Mt. Bonnell @ South By South West 2019 – Part 1

South-by-South West, or ‘South By’, or just SXSW, is now one of the world’s biggest festivals.

SXSW is dedicated to helping creative people achieve their goals. Founded in 1987 in Austin, Texas, SXSW is best known for its Conference and Festival that bring together the interactive, gaming, film, and music industries from around the world.

Last week I was walking down 6th Street in downtown Austin. It was impossible not to be aware that the city was hosting SXSW – the crowds and the decorations were there for all to see, and the excitement was building.

So too were the crowds, the numbers entering the Austin Conference Centre was a sight to behold. Last year, approximately 432,500 people participated in the SXSW Conference and Festival. Almost 40 per cent of these were aged between 25 and 35 years old. Although 75 per cent of all those attending were from the United States, from both Europe and the Pacific Rim there were sizeable and noticeable groups of attendees.

Each year at SXSW there are many entrepreneurial start-ups and those looking for funding. But there are also many multi-national corporations present too. SXSW itself is big business. In 2017 alone, SXSW’s economic impact on the Austin economy was $348.6 million.

During SXSW the Austin Conference Centre hosting SXSW has become the go-to destination for media and tech professionals. For the 10 days SXSW runs, there are an endless array of events, sessions, showcases, screenings, exhibitions, and a variety of networking opportunities second to none. In terms of media and tech it would be fair to say that there is unlikely to be a conference with a more varied, creative and innovative group of attendees anywhere in the world.

So, naturally, we had a full team from Mount Bonnell Media attending SXSW. We were there to make media content: blogs, podcasts and videos, but also to listen to the talks and to those taking part in this amazing event. To be honest it was not hard to find media content such were the thought leaders and communicators surrounding us.

The organisers of SXSW are conscious of the fact that some of the most creative and enquiring minds on the planet are collected together and, quite literally, bumping into each other in restaurants, bars, or just sitting beside each other listening to an author, actor, or entrepreneur mapping out the future of their industry and, in some cases, the world around us. The buzzword here is “serendipity”. Chance meetings that can radically shift one’s mind or even one’s career. SXSW does a good job on promoting itself but for once the hype seems to be justified.

I came with plans; I shouldn’t have bothered. Things just happen at SXSW. You bump into someone and next thing you are engrossed in a conversation that can be life changing. So, best just to let these things happen – no plans.

Increasingly SXSW prides itself on being diverse. That is true with regard to the types of media and tech with which it engages. This is as varied as it possible: from AI to block chain, “fake news” to living on Mars, from immersive entertainment to 3D printing, and much else besides. Walking around the conference centre’s main hall, looking at the various exhibits, and sitting in the various auditoria listening to what is being said, the whole event appears at times part PhD seminar, part Sci-Fi movie.

Interestingly, this year one veteran SXSW participant and speaker told me that there was a need to bring “more of the human” into the debates around the future in which the technology being presented might operate. In light of this, perhaps not surprisingly, what many attending have said to me is that their highpoint while being at SXSW has been simply meeting people. Sitting talking to another human being might appear positively 19th century at SXSW, yet it seems to be what brings the greatest joy to many.

My own experience bears this out. While the talks have been mind-expanding, and some of the technology on display mind-boggling, there is nothing to rival a conversation with someone whom you have never met before but whose entrepreneurial journey strikes a cord and resonates with your own calling.  Take my conversation with Ethan Mayers as just one example. It was as philosophical as it was insightful, as enlightening as it was energising. (You can hear this on a forthcoming podcast). But to be honest there were just too many memorable discussions with too many memorable individuals. All were entrepreneurs of one sort or another, and all at different stages of their journey – just like you and me.

Mount Bonnell Media recorded a number of interviews for US Entrepreneur TV. If you take a look you’ll get some idea of the energy and buzz that permeated everything at SXSW.