My SXSW Interactive

Adventure 2015Clay Langdon

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I’ve always enjoyed traveling to far-away

cities to attend conferences and meet new

and interesting people and talk shop.

SXSW is especially awesome because

the conference comes to you. And brings

a whole new city here to Austin.

Thanks to Mark and Bryan for sending

folks to the festival, subsidizing badges

and tolerating massive disruption to the

agency for 10 solid days at the end of Q1.

I can’t wait to see the other presentations.

First, thanks Austin, SXSW and McJ

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The only problem with SXSW is that it is

totally overwhelming. I’m amazed by the

volume of content flowing through SXSW

My plan was ingest mainly content related

to brands, UX, creative strategy and

content development.

Planning my schedule, i found it hard to

choose between apples and oranges.

I thought I’d reconcile conflicts on the fly.

Quest for inspiration

http://schedule.sxsw.com/

Continuous schedule adjustment

Tip for next year: nail down RSVPs

sooner.

I mis-under-estimated some lines and

couldn't get in to a few sessions i wanted.

Scrambling for alternatives can be

stressful. How far away? How big will the

line be? Where am i on the RSVP list?

Which 2:30 session is going to be best?

In the scramble for alternatives, I

stumbled upon a few really great

surprises.

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Fortunate discoveries

I know this is probably against PechaKucha

rules, but i need just a little bit of narrative

structure here.

The following is not a “most important trends”

or “top 10 best content” or “best rated by

audiences” but a field-reporter’s journal and

collection of insights and observations that

have survived in my memory and notebook.

Here are 8 take-away’s from the festival and 5

trade-show observations from my SXSW 2015

Interactive experience.

I hope at least one of them jars a new thought

loose somewhere out there.

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1. THE FUTURE = QUANTUM DESIGN

I hope one of the other SXSW reporters will dive deeper

into Paola Antonelli’s keynote.

My first reaction to modern art is usually “wha??” I left

Paola Antonelli’s keynote confused and a little disturbed

by the idea of a realm between living and not-living.

Later, I found her insights about quantum design to be

prophetic as i started noticing spaces between spaces

everywhere. She's on to some intergalactic shift that

requires designers and creative developers everywhere

to build bridges from a past to future state.

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http://schedule.sxsw.com/2015/events/event_IAP996158

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So much of SXSW this year was about data, API

scrapers, and technology-enabled marketplaces.

Decoded Fashion set up camp to show how pop up

marketplaces and brands establish connections

with target audiences that simply weren’t possible

before.

Continuous market feedback and data science

enable continuous innovation and also risk

management.

It strikes me that this is basically a design stimulus

research engine with broad e-commerce

capabilities.

2. STARTUP RETAIL MARKETPLACES

http://decodedfashion.com/sxsw/

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Ross Atkin is an industrial designer who came to share

thoughts about IOT and industrial design process.

He had lots of great examples to highlight the importance

of solving meaningful problems and getting close to the

user to make decisions (vs imagining but not confirming a

user need and developing a solution in search of a

problem.)

Here are some seniors who were pissed about speedy

and dangerous traffic light and cross walks. They got

together and made a rap video to express their frustration.

The video highlighted a real user need and also pointed

toward a solution. Atkin was able to use the video to

storyboard the use case, share a vision for the solution

and get funding to create a new technology to measurably

improve a human experience.

3. TARGET AUDIENCE USE CASE

http://www.rossatkin.com/sxsw15/SXSW15_Prez_online.pdf

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I’d never heard of MeerKat. My first reaction was - another

fundamental transformation of human communication?

First, Meerkat is smart and friendly branding.

Meerkat and apps like it hanse INSTANTLY transformed

the way we conceive of an share content.

It will be interesting to see what happens as the costs of

live broadcasts essentially go to zero.

This may be a good example of a space between a space.

Are these entertainment platforms or communication

devices?

4. CONTINUOUS MEDIA INNOVATION

http://techcrunch.com/2015/03/29/meerkat-and-periscope-

arent-sure-what-to-do-with-their-hands/

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This was Al Jazeera Plus presented a vision for the

future of news journalism.

By utilizing distributed “VJs” with souped-up I-phones,

AJ+ is able to create and distribute content quickly

and from behind the front lines.

Here’s an example from Ferguson Missouri: AJ+

was collecting content from multiple VJs embedded in

the crowd and editing and streaming video and

developing and distributing content - all before the big

networks had finished unloading their vans.

Here’s maybe another example of a space between a

space. Is this a news organization or social network?

5. DISTRIBUTED CONTENT GENERATION

http://schedule.sxsw.com/2015/events/event_IAP44446

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This was Al Jazeera Plus presented a vision for

the future of news journalism.

By utilizing distributed “VJs” with souped-up I-

phones, AJ+ is able to create and distribute

content quickly and from behind the front lines.

Here’s an example from Ferguson Missouri: AJ+

was collecting content from multiple VJs

embedded in the crowd and editing and streaming

video and developing and distributing content - all

before the big networks had finished unloading

their vans.

Here’s maybe another example of a space

between a space. Is this a news organization or

social network?

6. CARDS AND STACKS

http://ajplus.net/

7. IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE

This was from “Breaking the 4th Wall - Audience

Participation in the Digital Age.”

Professional directors, actors, make-up artists, set

designers and others get together to serve up “horror

house” experiences to paying audiences.

The experience is captured and then broadcast to a wider

audience of voyeurs.

We say we create emotional connections between people

and brands. Consider this a challenge to dial up

emotional intensity next time you’re working on an

environmental installation.

Here’s another candidate for a space between a space:

Are these people entertainment customers or

performers?

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http://www.hauntersmovie.com/

8. UX EXISTENTIALISM

I’m always curious to see how other companies

integrate customer insight, strategy, planning and

research into their design and development process.

It strikes me that the same battles fought by planners

in the break out sessions of late 1990s APG

conferences are now being fought by UX practitioners.

What if design isn’t following the strategy? How can

you get the client to pay for research? Who’s

responsible for creating a customer-centric innovation

culture? …

I’m glad to know that planners of all kinds remain

committed to customer-centric design and innovation

process.

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Trade show observations

Enough with the conference. Here are 5

observations from the trade show -

1. CUSTOM CURATION

2. API-SCRAPING BRAND AND MEDIA

TRACKING

3. NEW-GEN MARKETING AUTOMATION

4. CREATIVE SERVICES NETWORKS

5. HEALTHY FURNITURE

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http://sxsw.com/exhibitions/trade-show/exhibitors

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1. CUSTOM CURATION

I saw lots personal content curation technology for all

kinds of media.

These are bots out there discovering and tagging and

cuing up media based upon personal presences, user

customization and machine learning.

Technologies like this represent pull media vs push

media and are likely to change the engagement model

for our brands.

These could also be examples of spaces between

spaces. Are they Networks? Platforms? Channels?

Magazines? Concierge Services? http://www.brainspace.com

https://www.worldrelay.tv/

2. API-SCRAPING BRAND AND MEDIA TRACKINGI remember thinking about data dashboards back in

the old building, wondering where is the integrated

dashboard? And why cant Adobe just give me

exactly what i want - which is all unified media

inclusive of on-line, off-line, digital and physical?

Free data storage and improved ease of API and

ETN integration have combined to produce a

revolution in brand, platform and campaign tracking

technology.

A few of these companies have begun to solve

problems that have burdened our data analytics

efforts from the start.

In the right hands, tools like this contribute to design

thinking by allowing all the world to be viewed as a

giant ongoing A|B test. 16

www.IQMediaCorp.com

www.Luminoso.com

I don’t consider myself an expert in the robot side

of marketing and Its been a while since i’ve studied

at Marketo or Eloqua and the like.

But there seems to be a new generation of

automation technology for marketers. They work

by storing and organizing discreet content and

creative assets and then allowing the user to

administer on-going, technology-assisted, multi

channel campaigns.

At least that’s the intoxicating promise …

I think you need humans to conceive of content

and to develop creative campaigns and respond to

social activity. But systems like this can automate

and streamline and simplify work that's better left to

bots.

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www.Holonis.com

www.Acision.com

3. NEW-GEN MARKETING AUTOMATION

4. CREATIVE SERVICES NETWORKS

I saw a variety of new-marketplace-forming

match-making services, collaboration

platforms, talent brokers, and other models that

try and bridge the gap between buyers and

sellers.

These aren’t examples of spaces between

spaces exactly or examples of increasing

applicability of design thinking. But I thought

they were interesting and deserved mention.

Here’s one of your options should you go to

GigSalad to search for fire dancers available

for performance in Austin.

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www.CreativeTakeover.com

www.GigSalad.com

5. HEALTHY FURNITURE

Here’s Martin Keen, founder of Keen

shoe company. He’s now working on

vision for human-body-friendly office

furniture.

This is also a great example of design

thinking. Martin recognized that the

human body is most comfortable resting

at a 130-degrees and not “sitting” at a

90-degree angle.

With that simple insight he began to

imagine, prototype and test office

furniture designed for a number of

meaningful use cases.

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www.FocalUprightFurniture.com

Winding Down

I found SXSW 2105 to highly rewarding. I left

inspired and energized. I was able to catch up with

some old friends and enjoy a break from normal

agency life.

But I was relieved when it was over.

On the last night, my kids came down to check out

SXSW Eco’s LED light garden.

This is me looking into my phone camera and

watching the image projected on to a giant wooden

head.

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http://blog.1000bulbs.com/sxsw-2015-eco-light-

garden/#.VRq4pTvF9uo

Inspiration for the future

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So that’s it. I hope you enjoyed my field notes and

can take something away from my SXSW 2015

interactive experience.

Take-home Insights:

• Content – Solve meaningful problems and look

into the spaces between the spaces

• Process – Apply design thinking holistically and

whenever possible <Insight > Idea > Stimulus >

Feedback > Learning > Iteration>

• Overall and in general - Be thankful. Love what

you do. Now is an exciting time to be in the idea

development business here in Austin Texas

THANK YOU

Clangdon5