Ben Jones on SXSW and the Orange Poncho

This article should be about the amazing technologies that were launched, the new waves of disruption, and the major themes that will transform consumers’ lives in the future. Because that is what SXSW is all about. Right? 

Well, yes and no. For the most part, SXSW Interactive 2014 delivered high-quality speakers and sessions that blew your mind. Edward Snowden [below] trended #sxsw by delivering powerful points around the future needs of privacy, and included pressure on Google to deliver automatic SSL.

Continuing the appreciation of individual privacy were the latest movers in the App Store: everyone was downloading Omlet (a simple chat app highlighting that every other chat app owns your data and they don’t and won’t sell it on, below) and Secret.ly (broadcasts your darkest secrets anonymously). This year’s ‘buzzword bingo’ included words like 'platform', 'disrupt', 'wearables' and, obviously, the one that never leaves SXSW: 'startup'.

The celebrity line-up was impressive but (in my opinion) it wasn’t Julian Assange’s stuttering, freeze-framed and buffering Skype link from the Ecuadorian Embassy – in which he waffled on unmediated to a capacity crowd – which was the one not to miss. Or, I ask you, however amazing Shaquille O'Neal was as a sportsman, what does he really offer as regards the future of wearables?

No. For me, if SXSWi is about the sessions, then it was the unknowns of the world, the smaller assemblies, quite often located in some far-flung hotel and delivered by pure academics. There you’d find yourself being offered something new that opened your mind to other ways of thinking. Things you can’t really learn from a quick Google or reading WIRED, Fast Company or Mashable.

These smaller sessions juxtapose the main ballroom presentations within the convention centre, adding value and detail. The insight I gained into the future of sensors, as they shift from ‘hardware and movement’ to 'unpowered biological monitoring', was incredible. Rafael Mena of MCU delivered academic research with clarity. This really is the future of sensors.

So, if you really want to learn something at SXSW, my advice? Seek out the more unusual sessions not in the conference centre or on the main stages. Never go to the sessions that cover topics you already work within – if you’re any good at your job, you’ll probably know it all already. You’ll just hear the same words in a different order. 

The truth is, SXSW is just too darn big to be about the sessions anymore. It’s so expansive and so spread out that, unless you frequently plan military invasions or National Rail’s entire timetable, you’re only ever going to miss the ones you really want to listen to.  

So, if it’s not about the sessions, then what is SXSW about?

For me, it’s summed up by a simple evening of enjoyment. As I danced in the rain with the CTO of one of our clients, me wearing an orange poncho and a beer in our hands, we talked (shouted actually), laughed and got to know each other. In the background, Girl Talk brought the house down and confetti and balloons drifted to the ground around us.

In today’s world, where information and knowledge have been democratised, where everything can be found somewhere else and cheaper, the only thing that stands out is quality. Quality of the idea, quality of the final product, and quality of the experience of getting there. And the one thing that will help you protect that first big idea is to ensure you have a partnership rather than a traditional ‘client/supplier’ set-up. It’s about a more personal, yet professional relationship.

Relationships with clients are more global than ever, and as we do business via email, WeTransfer and Skype, achieving that connection becomes harder than ever before. SXSW brings together the greatest minds across the world. To connect. To become friends. And you must agree that – although I’m not endorsing alcohol – some of the best ideas have come to life after a couple of drinks down the pub.

At SXSW you meet people in the strangest of places, and in those places you share the stories and experiences that make you human. Humans always create, but rarely in silo. Go dancing, preferably in an orange poncho. And silos will cease to exist.