SXSW 2024 has drawn to a close this weekend and your feed will fill with round ups, reports and reviews. I’ve never been all that good at the *in the moment hot take*. I need a little longer to reflect, re-watch a talk, read my notes, and, as if I’m living in the future, ask Copilot to co-create my round-up PowerPoint deck.
Hundreds of thousands of people descend on Austin, Texas for the conference and festival programs. Last year, almost 3000 speakers, across around 1500 conference sessions explored creativity, technology, film, innovation, music and more. It’s a wide spread of industries, perspectives and people from across the globe coming together in Texas.
AI everywhere all at once
| A lot of sessions were pitched at a basic to mid level of AI knowledge and almost every session did touch on some aspect of AI. This indicates that we, as leaders in this space, need to do more to promote discussion and provide education to bring society along with us as a whole. The conversations need to move as fast as the tech is and at a higher level.
Creativity and culture
| Creators move culture and culture is human. GenAi is giving us new creative tools and no doubt it will change how we work. Human heart and human mind are the things that move culture.
Web 3 & Metaverse
| The grownups are quietly back in charge. As a gamer all the hype around metaverse was really a case of, errr… hi 👋 welcome to the internet. Social 3D environments, we’ve been here a while. Now the hype around Web 3 has cooled it has left space for the long term builders in these spaces.
Emerging Production
| There is so much going on beyond just AI. We’ve never had so many tools or tech to create our stories and it’s such a fun time to be making meaningful content. I’m personally pleased that the UK is very well represented here, with a bunch of great suppliers and innovators in a range of emerging areas.
Serendipity
| It’s so SXSW. Meeting in the halls, calling down the escalators, brushing past in a bar. SXSW is made for the chance encounter. I had so many great conversations by chance and it makes SXSW so special. Spending time with my wider Havas family, to plan, to dream and catch up is golden.
Action points:
I need to bring people along with me on the AI journey.
I need to continue to push craft and storytelling in my own work.
I probably should put my money where my mouth is and submit a session for SXSW2025 🙋♂️
We’ll update our network with an official report on trends, our perspective and the future of content production.
So drop us a line if you want to find out more.
Now your feed is free to fill with AI news from Nvidia’s conference this week.
I’ll be keeping a close eye.
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