Ari Aronson is a digital recruiter and the founder of ARI Agency. Armed with a press pass from Marketing, Aronson agreed to record his impressions of South By Southwest Interactive, the Holy Land for tech lovers and those scouting the next big new media phenomenon.
This was my first time attending SXSW or “South By.” Yes I am a SXSW newbie and somewhat embarrassed by that as my work and passion has been in the digital marketing space for the last 15 years and the Interactive event of all ages is in its 18th year. Like many other first timers I met, I was not alone in feeling the need to catch up or be in the know of what’s going on in the digital media world, not to mention the desire to conquer this event which I soon learned would be an impossible task. With over 880,000 square feet at the Austin Conference Center and over 450 program sessions including 150 workshops, the words “good luck” came to mind.
No different than perhaps a visit to Elvis’ Graceland or Michael Jackson’s Neverland, there is a sense of awe and excitement to visit the site where web history has been made and might be made again. SXSW is considered the birthplace of two renowned social media startups namely Twitter (which is celebrating its 5th birthday today but really only took off at SXSW 2007) and FourSquare, the location based social network was launched at SXSW 2009. By the way, Twitter was reported recently on secondary trading markets to have a valuation of over $5 billion and FourSquare rumoured by Bloomberg news at around $250MM.
Day 1
As I approach the airport gate I feel as though I am walking into a Toronto social media or digital meet up, encountering many familiar faces from the advertising, marketing and social media space. With so many Facebook and Twitter friends in the crowd–writers, creative directors, strategists, entrepreneurs, consultants, designers–not to mention everyone on their iPhones, Blackberry’s pinging, tweeting, texting, liking, friending, connecting and inspiring their social networks at the click of a button, I wondered, ‘Is the real world online?’
People’s profiles online through social networks like Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter have so much information that it is the first place you need to go to get to know someone new. The days of face-to-face communication or even a telephone call as a first point of contact are over. Building relationships and communities online have never been easier as people are now even more at ease communicating online as part of their daily lives rather than picking up the phone or having conversations face to face. Topics to ponder while each one of us digital geeks types away on our devices and wonders how we can connect to the free WiFi on American Airlines, which is not working!
Good thing I downloaded the SXSW app so I can view the schedule and somehow try to determine what conference sessions I am going to attend. It’s a tough decision for anyone like me who has ADD when it comes to conferences to choose what discussions to attend when there are hundreds of panels, talks, meet ups, events, tradeshow booths and over 20,000 Interactive Festival attendees estimated who will walk through the entire event. Wow–I’m overwhelmed just thinking about it but my approach is to spend time with the Canadians who are participating and attending the event. There are huge numbers of Canadians who attend this conference, likely to maintain our global supremacy of using the internet more than any other country and absorb the knowledge, ideas, inspiration and passion that Austin and SXSW has to offer over the next 4 days! I’d put tape between my glasses and wear a pocket protector if I knew it would get me into more events and sessions, but luckily I have a Marketing press pass. Wonder if my pass will get me in to the free beer tent? We will see!
I have packed a few of my favorite devices including my Blackberry, my Mac computer, my digital camera, and my iPad. I figured a trip to SXSW will revitalize and inspire me. My goal will be to immerse myself with thought leaders, social geeks, twits and propeller heads and of course every other name for those enamored and infatuated with the internet and social media.
Day 2
A few of my favorite sessions included keynote speaker Seth Priebatsch, a 21-year-old Princeton university dropout who launched SCVGR, a gaming platform company (recently valued at $100M). Seth believes you can make even the most boring challenges of life–like going to school and studying to get good grades into a game solution. He calls this ‘Gaming Mechanics’ where students would study more and not cheat based on a specific set of game rules and rewards. Seth’s cutting edge philosophy is at the root of how a fun gaming experience can generate sales, customer loyalty and even get kids to study and stop cheating at school. I’d think this Princeton dropout would know something about not studying or going to school. It was a brilliant illustration of what many of us have already experienced across group deal websites like Groupon, Living Social and local startup Wagjag have known for a while now: offer a time-limited deal and reward others for referring to your network and voila, your game is set and ready to play. Seth also describes how countries should adopt gaming principles to find better ways to trade and support the global economy. Sounds a little far fetched but I loved it and who knows maybe he is on to something?
I observed session after session of rooms packed full of 500 people typing, tweeting and texting madly on their iPhones, Android devices, Blackberrys and iPads throughout every presentation. You have to wonder how anyone of Seth’s generation could possibly get through an hour of class and not feel completely out of touch and bored to death with a pencil and paper.
As I roam the halls with my SXSW iPad app running to help me navigate through the conference centre and agenda, I stumble into a session called “Do Ad Agencies Need to Think Like Software Companies” with a panel including Allison Mooney (Head of Trends and Insights, Google), Ben Malbon (Director of Strategy, Google Creative Lab) Matt Galligan (Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer, SimpleGeo), Rick Webb (Owner, The Barbarian Group) and Rob Rasmussen (Chief Creative Officer, Tribal DDB)
It was interesting discussion on the conundrum ad agencies are facing right now. Not only have traditional ad agencies had to shift their traditional business models to include the digital world but find ways to not upset their creative leadership while hiring a new generation of creative technologists. Ad agencies are challenged by how the digital world integrates into the traditional mass media world and vice versa. The old days of one creative director leading the agency to the big idea is kinda over. I believe most ad agencies are going to learn the hard way by reacting to clients rather than being proactive and bringing innovative thinking to their clients first.
Measuring and tracking ROI, social analytics and citizen journalism in light of the recent political crisis in Egypt and disaster in Japan were also very hot topics.
To read the second part of SXSW Diary, click here.
Ari Aronson is founder and executive recruiter at Ari Agency a boutique recruitment firm specializing in the digital marketing and social technology space in Toronto.
