The SxSW Interactive Experience...without Interacting or Experience

Subheading: AKA Curating a Conference

In previous years, I have been blessed to have participated in attending the South by Southwest (SxSW) Interactive conference in Austin. While some of my peers in ed tech continue to attend the SxSW Edu conference, I find more value in the Interactive part of the SxSW conference. SxSW kicks off each year with EDU, then Interactive, then Film, and then Music. The Interactive attendees come from a varied background including social media, gaming, journalism, business, non-profits, media, education, emerging technology, web design, interface design, and a large group of industry leaders.

So it isn't an "education" conference by any means. It is a conference for exploring what is going on in emerging technology across all these mediums in a way to allow attendees to interact more with each other and the panels presenting what is going on in these diverse fields.

For me, it is my GT conference experience because it broadens my knowledge base outside the edu field to see what is going on in the world outside of education in areas that affect business, industry, media, gaming, television, film, audience participation, and the diverse work force.

The conversations at SxSW Interactive now are conversations EDU starts years later.