Thoughts of SXSW are dancing in our heads and our entire team is buzzing with excitement as the festival creeps closer and closer. If you’ll be attending SXSW Interactive this year, here’s a breakdown of some of the key panels you definitely don’t want to miss:
1. Keynote Speakers at the Interactive Festival
Every day during the SXSW Interactive Festival, (going on this year from March 9 to March 13) you won’t want to miss out on the keynote speakers that are our industry’s top thought leaders. The confirmed speakers include: Baratunde Thurston, Amber Case, Ray Kurzweil with Lev Grossman (I’m excited about that one!) and Jennifer Pahlka.
Past keynote speakers at SXSW Interactive have included various leaders in our industry including Mark Cuban, Jonathan Abrams and, Facebook’s own, Mark Zuckerberg.
2. “The Future of Lifestyle Media” Panel
This panel will discuss the constantly changing industry of lifestyle media, which has become a popular media today. This panel will look at key questions such as: “Who is the target market for lifestyle media?”, “How can you transition from being a lone, creative blogger to a nationally known resource? ” and “How does the rise in online lifestyle media change the traditional media landscape?” This would be an interesting and beneficial panel if your focus is in this particular industry. Panelists include Andrew Wagner, Camille Styles, Grace Bonney, Paul Lowe and Tolly Moseley.
3. “The Power of Visual Storytelling” Panel
This panel would be right on point with where the industry is going today (and probably the one I’d be most interested in attending). Focusing on the creative, fun and visual ways brands and individuals can share and distribute their stories, the panel will feature professionals who have worked with a variety of budgets and sizes of organizations to share their story. Panelists include Becky Johns, CC Chapman, Charlie Wollborg and Karl Gude.
Just for Fun: “Political Humor 2.0: Teh Internetz R Leaking” Panel
No matter if you’re in public relations or not, this sounds like a fun panel for those on the political side of things. (And who knew ‘politics’ and ‘fun’ could be used in the same sentence?) With The Huffington Post Comedy Editor, Carol Harstell, and Comedian, Greg Proops (you may remember him from Whose Line is it Anyway?) as well as Alf LaMont, Rory Albanese and Sara Benincasa on the panel, you can get some “LOL” insight into how comedians and comedy writers are “wielding their online prowess to affect some real-world change.”
Obviously, these are not the only panels and discussions you can attend. There are plenty more sessions that public relations professionals, or really any communication professional, can go to during SXSW Interactive. The Interactive portion has always been a great time for industry creatives to come together and discuss the exciting things we’ve had happen or can expect to happen in the field.
This year, Agency Entourage will be attending SXSW for the 8th year and would love to connect with you. Tweet at us using the hashtag #MeetAEatSXSW, let’s jump in a conversation or contact us for more deets on how we can help you market your brand at SXSW.
Will you be attending SXSW this year? Be sure to connect with us on Facebook and Twitter and let’s chat!
