19th February 2009
Our Guide to SXSW
If you’re treating SXSW Interactive like an ordinary marketing conference, you’re doing it wrong! We’ve put together our picks, tips and tricks for navigating this year’s festival.
What is SXSW Interactive?
Hear from industry experts on how to take your brand to the next level, explore future-thinking design, or discuss tech, startup, and workplace best practices of today and tomorrow all in the eight Interactive Tracks of the SXSW Conference. These tracks are home to all things tech, healthcare, business, design, and beyond.
Why do we think it’s the Festival to be at?
Everything we do is about Provocation with Purpose and keeping true to Austin’s motto: Keep Austin Weird, it’s the conference that has all the weird and wonderful. From advertising, brand experience, design and tech to space exploration, inclusion, healthcare and pop culture, it truly is the place to be inspired by society around us.
Themes and Provocations
From advertising, brand experience, design and tech to space exploration, diversity and inclusion, healthcare and pop culture, SXSW truly is the place to be inspired by society around us. We’ve selected our must-see sessions.
RADICAL SUSTAINABILITY
By 2030, both brands and partners are blocked from media deals if their environmental policies are not up to snuff
BLOCKCHAIN 2.0: CONTENT 2.0: Content
A future ruled by tech-verified authenticity in which brands can control both content and distribution
AI TAKE THE WHEEL
Brands and media companies engage with consumers during the 25th hour of time regained thanks to autonomous driving.
P.E.T.A.H (PEOPLE FOR THE EQUAL TREATMENT OF ARTIFICIAL HUMANS)
As robots and AI assistants become increasingly anthropomorphized, they’ll generate more human-like relationships, and as a result operate as brand representatives.
PRIMEMATE
Companies have so much data on us and they will create new services that may seem unlikely now. Amazon’s future dating service that outperforms Tinder and Match by utilizing all the data Amazon has about us.
THE FREEMIUM WORLD
A world where consumers can get almost anything for free if they sacrifice themselves to ads
Must-see sessions
From advertising, brand experience, design and tech to space exploration, diversity and inclusion, healthcare and pop culture, SXSW truly is the place to be inspired by society around us. We’ve selected our must-see sessions.
MARCH 13
We’re heading past the daily grind of advertising and pushing into the unknown implications of media’s future. As misinformation continues to be a spreading problem; brands have the risk of their image becoming synonymous with fake news. However, with innovative storytelling from brands like Disney, and marketers taking VR experiences out of the headset, brands may be able to shake off consumer skepticism and create authentic engagement through their content.
MARCH 14
Is there such a thing as ‘green media’? Can you recycle an impression? As we move through 2020, we simply can’t continue with the same mindset which has bought us to where we are today in the climate change crisis. As marketers, we can set the tone of business, reminding clients and consumers alike that environmental and financial gains are interdependent and can live in harmony.
MARCH 15
Walk in and leave everything you already know about branding and advertising at the door. Autonomy is the way of the future, with faster, safer travel leading to more opportunities for media consumption. But in a world of heated politics and privacy issues, brands will have to rethink how they engage with consumers and leverage the latest emerging tech.
MARCH 16
Is there such a thing as ‘green media’? Can you recycle an impression? As we move through 2020, we simply can’t continue with the same mindset which has bought us to where we are today in the climate change crisis. As marketers, we can set the tone of business, reminding clients and consumers alike that environmental and financial gains are interdependent and can live in harmony.
MARCH 17
Artificial humans are the influencers of tomorrow, giving us constant recommendations based on our consumption habits. Similar to the sci-fi movies of decades past, as culture continues to anthropomorphize AI, virtual assistants and the like, our relationship with them will shift from that of a household utility to a member of the family. But can humans truly shape AI to work positively with us into the future?
