This first appeared in the AdNews print magazine. You can read it all below but if you want it as soon as it goes to press, you better subscribe here.
Pace yourself. This was the advice I received crammed between two South by Southwest (SXSW) veterans on the flight between LAX and Austin, Texas. This leg of the journey felt a bit like the bus to school camp, everyone was on the plane for the same reason: on the hunt for excitement, inspiration and just a little bit of chaos.
As I landed in Texas for the first time I was greeted with everything I was hoping I would be. Within 30 seconds I saw a handlebar moustache, some bull horns and a BBQ joint, and that was just between the gate and the baggage carousel. Down in the heart of Austin, thousands converge on the SXSW epicentre and it becomes a sea of brand activations, food trucks and pedicabs.
Day one sees blue-chip brands all opening their ‘houses’ to show what innovations they have coming down the track and the thing about SXSW is these aren’t regular activations. The McDonald’s Loft saw people queue up for their chance to paint their own Happy Meal Box using virtual reality.
Samsung, of course featured its VR offering, but it also had a Samsung Pay vending machine, so anyone using its phones could win prizes with one swipe. IBM used its Watson artificial intelligence platform to create custom “cognitive” cocktails for delegates.
Inside the centre and the surrounding hotel venues, there’s the same hive of activity. There are sessions and panels that cover the big topics like mobile, VR and AR, and the media new world order, but there’s also keynotes that centre around psychology, medical technology and US civic engagement.
It didn’t take me long to see why people keep coming back to SXSW, and why the interactive festival in particular has well and truly become a must-attend event on the agency calendar.
Seeing professors, CEOs, and even presidents take to the same stage at the one event, it’s hard not to feel reinvigorated and inspired, regardless of how many beers you may have had the night before.
SXSW isn’t about learning about what’s new in the traditional sense. Making the trek to Austin is about the inspiration that comes from being in the same city as thousands of people who all have the same thirst for knowledge.
There’s so much power in being in a space where everyone is in the same state of mind. Everyone wants to learn, everyone wants to have fun and everyone wants to meet new people.
Usually after a day or two of a conference schedule, most are ready to flood outside and forget about everything they’ve just heard. But it feels different here.
The interplay between what counts as the 'day job' for people in advertising and media and the other stuff – rubbing shoulders and hearing about disparate industries, is what really gets the juices flowing and keeps the conversations going until late into the night