I had the insanely privileged opportunity to attend South by Southwest’s Interactive and Film festival this year. It was a first time for me, and actually the first time anyone had gone down from my agency. It was a great testament to our leadership team’s faith in interactive and the need to represent our agency in such an environment. Our resident social media planner and I tag-teamed the panels and rocked our faces off. It was a blast.
But before going down, I overheard the question of why send anyone to this event when all of it will be online anyway. Truthfully, that’s really not a bad assumption. SX has to be one of the few festivals that draws so many of the 1%ers we know create content online. I actually had an eerie moment walking down a long hallway, full of event-goers, where everyone was glued to their laptop or mobile - frantically tweeting, re-tweeting and posting. It’s crazy that such a popular networking event would actually have moments where people were deterred to talk to each other.
Now having gone and been able to contemplate this question, I’ve reached a few reasons why physically going to SX far outweighs observing from the digital sidelines.
- For one, the networking opportunities are invaluable. That’s an obvious answer, but necessary. Many folks that I met actually admitted they had only attended the conference for the networking benefits. As business becomes increasingly global, where else can you connect with likeminded people in one room? I don’t care how many searches you do, you won’t find the Romanian QR designer you discover could produce an excellent execution for your client.
- The post-panel conversations are also another key to the added value of being at the conference. I had so many great conversations before, in-between, following and even during panels that lead to other great ideas - just by being in proximity. Having someone else to process and interpret the information with is so instrumental to getting more out of the discussions. Admittingly, Twitter was a great platform for conversation during panels but so much more can be said when you’re not limited to 140 characters.
- I think one of the most important benefits to understand is the value of authenticity - hearing the conference from the source, not from the interpretation of another attendee. You remember the telephone game, right? Well that rule still applies when you tack on various filters. Additionally, there are hundreds of panels at SX, and not all of them are transcribed online. There is so much you would have missed having not been physically there.
- Another benefit is the inspiration and energy that each attendee brings back to their organization. I know we have begun sharing our learnings with the collective agency and are seeing great return. Sharing our positivity and inspiration with the team is contagious and that passes onto our product.
- Lastly, I think its important to remember that not spending the money speaks volumes. We all know budgets are tight, but that notion only gets heightened when opportunities are passed up and companies put their culture by the wayside. If your agency understands that its culture is its greatest competitive asset and commits to a conference of this magnitude, some tension is eased within.
Those are some prelim thoughts and hopefully more flow in as we continue to broadcast our learnings across the agency. Disagree? Comment here or tweet me @mattsummers.
