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Technology proved that it really is the new rock ‘n’ roll at the most recent Dublin Web Summit.

The two-day tech conference, already the hottest event in the Irish web calendar, got an extra buzz when rock daddy Bono turned up – adding a slice of cool to the super-serving of nerdrepreneurs™.

Admittedly, the diminutive one didn’t attend the daytime DWS conference, but was spotted hob-nobbing with the cream of the international web world at a private evening event (F.ounders) that runs alongside the summit. Still, Bono’s attendance will have done nothing to hurt the reputation of event organiser Paddy Cosgrave for attracting star names to the week’s proceedings.

Ironically, the daytime talks by the biggest names in the tech world turned out to be the least interesting aspect of the two-day DWS event. Couch-bound Q&As and dry presentations from top brass at Twitter, Amazon, Google and Facebook yielded little to pique the interest.

The real meat, however, was served up by start-up entrepreneurs and those who study them for a living (investors, journalists). Representatives from the likes of Techcrunch, Mashable, AOL and the New York Times really captured the vibe of the event with innovative ideas and fresh thinking about the web.

In fact, the event could have easily been renamed the Dublin Startup Summit. A special ‘Startup Zone’ featured around 40 Irish-based early-stage companies, most of them export-focused clients of Enterprise Ireland. The main stage was dedicated to presentations for startups on the first day, and the winner of the ESB Electric Ireland ‘Spark of Genius’ startup competition was announced on the second day (Redeemandget).

A good line-up for the Online Marketing stage made the conference a fertile ground where start-ups and marketers could collide. Indeed, walking around the Startup Zone and listening to the Spark of Genius pitches (done Dragons’ Den style, with only 5 minutes each), it became clear that many of the tech entrepreneurs could use a little help with their messaging. Many of the pitches suffered from the classic pitfall of describing the technology first, rather than presenting the solution to a customer problem.

Over the two days, several predictions were made about the future of the web: among the key marketing trends that emerged were community management, content curation and creating an emotional experience for the customer.

Look out for more blogs on these topics in coming days.

@SylviaLeatham