Posted By
Brian Unflat on 03/12/2010
So here we find ourselves heading to or already arrived at South by Southwest Interactive, and most
of us are wondering what will be the "thing" that will have us all
huddled around the bloggers lounge steadily tip-tapping away with eyes wide
open (or shut for those who dare to do Austin right) and ready for the
"wow" moment. Whether it’s your first time to SXSWi, or you’re a
weathered veteran of this fast-growing conference, you are in for yet another
great year—no, decade!
This conference has steadily outgrown the music and film
festival in less time, and it's no wonder why. The rate at which technology has
grown over the last 20 years is a direct parallel to the way SXSWi has exploded
for this industry pulling more than CSS jockeys and digital marketing directors
into the fray. With the dawn of social networking, the
mobile revolution, and a video game industry that gets more real by the release,
I think that this conference is beyond prime-time and ready for some serious
late-night clubbing action.
But what is that "one thing" or more that will
grab the attention of the 14,000+ who walk the halls of the convention center
this week and tweet themselves sore in the thumbs? I am anxiously waiting to
find out what rises to the surface and dominates the hashtags flying around 4th
street and into the digital clouds. The speculation around HTML5 and its Flash-slaying
power is definitely a possibility. Will this be the year that AR (augmented
reality) finally gets some respect and we actually see examples of practical
applications rather than canned video demos? Maybe, just maybe, there will be
the next twitter introduced or the microblog will be trumped by the speed Vlog
in this new decade of no exceptions. Whatever unfolds over the next five days,
it will surely help to influence and inspire all of us the moment the first
#hashtag hits the board or someone announces that Flash is officially (gulp!)
dead. Yes, I said it, dead. I don't mean it, but I do see this being the decade
of no exceptions and going for it all industry-wide. Companies and innovators
have to take the no-exception road to position themselves amongst the Fast Company
profiles, behemoth media agencies, and the young energy-drink-consuming former
college students who realized that a university was just getting in the way of
their inevitable public offering. So get up early, hit every session, and make
sure you enjoy the SXSWi conference. Use your laptop, iPhone, and Android as
much as you like. But be sure you use your most important piece of technology
this week: your brain! Think, share, and dream #SXSWi. This is our decade to go
beyond expectations and make no exceptions.
Tags: Blogs, Web Communities, Social Networks, Web design, Flash design,
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