Tech conference to leave Dublin citing capital’s high costs and visa issues

Since its inception, UXDX has attracted more than 20,000 attendees and hundreds of keynote speakers from leading companies such as Netflix, Nike, Spotify and JP Morgan. 

The conferences focus on product design and helping companies and developers to improve their way of working.

This year’s conference returns to Dublin’s RDS in October but will move to a new, as yet unnamed location for 2025.

Co-founder Catherine Madden told the Irish Examiner Ireland will always be a core part of UXDX’s identity and the decision to move cities was not made lightly. 

“While Dublin has been a wonderful host, and the move is a deeply challenging decision on a personal level, but after nine years in Dublin we believe that moving to a new city offers an opportunity to freshen things up and it’s an exciting new chapter for UXDX,” she said.

Co-founder Rory Madden cited the primary audience has shifted from an Irish majority to most attendees and speakers attending from overseas. 

“Our biggest demographic of attendees is now outside of Ireland. This has actually led to increasing difficulties for people who are working in Europe but originally from overseas,” he said.

Mr Madden added organisers receive over a dozen messages from people who want to attend but can’t secure a visa. “And those are just the ones who reached out to us. We’ve even had one of our speakers from Zurich get stopped at the airport because of the lack of awareness of Schengen,” he said.

The Schengen visa allows travellers to enter the Schengen area for intended short stays (up to 90 days within any 180-day period) within the Schengen area, which consists of 25 of 27 EU states as well as Norway, Switzerland, Iceland and Liechtenstein. Ireland is not in the Schengen area so non-EU citizens that have a Schengen visa must apply for a separate visa to enter the country.

Another deterrent for potential attendees is the high cost of staying in Dublin for the conference, according to the founders. 

“One of the things we are conscious of because whenever we talk to attendees they are not just factoring in the price of the conference, they are factoring in the flights, accommodation, the food and drink. They are looking at it as a package cost to cover,” he added.

UXDX is set to announce its new home during its final Dublin event at the RDS in October later this year. It also runs an annual conference in New York.

In addition, UXDX runs hundreds of free community events each year both online and in-person in dozens of cities around the world.

Ms Madden said they would continue to engage with Irish software companies in the future. “We believe there’s an opportunity for us to look at the broader island of Ireland and serve communities and tech hubs like Cork, Limerick, Belfast and more. 

“Our global ambassador programme has expanded to over 20 cities now, and the aim is for 100 cities within the next year, all focused on better ways of working within teams,” she added.

In 2016, another Irish tech conference event Web Summit, which also operated from the RDS, announced it was departing Dublin and has since operated from Lisbon, signing a 10-year contract worth €110m.