For the last ten years, I’ve attended SxSW Interactive, a wonderful conference focused on changes in the way people interact, especially online. When I started going to SxSW, it was a much smaller conference and more like a fan convention than a typical industry convention. I felt as if I had found my tribe and met lots of new people that I have kept in touch with ever since. I learned a tremendous amount and hopefully added to the discussion a bit myself. The trip was a sabbatical from my corporate life.
Photo courtesy Ashley Bischoff
Over the years, SxSW Interactive has changed, as all thing do. Many old time attendees complained a bit every year, but I was still enamored of the event and defended it’s unique status. Last year, I was a bit dismayed, as a trend of recent years became complete. I found that the highlight of SxSW was almost exclusively events outside the show itself. Meals, drinks, and events outside of SxSW became the focus of my time, not an addition to the sessions. Sessions were hard to find and attend. The explosion in number of sessions and widely disparate locations lead to hard choices about what you could actually see. Gone was any chance to casually strike up a conversation in the hallways. Stand still for a moment and a marketing person was trying to hand you a postcard advertising a start-up or film.
I struggled with understanding what had changed. Was it me? Was it the show? Both? It’s taken me about a half year to really understand what happened to SxSW, but now it’s clear to me exactly what’s happened.
SxSW Interactive is now a business conference and no longer a conference for individuals.
Let’s compare:
Business Conference
- Uni-directional lectures
- Focus on making money
- Company sponsored sessions
- Trade show marketing booths
- Product launches & announcements
- Press attending to report on events rather than participate
- Formal sponsored parties
Conferences for individuals
- Bi-directional discussions
- Focus on individual knowledge and talents
- Focus on innovation and exploration
- Time/space for people to meet
It’s clear that SxSW has now grown and changed into a full fledged business conference. Yes, there a several sessions that I’d like to see, but mainly because my friends are in them rather than the topics being discussed. The opening keynote is by a business consultant. I’ve met the guy, and he’s not a bad guy, but his sole focus is spoon feeding the basics of social media to C-level executives for consulting dollars. His talk will be old news for the alpha geeks and nothing new or innovative to report.
Yes, there will be interesting sessions, but finding them between the endless ones about start-ups and marketing approaches is hard to do. I mean when you have sessions titled “Keeping Loyal Consumers Engaged by Shaking Sh*t Up” and “Startup Marketing: Big Results with a Small Budget” is there any doubt that this is a business conference?
How interactive can a conference be when the larger talks require large overflow rooms linked via closed circuit television? How revolutionary can a conference be when even the power plugs are sponsored? How fresh can the information be if the speaker is there to promote their book, printed on paper?
Clearly there’s a market for today’s version of SxSW Interactive since every Austin hotel is full and the place will be packed even with the badges for Interactive at $850. The average person will need over $2,000 to attend. Not many individuals have this kind of disposable income.
As a veteran attendee other major business conferences like NAB, CES, and Comdex, I can say that there is plenty of value to attending these kind of events, but the value was always to my company and not to myself. Meetings were had, deals were made, relationship were created, but always for the benefit of the company, not the individual. Today’s SxSW Interactive is about companies, not individuals.
Photo courtesy DL Byron
Holding SxSW in the neutral ground of Austin allowed the mixing of the various geek tribes from San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, London, and other places to exchange ideas and concepts over kickball, BBQ, and beers. Amazing ideas and companies came out of the mix at SxSW. Even a number of marriages between the blogerati began at SxSW. The cross-pollination that happened in the casual surroundings of 6th Street has led to numerous great things.
Too bad the idea of casual anything is gone from the SxSW experience. This mixing of tribes is going away as the branding of Silicon Valley, Alley, and Beach are creating business competition where there should be enjoyable coordination.
The thing that attracted me to SxSW Interactive in the first place was that people were interested in Michael, the guy from LA that blogged, not what my company was. That SxSW is gone now.
Change is good, but change is hard. I am going to miss seeing my friends and I have no doubt I’ll be second guessing myself when the show is happening, but it’s time for me to move on to finding a new place to meet with my tribe. My tribe is no longer in Austin, they’re on the move elsewhere.
The time is right for a new conference that is focused on interesting people and not on companies. There is not a lot of money to be made, but to help inspire the next generation of great ideas, it is surely needed.
Lastly, to those that are going, remember the most important rule of SxSW: ABC – Always Be Charging!
That’s too bad, but completely understandable. If I didn’t live in Austin I probably wouldn’t go this year either. In fact I’m not going this year because I’m due to have a baby that week. (I’m hoping for an early delivery so as to avoid the traffic and madness the conference will bring.)
Time to start another conference.
I hear you. I’ve been going every year since 2005. I thought last year that the size was pretty ridiculous. This year it’s supposed to be 4x the size of last year.
I won’t be going this year, either.
I really enjoyed the sense of community as well. I’ll remember it fondly. Don’t know if I’ll ever be back. Austin, yes. SxSWi, probably not.
Thirded. I’m not going, and I live in Austin. Last year the conference had clearly crossed the bloat line, and instead of scaling back the organizers doubled down with a huge price increase.
In just two years SXSWi went from marginally affordable and compact to hideously expensive and geographically divided. Like you, I’m voting with my wallet and feet.
Yup yup.
yep – I thought that was the case when I left Austin 8 years ago. I went back a couple of years ago and just got my corporate fears confirmed. I now go to do 2 things – network for the job and the bonus, see my family .
Mike, you and I met briefly at SXSW a few years ago and I’ve followed you ever since. At the risk of biting the hand that feeds me since I’m personally involved with several parts of SXSWi, I have to agree with everything you wrote in your post. The conference has clearly jumped the shark and the personal connections that used to be the heart of the event have been replaced by the mad dash to get into parties and collect business cards from ‘internet famous’ people. Marketers have been co-opted by innovators and brands have been elevated over ideas. SXSWi should break up, but if you were generating $100+ million a year – would you? I would seriously consider http://www.tribecon.com in New Orleans – I think that it’s got the same vibe that SXSW did 10 years ago.
Thanks for the kickball mention. I agree with all of your analysis, and if I weren’t having (what I think is) a particularly interesting conversation, I wouldn’t be going either.
I’m so (not) there with you. This will be the first time that I’ll miss it in 10 years.
SXSW has always been a showcase for music, not “bloggers”. You guys created this niche, and, in the end, you will all collectively boycott it (I hope).
Then, it’ll be about the music again. Which is what is should be.
What if your precious ComiCon was overrun by live bands?
Go fork your own festival. This is about music, not your “blog”.
Mike, I’ve decided not to go this year, either. I really should have made this decision a year or two ago, but old habits die hard. And I relished spending time with old friends. I do hope that some other event emerges because much as I love Austin and SXSW and many of the staff and volunteers, it feels out of control now and I don’t see it returning to the more intimate event it was a decade ago.
Hope we’ll run into each other somewhere!
I’ve been going to SXSWi for most of the years since the late 90s (“SXSW Multimedia”!), but with the news that they’re “loosening their belts” by expanding to 14 venues this year, some as (relatively) far away as the UT campus, and with expected record attendance, I’m already tired. If I didn’t live here in Austin and have an employer that enjoys paying for my badge (it’s still cheaper than most conferences and they don’t have to pay travel expenses), I’d find it a much easier choice. I’m contributing to the “No one goes there anymore, it’s too crowded” contingent, but this year might really be my last.
Yes, SXSW Interactive has been fortunate enough to experience growth in the last five years — and the 2013 event looks like it will be slightly bigger than version 2012. That said, our core mission remains exactly the same today as it was 10 years ago. That mission is to bring together creative individuals from across the US and around the world to share their passions, ideas, brainstorms, energies, innovations and inspirations. We are sorry to hear that Michael won’t be part of the fun in 2012 — but we hope to see him back in Austin in March 2013!
A question we should all consider – How can a conference with the appeal of SxSW still keep the intimate appeal of its early years? All good things sadly come to an end. Those lucky enough to have experienced it when it was good can choose to be thankful or disdained, and in either case, move on.
If I go this year, it will be for the after hours drinks. That will be the most likely venue to find the interaction you are talking about.
Even though 2011 was the first time I attended SxSWi, I too realized some of the same issues you pointed out in this post. First, what I loved about SxSWi is that I had many opportunities to network, brainstorm, and even just casually converse with different groups of people from the interactive industry. I left Austin with ideas swirling in my head and different perspectives on approaching projects, code, and creative. As for the talks themselves, those seemed to be hit or miss. I tried to attend one talk where the speaker never showed up. It was in a hotel conference room several blocks from the convention center, so there was no opportunity to just head down the hall to a different talk. At another talk I ended up watching the speakers discuss and laugh about their fraternal relationships and adventures as opposed to actually staying on subject. Deceptive presentation titles, small conference rooms for talks that attract hundreds of attendees, and giant conference rooms for talks that attract 40-50 attendees are some of the other issues I encountered. I did not attend one sponsored party. To be honest, they looked way too crowded and full of the same people I spoke to at lunch or at the charging stations. Plus, having been involved in event marketing here in Las Vegas they just didn’t seem worth all the hype that the attendee line was indicating. However, just roaming the streets of Austin and discovering was fantastic. The bars and food were a welcome change from my home city, and there was always great conversation and networking to be had in those venues as well.
I am attending SxSWi again this year, but I am dreading the concept of it being larger than it already was. I have no concept of what it was like back in its heyday, but being a Coachella veteran that has witnessed, and no longer attends, the overcrowded, corporate-hype festival that it has become, I can relate to how many people of the interactive community feel about what SxSWi has evolved into.
I hear you too. So what’s a good alternative to SXSW? Any suggestions? I’ve been thinking about this for a while now…
“We are sorry to hear that Michael won’t be part of the fun in 2012 — but we hope to see him back in Austin in March 2013!”
Really, Hugh? Or are you planning to keep milking your cow to death by selling even more passes and scattering sessions across more venues even further afield?
(In truth, that PR-speak response says everything we need to know about the organizers’ “core mission”.)