South by South-less: Reflections on SXSW by someone who wasn’t there.
This next post comes from Joe Brilliant, the Unemploymentality’s Chief Social Media Critic. When he’s not writing for free, he is an unemployed media and marketing professional who enjoys free music, podcasts, ad supported content and the Oakland Raiders. Just kidding. He’s a 49ers fan and he will probably hurt me for saying that…
One of the many 'connection rich' gatherings at SXSW that I totally missed out on. (source: NY Mag)
I’ll be honest. I wish I went to SXSW, the annual music, film and new media showcase/conference/festival/nerdster spring break held in Austin every March.
With Texas-sized helpings of sweet bands in small venues, three industries worth of networking opportunities and an entire migratory flock of twittering tweeters, it’s every media maven and content creator’s android dream come true.
But I didn’t go. As a newly minted collector of Californian employment checks, I lack the corporate expense reports or personal cash flow to subsidize the travel, room, board, BBQ and beer required set a course for South by South West.
I’ve never been to SXSW either. I had passed on it in years past when I was fat, happy, employed and too busy to go. However this year I find a certain stinging irony that when I actually NEED that idyllic platform for networking, job hunting and schmoozing in the very industry I’m building a career in, I can’t afford to go because I had been laid off from this very same industry a few months ago.
After an initial surge of bitterness and jealously (full disclosure: I am still a little bitter and jealous) upon seeing all the Twitter tweets, Facebook events and blog posts, I reconciled my cognitive dissonance when I realized an underlying hypocrisy of these conferences in general, and SXSW in particular.
Some of SXSW’s resources that I didn’t get a chance to tap. (source: Scott Beale/Laughing Squid)
While they tout themselves as big-tent, come-as-you-are, round-tables of all the voices in their industries, the fact remains that they have become more like inside jokes and echo chambers for the entrenched ‘elite’ and less like spring boards for the start-up companies, emerging artists and scrappy (i.e. job-seeking!) independent professionals they were created for.
If we’ve learned anything from this recent financial crisis, it’s the need to recognize and avert from the kind of crony, cliquey capitalism that benefits small groups of industry insiders in the short term, yet harms the wider industry and greater good in the long term. Not to say conferences like SXSW, Web 2.0. and TED should be mentioned in the same sentence as AIG, Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae <sic!>, but given our economic climate (and in keeping with the principles of meritocracy that define the cultures of the web, entrepreneurship and independent art), I feel it’s important for these influential and powerful conferences to conduct more proactive outreach to bring in the people, artists and ideas that need an extra helping of hospitality now more than ever.
For example, I’d encourage SXSW to explore something similar to what the Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED) Conference has created with its TEDFellows program that gives young, aspiring professionals in TED industries a chance to attend the prestigious conference for free and even gives them an opportunity to present. Alternately, SXSW could simulcast more of the panels and shows online and offset costs with sponsorships – something that Fader magazine did in partnership with Levi’s to stream a portion of their Fader Fort showcase.
So, maybe next year someone in my position today will get a chance to go to SXSW and soak in all of that opportunity, beer, BBQ and music. Or at least experience it virtually without having to suffer through endless envy/nausea-inducing tweets, status updates and blog posts.
For more of Joe Brilliant’s musings, check out his blog.
Joe. You’ve got to actually come down there to see what’s going on. I think you’re way off the mark here:
“While they tout themselves as big-tent, come-as-you-are, round-tables of all the voices in their industries, the fact remains that they have become more like inside jokes and echo chambers for the entrenched ‘elite’ and less like spring boards for the start-up companies, emerging artists and scrappy (i.e. job-seeking!) independent professionals they were created for.”
I’ve gone to SXSW 2 years in a row, paid for by myself, not some big company. Guess who I’ve met? Scrappy, independent professions and start-up companies. And lots of them. I’d guess that 95% of the people I met are in small shops under 10 people. I *did* meet a few people from “entrenched” companies this year. But even there I found something surprising. In a conversation with a guy I met from a big mobile phone company I don’t really care for, I said to him, “at least they sent you down here to SXSW.” But I was wrong about that, his company didn’t send him down there. He was paying for it himself while using vacation time.
If you’re getting the impression that SXSW is just the elite, I wonder if that’s because that’s the only people you’re listening to.
I realize being unemployed puts a serious crimp on your ability to attend. True, there aren’t live broadcasts that I know of from the keynotes at the conference, they are all recorded and posted almost immediately.
Here’s the SXSW YouTube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=0ABEEA4DEAFF1E9D
Want to hear the smaller sessions? They’re all freely available whether you paid to attend or not:
http://sxsw.com/taxonomy/term/44
As for the networking that goes on at SXSW, it’s true that you’re missing out on that.
John. I appreciate the thoughtful, well-argued and evidence-supported response. I will have to wait until I have access to a proper qwerty keyboard and Internet access to offer a worthy reply, but in the interim I must note that while I was unaware of the generous video content made available by SXSW, it’s not easily found on their website and actually buried 3 links deep on a horizontal subnav menu, which link to external podcasts with little embedded video on the site itself. For an industy leader such as SXSW and coming from an accomplished designer and marketet such a yourself, I’d hope you’ll agree that’s an unforunatley poor implemention of a formidable and valuable resource that the SXSless like myself would appreciate. More to come. Thanks again for the valuable addition to the Unemploymentality dialougue and community.
Joe
You did hit upon a topic I heard a lot this year. Basically, what’s up with their site? I hardly used their site to plan my conference at all. It just doesn’t do the job. SXSW has a big community around it and they’ve created the tools people actually use. Sched.org was the best way IMO of knowing what was actually going on there.
Following up my prior response to John….
In keeping the with the spirit of Unemploymentality, the purpose of providing “observations on SXSW by someone who wasn’t there” was intended to speak to those, like me, whose experience of SXSW was akin to standing out of a club we can’t afford cover for and seeing people having the time of their lives. Of course there is an inherent irony and absurdity in this exercise insofar as I, quite literally, don’t necessarily know what’s going on inside, but that’s the point: I wasn’t able to.
That said, I think it’s important to note that unemployed is more than “serious crimp” on being able to experience events like SXSW first hand; it’s more like a bear trap.
I would have loved to go, but without a steady income, shelling out hundreds of dollars for badges, accommodation and transportation is just not feasible. While I’m encouraged to hear about the scrappy entrepreneurs you met, for every 1 of them in a shop of 10 or less, there are hundreds more in shops of zero or buried in debt who frankly can not afford it.
Don’t get me wrong. SXSW and conferences like TED, Web 2.0 and others are tremendously valuable and influential. And that’s why I’d like them to take a hard look at ways they can further expand their reach and relevance by becoming more accessible and affordable via scholarship programs, offering more free content, etc.
Now granted, these are profit-making businesses, not charities, and there’s something to be said to the fundamental capitalistic notion of charging a premium to participate. However, it’s the principles of openness, fairness and sponsorship that made this these industries thrive. I was merely trying to point out that often the result of growth and success is a move towards insularity and complacency, and want to encourage SXSW and conferences like it to make a concerted effort to stay true to their roots and be sensitive the recession by looking into more ways to bring more people into the fold.
Thanks again for the thoughtful and challenging comments John, I look forward to discussing this and other topics in person with you at SXSW next year.
No way I’m missing out again!
Joe
P.S. and srsly, what gives with their website? When I first saw it I thought it was a Google cache from 2000 : )
Don’t worry. SXSW is a joke the same way burning man became a joke. You may as well just set your schedule to attend mardi gras or spring break at any given beach. *yawn*