So much of what keeps PR as a discipline relevant in the competitive landscape is Innovation. As an industry, PR strives to be innovative in every way, with new events, new ways to reach influencers and new types of content — that, at its core, is what SXSW is about.
I’m not a newbie to the SXSW Interactive Conference in Austin and it feels very different but no less inspiring and exciting than it was six years ago. Today, I feel like there is a lot more business-minded content as opposed to “tech topics,” and I don’t think that is a bad thing. For a long time, the conference catered mainly to technology and creative folks and venture capitalists would drive through, trendspotting. Now, the (bigger) conference gives business people a deeper understanding of the creative executions, and it gives the techs and the creative attendees the opportunity to see the connection between their innovations and business. It is bigger, but now it is richer in content, more 3-dimensional, and tangible.
Since much of the conference content is picked through the SXSW Panel Picker, the attendees are more selective against panels that are strictly “marketing.” And I think it shows — the panel content is really fascinating. Last year, at the panel with Weiden and Kennedy discussing the Old Spice campaign, it was fascinating how they took tweets and turned them into video responses — I was amazed to hear that they got video responses online within 24 hours — it changed everyone’s perspective on speed responsiveness and video — especially for a ‘brand’. It was just another example of content that was business-focused and gave me something tangible to think about.
Because SXSW is all about innovation, you get a sneak peak at what’s coming in technology trends. For example, tablets were huge three years ago right before the iPad came out. Many panelists and speakers were using tablets, and attendees see that. As a result, these people started creating tablet applications and tools and thinking of different usages for the technology. So being able to get a sneak peak at what the other speakers and attendees are doing can give you insights on what to do to stay on the competitive edge.
There are a number of trends I’m looking forward to learning more about and gauging at the conference, from a professional and a personal perspective:
Transmedia: How do you link the customer experience across multiple screens? How do you support how people interact with content displayed on different screens? For example, Google TV is interesting but it’s doing really poorly in the market, so I’m curious to see how people are tackling that.
Privacy: The rise of Pinterest, followed by questions around privacy issues around Instagram to Google to the music industry — privacy is a part of all of those things. Privacy is a thread through all of those, we have not seen privacy driving any of those business decisions, but if all industries pulled together, they could reshape all of media.
Data as a Narrative: I’m curious to hear more stories about how consumption metrics become a narrative. How does the actual data become a narrative for the same people that are using the content in the first place?
Gaming: I’m really into game concept and game theory. The article in the New York Times highlighting Self Magazine’s new game, underscores how games are being rooted in everything we do.
Tech Trends: I’m always interested in hearing what attendees are doing with HTML, CSS 5, and even 3D printing.
Bruce Sterling: As the godfather of science fiction and the keynote speaker at the conference, I’m really looking forward to hearing his session — he has a fascinating take on distilling what is fantasy from reality.
At SXSW, you never know what is going to inspire you. Even if it is a tech innovation, inspiration is inspiration. The challenge for attendees is to take what they see and make it relevant for our world.
