SXSW Reflections: A CEO’s Biennial Journey

For many years I made an annual trek to Austin for the SXSW Interactive Festival. The first few years I gained a lot of insights on the tech and market trends. I expected a bit of marketing and hyperbole but overall it felt like a true festival and not a conference. Peers were sharing insights. Competitors were sitting down and swapping stories and goals. It wasn’t perfect but it was pretty “chill” as the saying goes. However, a few years ago the festival turned into a conference. The vibe turned from collegiality and learning into hype that included getting harassed on the streets by company mascots and out of work models shoving giveaways into your hands.

Besides hype, I was finding very little change from year to year. I couldn’t gain a sense of how things were evolving. Even though our industry moves quickly the call for presentations and topics for SXSW happens not too long after the festival. Partially for that reason I had a hard time figuring out what was new, what was sunsetting, and what was rehash.

With all of this in mind, I decided I needed a new approach. I didn’t give up on the festival but I figured going every other year would give me a fresh perspective. I’d be able to avoid annual overloads of marketing and also be able to see if there’s any perceptible progress on technology and trends. Consequently, I’ve gone to two of the past four SXSW Interactive Festivals, my biennial journey to Austin, and it’s really made a difference.

Change in Vibe

Two years ago the festival was still cacophonous. It was crowded and there seemed to be more people dressed up as mascots for marketing purposes than one could find at a minor league baseball game. It was very difficult to get into any session that could potentially provide a serious professional with insights or knowledge. And, the truly leading edge topics were relegated to third tier venues far away from the main stages. My biggest highlight from the 2014 festival was that I went to see Mark Cuban and realized he wasn’t the punk I thought he was.

This year much of it was different. Although it was crowded the attendees reminded me of those who were in Austin six years ago. Based on the conversations I overheard in lines, at sessions or in the street, the discussions were about the technology and trends. I had no trouble getting into the sessions I wished to attend, and I spent far less time walking miles between venues.

That’s not to say there wasn’t hype or partying. I’ll leave the parties out of this discussion but one can certainly drink, dance, and listen to music at any hour of the day during SXSW. Afterall, it’s Austin and not Rochester so why not? Like parties, there was plenty of hype but it was the right kind of hype. No longer were we fixated on getting the latest social network or “next Twitter” foisted upon us, endless pushes on wearables, and the ever present marketing and branding discourses.

In 2016 hype centered on tangible digital tech ideas. Of course the marketers were declaring victory on virtual reality, machine learning, bots, and robots. That’s their job, but if you listened carefully you got a sense they were winking at you and saying, “well we know victory will be ours … soon.”

Learnings — We’re not there yet but we’re on the way

For me the big picture takeaway is that some of the technologies are already here and starting to make a difference and that many of the “way out there” technologies and trends are coming; also, most of these will actually make a difference. The bottom line is that we’re still in the middle of a series of transitions across a broad spectrum of tech. There’s no single consolidation point on the horizon but there’s a boatload of very smart people thinking practically and seemingly patient enough to prove it out. This was quite a difference from writing a software platform and declaring it a new paradigm and waiting to cash out.

Below is my own limited and biased view of what I learned:

Robots/AI

While I was at SXSW this year the media seemed to want everyone to believe that we’re on the precipice of real AI where robots and computers will think and be self-aware. Perhaps take over the world. The panels I attended stated that although there’s been significant progress we are decades away from anything that could even resemble the awesome Ava of the film Ex Machina. However, the progress that is being made will be seen in the next few years in using robots and AI where humans aren’t as efficient or where the tasks may prove physically dangerous. Regardless, it’s specialized and the idea that computers can beat humans in games doesn’t quite get us to sentient machines. Machines can beat us at chess, Go, and strategy games, though.

Machine Learning

Although the consensus is that we’re a human generation or so away from true AI in the next few years we’ll continue to gain significant advantages from machine learning. In a nutshell, my SXSW learning is that the algorithms and techniques being used to look at data and consider patterns by making associations will make huge strides in everything from contextual interactions with humans to extremely high speed and high accuracy interpretations and analyses of volumes of data. As the best example, we should keep our eyes on IBM’s Watson who will help us identify alternatives and potential actions that are hard for us to identify as individuals. One simple example is such pattern recognition capabilities for diagnosing diseases and potential treatments.

Bots

Machine learning and bots are related; bots and robots are not really related. The festival didn’t necessarily have a ton of specific talks about bots whereas it had a lot of machine learning. In many of the conference talks the concept of using bots that could contextually interpret voice and text in order to interact with humans or to provide relatively accurate information to humans was discussed. By using machine learning, bots will be able to anticipate needs and even offer actions prior to requests. Primarily that kind of automation will help with a spectrum of needs including customer support queries, administrative tasks (e.g., reservations, banking), and obtaining pertinent timely information (e.g., weather, traffic, news).

Fundamentally bots are here and their valuable uses are well understood. The evolution is for them to provide real value as opposed to creepy marketing needs.

Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality

As I was planning my schedule at the festival, I was really focused on finding sessions related to AR. Sadly there weren’t many AR sessions as the whole world seems to be having a love affair with VR. After listening to panels and watching demos and visiting vendors I came away with the impression that VR is extremely fun and engaging tech that is still searching for purposes outside of gaming and virtual full 360 degree visits to places. I did see filmmakers showing the value of VR in the creation of documentaries that lets the viewer see the whole environment in which the action is taking place but unlike a game I can’t go off in different directions as film’s progress according to time. Thus what I got is the equivalent of one of the “movies in the round” that you can see at theme parks.

The good news is that there’s a lot of effort going into VR but I’m getting the feeling it’s going to be in the world of entertainment and travel for awhile. Then perhaps help people like Tony Stark see inside machines or people that need fixing.

AR on the other hand was virtually nowhere. A couple of years ago we were listening to talks on Google Glass and I figured we see a lot of interesting solutions around Microsoft’s Hololens. Honestly, there was literally one AR vendor I met. That doesn’t mean there aren’t a lot of things going on in this world but for all the discussions about AR being a critical part of the next set of digital experiences and interfaces I was surprised. I guess I’ll look elsewhere as I’m still intrigued.

Slack

I listened to an onstage interview of Stewart Butterfield and realized that his vision for this messaging platform is huge. Bigger than I can imagine. Just like the interviewer I was curious about how this founder could have possibly thought an instant messaging platform on steroids was a groundbreaking concept. I figured the Slack approach of multiple channels and smooth integrations to other platforms was going to quickly be overtaken by giants such as Google and Facebook. I also thought that the Slack business play was to get bought once the user base was large.

I was completely wrong. This founder has visions for the platform beyond personal and team messaging. He challenged us to think about how bots and other automations and interfaces will improve our communications, content sharing, and overall efficiency in transactions. It goes beyond merely getting things done (GTD) individually to getting whole organizations and groups to get past constrained processes to organically completing real complex work. Finally he was clear in saying he’s not at all interested in being acquired. He knows the value and potential and is in no rush.

For all of the cool tech I was looking for at SXSW, this was my biggest find. Slack might become one of the great “rulers” of the next digital generation. A grandiose statement but I figured I might as well ironically add some hype.

SXSW — Next Visit

I do want to go back in 2017 but I’m more afraid of being disappointed. I won’t be going to SXSW next year. The idea of a biennial pilgrimage has worked for me. Walking in well-rested helps. Some of my colleagues will go annually and it’s my hope that SXSW will continue to “devolve” in the way I witnessed this year: people involved in the digital world attending, collaborating, and partying …without the marketing models or mascots.

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