SXSWi: Returning angry
I just returned from SXSWi, my 5th trip since 2008, and instead of coming back feeling inspired, I’m angry. I’m still motivated, but that motivation feels fueled by a more aggressive energy. I was asked to give a quick recap to our account group and normally, I’d ask for a day or two to make sense of the firehose that is SXSWi. Not this time. Below is a stream of consciousness rant of sorts I scribbled on the 6am flight back to Minneapolis. It doesn’t make complete sense but it definitely comes from the heart. Caveat: I had an amazing time and did see some amazing talks. That summary still needs writing. Without further ado…
Conclusion 1: Marketers and agencies are desperately looking for silver bullets and holy grails. The urgency was on full display in talks like the one from Daniel Pink who gave us 7 Ideas for Behavior Change or Mark Schaefer whose 6 elements for igniting people through content conveniently sported the acronym, B.A.D.A.S.S. Don’t get me wrong, these were both great talks and packages that any agency or brand can import into their approach, but I have to wonder who is minding the industry’s collective shop when I see so much desperate typing and scribbling and so many phones raised to the screens capturing nuggets of wisdom in a photograph. Shouldn’t we know this stuff? We do know this stuff, right? I noticed any talk using a listicle (10 Inventions That Will Revolutionize Retail, Better and Faster: Top 20 Trends in 2015) drew huge crowds and over capacity was a common frustration, especially in the J W Marriott which seemed to host a disproportionate set of agency hacks looking to shmooze or score or both. I don’t exactly know why this year annoyed me more than my last visit in 2012. It felt like there was less talk about craft, invention or technology and much more gimmick and bright shiny object; much more “tell me what to do and I’ll write it down to satisfy my boss; now let’s go party.”
Conclusion 2: Despite the cancer that continues to bloom with each successive year of SXSWi, the soul of the conference is still intact. For instance, there were full day tracks on Bitcoin and how the blockchain approach can be the key to much more than cryptocurrency. There was XPrize throwing the geekiest party I think I’ve ever attended. There was Henry Rollins embodying punk vitality in an interview that encouraged danger and curiosity and anger. Anger that things can be better and should be better. That America is there for us to lose. There was Bruce Sterling’s official closing keynote, lamenting the balkanization of the Internet with the Big 5 — Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft — all carving out their own culture and universes. This is not a force we can fight and Sterling conceded that this new and less open Internet is a reality not likely to change. But Sterling pointed to hope and a sense of the future. He may have come across as snarky about the “Internet of Things” but that’s because he has hope for its future. He poked a little fun at the “ghetto” portion of the tradeshow floor with its collection of Kickstarter robots and other “things.” But it’s precisely this ghetto, this frontier where he seems to find hope. The stage is set for artists and creatives to bring elegance and style to a maker community that currently is sharp-edged and toxic and cheap. The call to arms is this new frontier.
So my anger is two-fold:
- This year, more than ever, marketers and agencies trust themselves less and instead are looking for the “Answer.”
- We should be angry that things aren’t better.
Like I said, it was stream of consciousness and written on a plane on very little sleep. This year, I don’t want that anger to subside.
