Technology collided with theatre this morning at the Dublin Web Summit as start-ups geared up to attract attention.

Two thousand start-ups from here and around the globe are at the RDS to display their wares to thousands of spectators this week.

They were warming up for three days of pitching to potential customers and investors.

Rows of stands in the main hall of the RDS were packed with companies trying to stand out from the crowd while squeezed into close quarters.

In the Machine Summit, "Tammy" the robot did a few neck rolls to loosen up for the intense three days ahead. She is there with the team from Wevolver, a start-up from a London accelerator called Bethnal Green Ventures, which uses technology for social good.

Wevolver is a social media platform that allows open source projects to be shared.

"We're the online community that manages all the open source files. There were 100 files to make this robot," said Laura Fisher, growth hacker for Wevolver.

Tammy had a difficult transit from London. She broke a finger, and the replacement the team 3D printed for her sat in the printer at Wevolver’s stand, to be assembled later.

The team from German company Zoobe donned Chancellor Angela Merkel masks to advertise their customised mobile messaging animations.

Users can choose an avatar, including the Chancellor, record a message for her to say and seconds later an animation appears to share with friends.

The team from Mexico-based Oniria made a few frantic last-minute repairs to their virtual reality display.

Once it was set up, they invited passersby to stand on a sensor mat and put on a virtual reality headset.

Oniria’s product integrates different technologies to provide an immersive experience for both rehabilitative health and entertainment purposes.