By Benedict Wong, Senior Account Supervisor, Edelman Digital Chicago3942. According to the SXSW Go app, that's how many individual events there are in this year's SXSW Interactive! Let's have that sink in for a second.... 3942 events. So many options, so little time.
Which ones to choose? I find that in general the events under the Emerging category are usually a safe bet. With topics like Augmented Reality, Match.com and Foursquare, Building Fences in the sky, Emerging sessions are just fun to attend! It's a great way to find out what may be the next big idea and perhaps inspire you to take a current idea or concept to a new direction.
Keynote speakers can be hit or miss, the buzz this year is definitely on Blake Mycoskie, the founder of TOMS Shoes. Blake will share the secret sauces to how he started TOMS Shoes, how he turned it into TOMS Movement, and how businesses can make money and do good simultaneously.
Trying to attend all the sessions can be daunting, so my advice is go with sessions where you know very little on the topic, and if you find that 10 minutes into the session you're dozing off from boredom, it's okay to leave and check out another session (really!).
One thing that SXSW has added this year for Interactive is "Meet Up" sessions. A wide variety of daytime Meet Ups are scheduled for this year. These are not panel sessions nor do they offer any kind fo formal presentation, they are just rooms for people with similar interests to meet up with other likeminded people. There are Anime Meet Up, Branded Entertainment Meet Up, iPhone Developer Meet Up, Music Industry Geeks Meet Up, News and Media Innovators Meet Up...etc. I hope lots of people check out these Meet Ups; they are great opportunities to network and learn!
That's all folks! Have a great time in SXSWi!
--Benedict Wong
@BenedictWong
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