Keep Austin weird: Nine SXSW 2016 takeaways

Recently I attended one of the biggest and most important tech conferences in the world called South By SouthWest (SXSW) in Austin, Texas.

 

Here are my 9 takeaways:

 

1) IT’S BIG

The size of SXSW is pretty overwhelming. There are over 33,000 attendees from all round the world and a choice of about 30 different sessions 8-10 time a day for 5 days.  And that’s just the day.  At the night, there are equally plenty of opportunities to network and make new friends! You just have to dive in and get involved.  

 

Hugh Forrest, Director of SXSW Interactive, summed it well:  “If TED is a carefully cooked dinner, then SXSW is an all-you-can-eat buffet”.

 

2) VR IS ABOUT TO GO MAINSTREAM

For the 2nd year running, Virtual Reality was the biggest theme. However this year, it feels like VR is about to become mainstream. With over 102 million tweets, VR was the most discussed subject at SXSW2016. I queued for 1.5 hours in the Texas sun with a horrific hangover to try the new Samsung Gear VR. The VR experience was combined with 4D motion simulated chairs and it was an incredible immersive virtual reality experience. I also saw an interesting panel session on “VR and the New Sales Reality” with examples of what brands like Hasbro, North Face and Lufthansa.  

 

3) SXSW HAS BECOME VERY NICHE

One big change I noticed since I last attended 5-6 years ago were the subjects covered have become incredibly niche. So for example, there was a session on Using WhatsApp as a CRM Tool in Brazil and another was entitled Keeping Mars Weird.  I guess this is a function of the event becoming bigger each year.  

4) THE WORLD OF AI IS CLOSER THAN YOU THINK

As well as VR, the other big themes were Artificial Intelligence and Robotics. I had an interesting conversation with a quite scary Japanese robot at the SXSW trade show. He was a bit, well robotic, but seemed like a nice fella. Now I am not saying that within the next 12 months we will all have little robots doing our hovering, but I certainly believe that the world of AI is lot closer than people realise.

 

5) START-UP OVERLOAD

Talking of the SXSW trade show, this was an incredible event just by itself. I have never seen so many start-up companies plugging their wares in one place. It made me realise how big the start-up world has become. Plus also, it brought home how the start-up culture is becoming more and more mainstream. Many recent developments, like the Agile approach to production and the Growth Hacking method of growing online revenue are becoming commonplace within the mainstream business world. SXSW has definitely helped accelerate this.

[Related article: Samsung commit to being the world's biggest start-up]

6) THE DIGITAL REVOLUTION OF THE CAR INDUSTRY
Another key theme was definitely the digital revolution happening to the car industry. Subjects such as driverless cars to the connected car to selling cars online, were all covered at SXSW 2016. Digital is going to have as big an impact on the car industry as it did on the music industry. Your future car will be very similar to your smartphone.

7) THE THING I LOVED THE BEST AT SXSW 2016
The most entertaining and educational session I attended was run by Ignite Talks. A few years ago a few geeks sharing ideas over beers came up with the Ignite Talks concept, which has now developed into worldwide network. The idea is that you see a number of different speakers across a wide range of topics but operating under the same rules. Every speaker has 5 mins, 20 slides and 15 seconds per slide. It's kind like mini-conference in speed dating form. 

In fact, I am going to be speaking about SXSW using this format at an event soon.

8) SXSW IS NOT JUST ABOUT BRANDS
Yes SXSW is not just about brands, although many people felt that the brands are taking over and therefore the event is starting to lose its magic. The festival definitely tries to be a force for good in the world. 

The keynote speaker was President Obama, who spoke about the tech community and the opportunity to modernize the US Government for the good of the America people.  

Also the final keynote speaker was British meditation guru, Andy Puddicombe. He is the man behind Headspace and got his massive audience to join him a mass meditation session. This theme ties into The Marketing Society’s Marketing For Good campaign.

9) AUSTIN IS ONE OF THE COOLEST PLACES ON THE PLANET
The city motto of Austin is “Keep Austin Weird” and boy are they living up to this with gusto. During the few days I was there I saw a semi-naked lady on a unicorn, a large puppet elephant head just left in the road and a hipster poet knocking out poems for random strangers on a very old typewriter. Austin feels like a little bit of San Francisco plonked into the middle of the great state of Texas.

For a more detailed view of the SXSW and the sessions I attend then check out my daily blog.

If you work in marketing it's essential that you keep your creative juices fresh and stimulated and there can be no better way to do this than by “experiencing” South By SouthWest. Just don’t expect to sleep much.

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