SXSW: Tom Bradbeer’s Austin odyssey – Day 1

Tom Bradbeer, a Digital Creative and Copywriter at Longtail is in Austin for SXSW Interactive, and reporting for Campaign Brief.

Austin Is Awesome.

Awesome. What an understatement. I’m one day into SXSW and I’ve loved every minute of it.

After 22 hours on 3 different airplanes and over 30 hours in transit I arrived in Austin, Texas. It was 7pm on Thursday night when I finally got out of the airport and immediately I was slapped in the face with the sheer scale of this, for lack of a better word, festival. The taxi line was 500m long and full of people from the interactive, film and music industries.

Incredibly exhausted I waited in line and considered what was to come. 10 days of panels, keynote speakers, shows, gigs, films, networking and of course parties. It was a daunting prospect for greenhorn like myself, but to be honest the main thing on my mind was sleep, and as much as I could possibly get before things got crazy.

On Friday morning, after a healthy dose of shuteye, I was as ready as I could be to tackle this mammoth event. I jumped on a shuttle bus from my hotel to downtown Austin, the central hub for SXSW. Straight away I was confronted with one of the biggest aspects of SXSW, networking. The range of people here is diverse beyond measure and being open to possibilities is key.

On the bus I met Nick, he’s launching a start up called Neighbourly, a social app to help brands become more active in community projects. I get the feeling that this is going to be a big theme here at SXSW, especially with the rise of the ‘millennials’, the younger generation of consumers who have increasingly become more in tune with their brands, not just the products and services they offer but what they offer the community. Millennials are so influential that they have the power to boycot brands who aren’t embodying the social and community based awareness to a high enough level. An interesting insight, but only one of many to come.

Once I was off the bus it was straight to registration. I thought it would be a long wait considering the mind blowing number of attendees, but once the doors opened it was smooth sailing. I got my badge and goodies bag and was out of there in 5 minutes, a truly amazing feat of organisation considering the sheer scale of this event.

After registration it was off to Home Room, a daily session designed to help you make the most of SXSW, an absolute necessity for a newbie. They ran through the basics of getting around, pacing yourself, getting to events early and how to mange your night time adventures. Most of it was common sense, however it was good to confirm some of the day to day strategies.

I jumped out of Home Room a little early because I had a date with a taco, or six. The Taco Meet Up, located in a nice little park gave me the opportunity to network, not only with interactive attendees but film as well, further cementing the fact that the range of people here is diverse beyond measure.

With the tacos devoured it was time to dive head first into SXSW. I made my way to The Secret Sauce of Real Time Story Telling, a panel discussion with two of the directors from Tool, the live action experts behind Take This Lollypop and more recently Remote Controlled Tourist. When you think about a campaign like Remote Controlled Tourist you know what happens behind the scenes must be pretty complicated, but that doesn’t even begin to cover it. Honestly, it was a feat of creative, production and technical genius. Truly inspiring.

The last session I attended was a bit of a dud, but also an eye opener. Schedule hard, but always have a back up plan. With so much on its impossible to see it all. Time travel doesn’t exist, but I’m 100% sure if someone invents it, this is where they’ll launch it.

With the formal proceedings over its time for the not so formal proceedings to begin. Yep it’s time to get SXSWeird.

Yours truly,

Texas Tommy.