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    South By Southwest (SXSW) Interactive: 235% Bigger Since 2009. A Review Of This Past Year By An Advertising Technologist

    As festival director Hugh Forrest said in an introduction of presenter Al Gore on Monday during SXSW 2012, “Geeks are the new rock stars of the pop culture landscape.” On June 28th, the “Panel Picker” opened for next year’s SXSW Interactive. The organizers have tweaked the list of categories to reflect the core values of SXSW — creativity and innovation. Over the last four years I’ve tried to balance my time between networking events and panels. Read an advertising technologists POV of this past March event.

    Alexander Rea
    by Alexander Rea

    Community Contributor

    SXSW Interactive: 235% Bigger

    alexanderrea.com

    Over the last four years I’ve tried to balance my time between networking events and panels. This year prior to coming to Austin I spent time using both the online schedule and the mobile app provided by SXSW. First I sorted through the 2,699 Interactive speakers and flagged people I either knew or knew the company they worked for. With over 1,000 panels, discussions or keynotes, I ended up with a schedule of approximately 10 things happening at the same time that I wanted to see. Overall over the course of the 5 day festival there were about 50 things happening at the same time during the day. With the main session blocks starting at 9 AM, 2 PM, 3:30 PM and 5 PM. Everything not only filled the Austin Convention Center (spanning over 6 city blocks with 881,400 gross square feet of space) but also the ballrooms of twelve other hotels within walking distance.

    Read this short 21 page review at the link above. Complete with history of the event and my own insights and takeaways

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