Speshio went to Web Summit – The Emotional Recollection
We planned our trip to Dublin for Web Summit for months - reading stories of past attendees, the magic of pub crawls, and suggested dos and dont's. Everyone said "have a plan!!!" so that's what we did! We mapped out our days, our goals for the trip, and somehow managed to even squeeze in some time to take in the sights. We met a ton of great people, networked with other awesome startups, and listened to some of the best in the tech field share their wisdom and stories of adventure. If you followed along with us on Twitter and Instagram, you were sure to see us enjoying Night Summit, meeting one of the youngest exhibitors (this guy was seriously so awesome!), exhibiting in ALPHA, navigating the swarms of attendees, checking out awesome technology, and observing some of the best in action... what you didn't see, was our emotional recollection of the trip .... our trip to Dublin ... for Web Summit 2015 ... while our iOS app was also in review for the App Store! If you know anything about the App Store review process, I'm sure you are already chuckling.
(It is important to note that our app was previously rejected for minor reasons right before we left... then re-submitted with a request for expedited review... over the weekend)
Here we go!
--- TRAVEL DAY ---
1. Headed to the airport.. very excited! International travel Woohoo!
2. Security Line... enough said
3. Push notification: "Your app status is In Review" (yes.. literal dancing while in line.. which resulted somehow in us getting to skip to the front of a shorter line! Score!)
4. Five minutes later after getting through security.... Push notification: "Your app status is Rejected"
5. No time for food! Must submit new binary before boarding the flight!
My amazing iOS engineer:
(we are not responsible for the improper use of "your" in this gif)
Me:
6. Longest plane ride... ever.
7. Adult passenger directly behind our seats starts vomiting... and won't get up to use the restroom for the next 4x.
8. We made it! It's so beautiful here!
9. Shepherd's Pie... (I have an obsession... and I had this meal at least 4x while in Ireland)
--- FIRST FULL DAY IN IRELAND ---
10. So exhausted ... want to explore... but so tired... FU Jetlag... C'mon Apple Reviewwwww!
11. OMG WAKE UP! Push Notification: "Your app status is Ready for Sale"
12. Time to Explore ... and celebrate!
13. First official Web Summit event... pub crawl... time to make friends. Everyone pitching their ideas... secretly hoping no one is looking at you like this (I mean everyone at Web Summit is the smartest of smart right? Eek!)
14. Ugh! Doesn't this bar have wifi!? I want to show my app and not waste data
15. App well received at the Night Summit... Oh yeaaaaahhhh!
--- SECOND DAY IN IRELAND ---
16. First day of Web Summit, time to check out the other startups and see what's hot. Talk about a cool set up!
17. So many people!... So much cool stuff to see!
18. Back to reality... we exhibit tomorrow! iOS is good to go... Android is... being buggy! Oh no! (Frantically Skype messages Android engineer) Time to go home to eat (no not more shepherd's pie) and prepare for the big day.
19. Crackbird. Best. Fried. Chicken. EVER. Okay I feel better now.
--- THIRD DAY IN IRELAND ---
20. Second day of Web Summit... Our Exhibition Day... We head to the ALPHA Downtown location....and despite the booths rivaling a science fair in size, we are prepared to dominate and the booth looks great
21. All set... Doors about to open... Our whole row of booths loses power!
22. After a long 20 min... Power is back and we learn neither of the companies next to us showed up!
23. Want to hear about my app? Let me tell you about Speshio!
24. Damn you Wifi! Why so slow!!!!!???? Isn't this a tech conference!?
25. Fine.. we will use our data...traffic picks up... Speshio is rockin' it!
26. We have been on our feet for how long?
27. Day Complete... Success
--- FOURTH DAY IN IRELAND ---
28. So relaxed! Last day of Web Summit!
29. Need. Coffee.... (or Fanta... European Fanta is unbeatable...)
30. So much networking! - "Our app could totally work for your users too!" - So many new friends!
30. Challenge? Hell yeah we want free stuff!
31. Listening to the speakers on Centre Stage....
32. It's over already?
33. So much to do ... So many emails to send!
--- TIME TO TRAVEL BACK HOME ---
34. So much time on this flight to do work and send these emails! ... just kidding.. no Wifi... for 10 hours...