I arrived at SXSW 2012 with high expectations and anxiety. It’s my first time to such a large show and I don’t know anyone. My proposal for an interactive presentation of “Technology & Fashion” was accepted.
At first, this year’s South by Southwest seemed like a bust. Gray skies, relentless rain, and long registration lines and traffic jams put a damper on the start of the event.
http://schedule.sxsw.com/2012/events/event_IAP100180
With 2672 speakers for SXSW Interactive, this latest addition to this well-known music and film festival has now outgrown its older siblings. How do you actually find anyone I wondered? Really, for an introvert like me, no longer young, I felt I may have finally reached too far.
You can’t regret going to a place like Austin and a show like SXSW, but it has its challenges: First of all, hotel rooms are almost impossible to find, and if you are lucky enough to find one, you pay 3x more and can’t get a refund if you leave early. But, I have two presentations to give. And I was willing to put up with the challenges.
First was TED@SXSW: I said yes about giving a presentation to the TED organizers just a few days before they pulled the session together. Logan and Matt, they did a fantastic job in organizing it and gave SXSW audience a taste of TED. My topic was Innovation & Humanity, more specifically; I was to talk about 3D printing and its impact on humanity.
You can see my Prezi presentation here:
http://prezi.com/eq9nbo-lpfp3/tedsxsw/
I want to thank many people who help me to make my two talks possible, not the least to my assistant Cecilia Gonzales and marketing manager Tom Simon. My co-presenters, Alison Lewis CEO iHeartSwitch.com, Janet Hansen founder and Chief Fashion Engineer Enlighted Designs Inc; and Sheridan Martin Artist, and user experience designer Microsoft.
Below, images from the TED@SXSW event and from the Technology and Fashion presentation the morning after.
