The haemorrhaging of important attendees from the upcoming Paddy Cosgrave Web Summit event in Portugal is giving a great many people a great deal of pleasure.
Anyone who has read Paddy Cosgrave’s tweets/posts on his Twitter account over the last few years would have seen a level of hubris and vitriol that was hard to understand, especially when you consider the circumstances Cosgrave has enjoyed since he was born.
The fact that he overstepped the mark in his comments about the attack on the innocent Israeli’s attending the music festival a few weeks ago and his condemnation of Israeli ‘war crimes’ without much regard for the actions of those who attacked the music festival was not surprising, given his trenchant opinions on many issues.
It was a sight to behold, however, the speed and force with which he apologised and tried to back pedal at the first sight of trouble which was first manifested by the withdrawal by some Israeli tech people.
The damage was done, however, and it snowballed.
Meta, Google, Intel are only a few of the big tech names who have now announced they will not attend Web Summit next month, and the list is growing.
There is a valuable lesson here for any small business person: be careful about your engagement on social media and don’t destroy your brand with your personal hubris and vitriolic, uncaring opinions as if you were untouchable.
We are all touchable.