A Brllnt Southwest Experience at SXSW Interactive

This year, Brllnt caught a ride down c/o Southwest Airlines to join a number of events and programs focusing on diversity and inclusion.

Since we started going to SXSW four years ago, every year we’ve vowed it would be our last. And yet every March, we find ourselves packing our bags full of walkable (but, cute!) kicks and descending into Austin, Texas to chat up incredible people, eat delicious barbecue, drink a margarita (or seven), and learn about tech, trends, AI, branding, marketing, music, and more. Discovery and contribution of brilliance is guaranteed and, well, we can’t help ourselves.

This year, Brllnt caught a ride down courtesy of Southwest Airlines to join a number of their events and programs focusing on diversity and inclusion.

Brllnt is 71% women, 100% badass, so it was a match made in SXSW heaven.

And what better way to show off our inclusive team than to join Southwest Airlines’ Southwest Supplier Diversity Showcase, a weekend full of events targeting the entrepreneurial and creative community.

Off the typical SXSW path, the Supplier Diversity Showcase connected representatives from the Southwest Airlines Supplier Diversity and Social Business teams with business owners and startups. They fused innovation with creativity to discuss their supplier process and opportunities for smaller businesses to engage with Southwest Airlines. We were impressed by their collection of humans, including Bring Your Own Cocktail, a women-owned, DC-based mixed drink company that sampled their bottled elixir. (We promise it’s not the liquor talking).

Southwest Airlines knows a thing or two about reviving childhood crushes. When we stepped into their Back in the Day Block party, cast members from one of the best movies of all time, The Five Heartbeats, two-stepped and danced their way straight to my heart. We also swung by the #CULTUREHOUSE powered by LISNR where — get this — an audio ticket granted us entry instead of an electronic one (guess that’s old news). LISNR tech uses data via audio waves to power offline messaging, sales transactions, and ticketing. Impressive, yes, but not as impressive as the folks and ideas that moved in and out of the house including NBA player Baron Davis, singer Ryan Leslie, and rapper Talib Kweli. The key to any successful event: carefully curated content, diverse humans, and effortless details.

We give the #CULTUREHOUSE an A+.

My favorite observation was that along with SWA, many brands ventured off SXSW’s staple 6th and Rainey Street areas to showcase their events at locations frequented by locals. On the east side of the highway, my childhood was reignited yet again with a pop-up of the classic Langford Lunch Box Diner from ABC’s hit show Roseanne; a complete recreation with a diner feel inspired by the show, and the Conner family living room.

The rest of the weekend is a blur of floating in and out of panels, meet and greets, and dance parties. It gave us the opportunity to rub shoulders with Mashable, Fast Company, Mercedes-Benz, Pinterest, Google, and our good friends at Washington, DC (#WeDC).

Southwest Airlines, thanks for treating us to another epic weekend. We promise, this time, it won’t be our last.