Techosta Where Tech Starts From
Every March, Austin Texas holds the South By Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) event, with an estimated 30,000 attendees this year in 2016. Dignitaries, scientists, politicians, entrepreneurs, marketers, programmers, and folks from every walk of life converge every year and make SXSWi what it is: A massive and exciting exchange of ideas. The show itself is built around experts teaching topic sessions on everything from digital marketing to robotics, and also corporate PR events highlighting technology or products. SXSWi is considered to be the biggest and most diverse event focusing on the intersection of people and technology.
2016 SXSWi Highlights:
The attendee in chief, Barack Obama became the first President to appear at South-By. In his speech, he made his case for the future of technology. And he encouraged the Technorati to allow government agencies to get into our devices. It was a hard sell.
And this year as always there were great sessions on web technologies and digital business. A/B testing, digital marketing, social strategies. The business-focused education sessions are foundational to the SXSW experience, and make it a ‘must attend’ event for companies and brands that connect with consumers over digital channels.
Virtual Reality was ‘kind of a big deal’ in 2016, with numerous displays of new VR tech. For my part, I tried one Korean startup’s VR headset and did not enjoy the experience at all. This technology runs small amounts of electric current into your head to simulate movement. It felt as bad as it sounds. I was immediately disoriented and stayed that way for over an hour until it wore off. I wanted to ask them what they were thinking but was too sick to do it. It seems that VR is going to be big, but it may be overblown in both media coverage and investment right now.
Governments and tourist bureaus continue to use SXSW as a soap box for telling their public relations stories. Cities like Tulsa OK, and nations including France, Brazil, Germany, and Japan sent delegations to SXSW this year. The promise of business development, and attracting investment and tourism has driven these investments in prior years, and there is no sign of the trend slowing down.
[“Source-forbes”]