Social Media: Why should you care about SXSW

Though 25 years old, South by Southwest - or simply SXSW, as it's known - has hit something of a tipping point, making headlines across traditional media channels and trending on all social networks during its most recent incarnation, March 9 through 13.

Half cultural arts festival, half bleeding-edge digital compass - this Austin, Texas-based event is truly something of an anomaly. Many in the Creative Corridor including myself made the trek to Texas for a week of conference sessions, connections and culture.

Here's an elevator pitch on what SXSW is and how it affects us locally.

What Is It?

SXSW purists will stop you out of the gate when you try to define this event as merely a “conference.” “It's a festival!”

However, this label too can be awkward and can make business types leery as to where exactly they're sending team members. In fact, my business partner/father heard about it on the news and said it seemed like a Woodstock-type thing.

SXSW is really three overlapping events - a music festival, a film festival and an interactive/digital conference - er, “festival.” The last component is what annually attracts 20,000 startups, techies, entrepreneurs, marketers and developers from around the world to Austin.

Featuring keynotes and panels from the likes of Guy Kawasaki and Biz Stone, it's become one of the biggest events in the industry.

Fun fact: Twitter itself gained much of its early traction at SXSW in 2007.

Really - What Is It?

So it's just a conference, right? Not so much.

You see, at most “conferences,” one derives a majority of the event's value from the content presented in sessions and keynotes, with about 20 percent reserved for networking and connections. SXSW is a different animal.

Just as much happens outside the scheduled conference events for the simple fact that everyone in the diverse digital industry is here. Some even attend the festival without paying for the admission badge - simply hitting peripheral gatherings and still seeing significant value.

Why Does This Matter Here?

The Creative Corridor was well represented by startups and large companies alike at SXSW 2012. Far from a first-time attendee, Josh Cramer, CEO of Cramer Dev, is a five-year SXSW veteran and panelist.

“SXSW was larger and better than ever this year. I sat in on the Lean Startup track featuring (Silicon Valley entrepreneur) Steve Blank and Eric Ries,” who pioneered the Lean Startup movement, Cramer said.

“For the first time ever, we have proven frameworks that entrepreneurs can use to discover their models, similar to those that MBAs have been using for the last 100 years. I felt like I was watching history unfold before my eyes.”

Beyond startups, other area businesses also gathered actionable ideas in Austin.

“At SXSW your conversations focus more on the ‘how' than the ‘what,'” offered Mike Gerholdt, ACT's Manager of Social Enterprise. “It was worth the price just to be able to exchange best practices and delve deeper into conversations about social media.”

“Aggressive, forward-thinking people are getting much smarter about how to use social media and content marketing to make a meaningful connection with their audience,” added Tim McDougall, SourceMedia Group's vice president and publisher.

“A company like ours can take plenty of lessons from both.”

For many, the atmosphere alone is inspiring.

“Walking around Austin during SXSW is like walking through a movie set for a film about life and trends in the 2000s,” said Corridor community builder Amanda Styron of Seed Here. “If you want to tap into the energy, democratized creativity, entrepreneurship and endless possibility of our time, this is the place.”

Summing Up

Given the growing scope of this event, the best advice I got before attending SXSW was to carefully outline my business goals beforehand and execute accordingly. It proved to be effective advice.

In reflection, it also makes a lot of sense to do this once back at the office to ensure that all of the ideas and action make the trip home from Austin as well.

Are you looking for the next big thing in digital or are you an entrepreneur looking to launch the next big startup? Consider SXSW Interactive in 2013 for unparalleled content and connections.