious, glaring event like Web Summit (WS).
“The largest tech conference in the world”
As a Computer Science and Engineering student, I was very quickly interested in the possibility of volunteering at Web Summit, for some reasons:
- Networking (meeting some investors, startup leaders and HR managers)
- Explore current trends
- Seek for job opportunities
Web Summit cleverly grants their volunteers access to the event. I signed up for the volunteer program way before August 2017, and, by the time, I applied to the startups' team. I got accepted. The first version of the briefing came out in October.
I attended the startup’s team briefing, on 3rd November. My intentions were not only catching up on the briefing but also meeting the team managers and my fellow colleagues.
On the first day, I went to the volunteers' hub and checked-in. I was supposed to be a team leader, but, ironically, there were no more team leader t-shirts (?!). That way I couldn’t be identified as having extra responsibility. They did not care. Besides…
… I didn’t receive any team leader formation.
What Did I Do?
Well, I did what I was supposed to do: help.
The Volunteers’ manager told us to wait for us to be assigned a task, on the volunteers' hub. In general, the process was ineffective and complicated to handle. There was no control. People were waiting too long for tasks that were not even within the scope of their team responsibility. Also, having lunch on the first day was difficult. This is what the lunch queue looked like:
Next day, I went directly to the place I was supposed to be — START Lounge — and do what I was supposed to do. I ended up being also in the INVESTORS Lounge, a restricted area in which meetings between investors and attendees occur. Apart from drinking coffee, our team managed access control, helped investors and startups with their queries and helped the Web Summit photographer to invite investors to a session. Personally, the last one was a rather bad allocation of work, because:
- The photographer had his work assigned on the second day and third day of the event. Some investors were really tired of attending meetings all the time, not sleeping well and receiving constant queries.
- The INVESTORS Lounge was a place to work and to network, not to take photos (even fancy ones).
It was quite challenging to gather approximately 40 workaholic investors in a day. The approach had to be subtle.
In the end, I believe that my work as a volunteer was balanced and fair. I felt I managed to get my job done and help lots of people in the way. The organization was rather terrible. I managed to give my feedback. Hopefully, they will improve.
Even if you are disappointed with some points at some event, always do your best. Provide your contribute to the organization you committed.
Volunteering again at Web Summit? Not for me. Participating in the conference? Of course, no doubts. The organization has to mature a bit in order to organize such a big amount of people effectively.
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Keep Rocking 💪
Also, If you have one or two entrepreneur veins, feel free to check my experience on European Innovation Academy, bellow:
If you are interested in open-source and making a difference,check the project I’m leading, which aims to help students:
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