Grovo Takes On SXSW
Earlier this week, I had the fortunate experience to attend SXSW. Grovo’s Cofounder Nick Narodny spoke on a panel during SXSWInteractive. He was joined by Anna Carsen of ADP Labs, Jason Severs of frog, and Rachel Nathanson of MSLGroup. They discussed the new rules of work and how the different generations employed today create both friction and opportunity.
One point that stuck out to me was when Nick shared that The Forest (the nickname for Grovo’s Product and Engineering team) declared “meeting bankruptcy.” Everyone on the team deleted all meetings from their calendars and have only been adding them back as needed. A great productivity tip to save time and encourage focus! I know I’ve had many days of meeting overload.
We attended a lot of events while in Austin hosted by brands like Capital One, Pandora, Spotify, ff Venture Capital, Viral Gains and more — SXSW is all about party hopping and networking!
Women in technology was a recurring theme at panels such as the Spark Haus by Cisco and The Great Britain House. As a woman in tech myself, it was exciting to see powerful and innovative women spearheading the gender diversity issue at the table.
Virtual reality also showed up in a big way! Our client MSLGroup hosted a event on VR in PR exploring ways to use this format as an asset for marketing and communications. They showed the basics of how to get started, best practices for brands, and future predictions. Samsung had a team take over the streets to demo its latest headset.
HBO hosted SXSWesteros to give us all a chance to sit in the Iron Throne and catch a sneak peek of Game of Thrones season six. The teaser has me anxiously awaiting April 24.
The few days I spent at SXSW were full of fun and I met a ton of people. It’s definitely the place to see how the most interesting brands in the world are experimenting with events and experiences.
