Mar
14
0

SxSW: Initial Thougths

Author Eve Dmochowska    Category Events, SxSW     Tags

I’m on Day 4 of my US trip, and although I actually am able to sleep now, my mind is still at that state where I have to ask other people what day of the week it is.

SxSW (South by South West) is an experience, and a half. It’s unlike any other conference I have ever attended. There is no focus, there are no tracks. What there is a plethora of choice of session after session after session. If one is diligent and committed to the cause, one can attend up to 6 sessions per day, each lasting an hour. There is a choice of at least 15 sessions to choose from during each time slot, and no session is repeated. Simple math will tell you that that is a) a lot of talks and b) we are missing out on too many.

What amazes me is how little overlap there is on session attendance among the South African team. Each morning, we summarize for each other what each one of us is attending, while eating breakfast and catching up on work. My friends tend to get excited by talks that would put me to sleep. That’s a good thing: it means we are a diverse bunch, and our skills and interests are wide spread. That translates into a bigger pool of more diverse talent, and also suggests that each one is honing an area of expertise that the others can tap into as needed.

As I said, there is no specific track. So the attendees are 100% responsible for shaping their SxSW experience. That is a bit daunting, but also a lot of fun. It is also very challenging, since I find myself floating all over the space moving from one discipline to a completely different one. The downside of that is that there is a suspicion that I am not getting as much from the conference as I should be, since I touch on subjects briefly (one hour session) rather than going in deep and dirty with a full day track. So, today, my chosen talks are:

  • Beyond LAMP: Scaling websites past mySQL
  • Merchandising: The other white meat of monatization
  • Coding for pleasure: developing killer spare time apps
  • System Design and Inspiration (this is a keynote, with no other alternatives. Might give it a miss)
  • Crowdsourcing Innovative social change
  • Gmail: Behind the scenes

It’s taken me a couple of days to adjust my expectations of SxSW: it is a “conference” that should be used for inspiration, to kick start a creative process, to accelerate your success, to change your approach to your work day, to give you confidence to think out the box. That is very different from a conference that gives you expertise in a specific, narrow discipline that you can translate quickly into increased revenue for yourself. There should be a place for both types of conferences in your annual schedule. I suspect SxSW is the most inspirational, “general” conference out there, and you would be better off if you attend it.

Also, the diversity of the talks ensures that you meet, or at least see in action, the most diverse bunch, of the most amazing people. I saw Chris Brogan having a coffee this morning, listened to Clay Shirky give a talk, am meeting the BBC to talk about Crowdfund. Where else, but here, I ask you?

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