Is SXSW no longer what it’s hyped up to be?
Tiff Seeto, junior strategist at Hopeful Monsters, argues that the official conference programming at SXSW kind of sucks. While this may be a hot take, after speaking to a few people, she realised many others think the same.
Now, let me just preface by saying that I’m not here to discredit the impact of SXSW. It’s been at the forefront of the creative industry for three decades, and for most part, it deserves to be. It’s given a platform to underrepresented communities and helped bolster startups, foster connections around the globe, and enable discovery for the curious.
However, just days after settling back into our humble Chippendale office and reflecting on my time in Austin (while also making comparison to my experience at SXSW Sydney last year), I’m here to say that maybe, SXSW is no longer what it’s hyped up to be.
I’d argue that the sentiment to tech is really changing from one of optimism and connection, to cynicism and rejection (your example of an AI panel being boo-ed being a perfect example!)
I attended SXSW twice (2013 and 2014) and at the time it felt like geek summer camp – Twitter conversations around show themes and presentations were colourful and interesting, brand activations were creative and worth sharing with the community at the show (and friend back home) on the socials. The keynotes felt like money-cant-buy experiences, in addition to sharing a conference hall space with a Hollywood a-lister you watched as a kid. It was pretty magical.
Then then pandemic happened, the show lost millions as it shut down as the world retreated and went into lockdowns. Going from the experience at SXSW as a more recent guide, I think its likely a case the show just had to literally “sell out” to continue. Brands pay the bucks required to put this show on, in the case of Sydney media companies were even having their Upfronts as part of the festival (far from the film, TV and music discovery culture in Austin shows of old!)
In the wise words of Regurgitator…I like their old stuff better than their new stuff.
It’s true that AI was everywhere, I wasn’t there for it it must’ve been what the internet was it the early days. I found the AI speakers spoke gibberish to me and found the sports and media personalities to be much more engaging.