I am in Austin, Texas at the South By Southwest (SXSW) Interactive/Film/Music conference and festival. The city is a buzz with creative folk and digerati on their laptops and smart phones, tweeting and meeting and musicians playing in every conceivable space. It is an incredibly inspiring and bustling environment with literally hundreds of networking, business speed dating, panel discussions, product presentations, film screenings and live music going on all over the city.
Us Brits are here in force. For SXSW Interactive, UK Trade & Investment, working with Chinwag, has bought over a Digital Mission of 40 companies. I joined them for a British breakfast networking event where a lot of good connections were made and business done over bacon and eggs. The mission delegates also had a masterclass and they have been busy blogging about their activities at http://chinwag.com/digitalmission/blog.
SXSW makes good use of the "convergence" between technology and creative media. Speakers talked about the exciting possibilities offered but I wasn't so sure I would want the bathroom scales that can tweet my weight! UK Trade & Investment organised a one day seminar on "Content, New Technologies and the Consumer Experience", focusing on business opportunities around new technologies, digital and mobile, which included two speed-networking sessions between UK and US companies.
The Music part of SXSW has officially kicked off. At the launch of the "British Music Embassy", Radio 1's Huw Stephens introduced fantastic performances by Smoke Fairies, Everything Everything and Band of Skulls. The UK is the second largest exporter of music repertoire in the world and there are over 500 British music companies and over 150 artists showcasing in Austin, including many at various regional showcases at the British Music Embassy. There are so many artists playing here that many are going to interesting lengths to get noticed. One audacious marketing technique I saw in the British Music Embassy was from Essex's Beans on Toast who signed his name across the back of a guy's head.
British eccentricity no doubt holds appeal here and in many overseas markets. I like the local's "Keep Austin Weird" campaign aimed at preserving what is special about Austin and supporting small local shops and businesses. I am sure this busy week of activities at SXSW will help the small UK digital and music companies participating to flourish internationally.
By Mel Barlow, UKTI Japan
2 comments
Comment by M in Tokyo posted on
Nice to see something in which the UK genuinely "punches above its weight"!
Comment by M in Tokyo posted on
Nice to see something in which the UK genuinely "punches above its weight"!