100% agreed. I used to work for one of the bigger, more well-covered (in terms of US press coverage) European start-ups , and I was contacted by Web Summit last year about "participating" in the upcoming event and invited to discuss the "opportunity" via Skype. I hop on Skype with the guy and he immediately starts trying to shake me down for money for a sponsorship...without actually knowing what my company at the time did (I asked him straight up, "Do you know what we do?", and he stammered off how he was impressed with our growth blah blah blah without answering the question).