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Don't Blink: The SXSW Survival Guide Series
SXSW for First-Timers: How to Make Friends and Influence Algorithms

Or is it… make algorithms and influence friends? I forget.
At it's most reductive, SXSW is a culture festival where people go to see and be seen.
The internet is basically still a book with buttons, to my chagrin (I'm aware that chagrin is really more of an insufferable butler word, don't @ me). Though critics laud the interconnectivity of our species through underwater cables carrying base-two integers equatorial distances, I personally am not impressed.

I said it- I really think we could improve our strategies. And though there are a dirge of tools to do it, try we must. So is this a blog about how to get the edge on SXSW's app algos? Sadly no, nothing can be done on that front. But nonetheless I want to chat about the relationship between our face-to-faces and our interfaces- how you can make connections and keep them. This is a dialogue about social coordination, whether you're there to see or be seen.
There to See:
SXSW Go app

If I didn't hammer it home in the first time, the SXSW Go app is your handyman for your schedule, your maps, venue layouts, and more. There is a chat option- pro tip! In former years I have been able to reach out to other attendees with mixed results. But it's worth a shot.
On occasion, both of these platforms will be used to coordinate a handful of group outings that may or may not be hosted by SXSW official organizations.
Imagine you get carried away by your friends in a getaway car just before you finished that conversation pretending to know what the f** web3 even is. Let's not make this complicated- you can set up a digital business card on your phone. For the love of god, I'm not doing it on purpose but I'm definitely losing your aluminum alloy business card in a bathroom stall on the East side. PS they aren't sponsoring me, I just like using this app. It's so handy and people are weirdly impressed by my personal QR code. AND you can make a widget on your home screen.
Get on the inside tracks- people are going live, Mcconaughey is doing baby goat yoga on Rainey, but your ass wasn't on Tiktok or the When Where What account so you were just stuck in the Driscoll lobby eating tacos. This is the digital grapevine, and there's still things that can fly under the radar but at least your ear will be to the ground. There are plenty of surprises during the event that SXSW doesn't publicize.
Little known fact- SXSW builds a playlist with it's official acts. more about how I use this in later episodes.
Bro, you can't come to a festival and think your phone isn't going to visit the sky daddy halfway through the day. Get a magnetic phone charger like an adult.

There to Be Seen:
Bright Lights, Big City

Even if you're a small team or a single person looking to make a splash, there are things you can do. Here's a couple freebies:

Very important- if you are on any SXSW properties with a rig that is more professional than a simple, humble smartphone setup, and you don't have a content capture tag, you will get yeeted! JK but some sterm looking person who is sometimes identical to me will definitely tell you to stop filming. It's awkward, and people get mad especially if they're in their own brand activations and someone has this chat with them. If you're an artist or a corporate stooge (with love)<3 and you didn't get permission from my girl in content capture to be approved as official press- be prepared for the wrath of the SXSW brand police.

Here's a segment lifted from their policies:
"Under no circumstances are tripods, lights, cabling, power cords and/or elaborate set ups permitted in any SXSW venues, including hallways."
They don't f** around I promise you. There's a whole bunch more here- so don't get caught in the crosshairs. You don't want staff to have your name in their mouth for any reason other than how great you are.
However, if you're looking for brand presence and doing guerilla marketing, here's a few nugs:
  • film content for channels pre- and post-event for continuity.
  • when you're making content at SXSW, do so in public spaces. Sidewalks are fine. Venues that didn't agree to your branded schananigans are off-limits to you. For example…if you're, say, an energy drink company looking to outshine the SXSW sponsor by setting up camp in and around the sponsor-branded stuff, be prepared to have a tough time making that happen. Can't bring your own cake to someone else's birthday…they paid for their own balloons already.
  • if you're hosting a brand activation talk to SXSW about lead capture tools. There are options there.
Outreach & (p)recon
I know it isn't sexy, but it's the Lord's work. (And if the Lords work is sexy, then god help you). For better or worse, over the years I have tried to motivate myself in the fog lasting o'er a fortnite post SXSW. Then, great skibbety, it alas is the day for Fools. Feeling twitterpated by the whims of the spring, I merrily prance and frolic in the meadows with the remainder of the SXSW business cards in my early March spring-jacket pocket (the ones I didn't accidentally drop in the toilet). You know, the same pocket that yields the $20 bill when you next wear it again in November? And so, to avoid the self image of being an unscrupulous, good-for-nothing one-hit wonder, and to instead maintain the paradigm that I have boundless energy for corporate bonding exercises, I hide my shame in the blackbox of analogue business cards. I tell myself…one day, I will declare a holiday called "business card jubilee" where I forgive myself my sins and renew the sacred covenants I made when I exchanged cardboard with a new stranger…

See where this is headed? Just do a little recon and get people to talk to you prior. Everyone is amped up, they're busy but hopefully not too busy, and it's not too cold to reach out if your stars are aligned for a few days, right? The attendee list is right there if only you made time to link your badge to the app. You can read bios, find leads. Quick, before it's too late.
I want to give you a more full-throated view from the "Be Seen" category, but I think that from a marketing standpoint, it deserves it's own stage time. There's plenty of strategies that work, and tools I can recommend. These are just some of the basic things that will make your connecting points work in your favor. More soon!