SXSWi 2017 Wrap up coming soon
Published in
3 min readMar 14, 2017
South by Southwest interactive portion is just about wrapping up. Stay tuned for a complete run down on:
- IBM’s Experience studio — Including a new Watson SDK for Unity and Voice VR (tried and tested). The “internet of caring things” and the “cognitive study of elderly care”. I had a conversation with “Watson” who assessed my personality type (I’m a Dynamo by the way — and I have the t-shirt to prove it).
- “Mysthbusters” — The most common myths on WHAT Watson is (and isn’t). I captured a few (hilarious) examples of where it can go terribly wrong.
- Adobe XD Sessions— Great “Waffle and Wireframes” breakfast with the Adobe XD product team (formally project Comet). What does Adobe think of the future of Experience Design?
- Technology from around the world — In my personal opinion — other countries are “killing it” right now when it comes to technology innovation. See what’s new from Brazil and Japan (including a holographic bike wheels, Visual QR code that summoned a “trippy” Steve Jobs, mini robots, voice changing software, and (a shock collar type) device to create empathy for those with speech impediments.
- Whats new in food tech — “The Kuerig” of beer, Solar powered food growth, Brain juice. Curious?
- Mindfulness — Besides “mindfulness” being a buzzword of 2016 there’s some companies doing great things in that space. I got hooked up to a bunch of sensors in the “mindfulness trailer” and under went a series of “stress tests” — see how my body reacted
- Headsets (galore)— Microsoft Hololens teamed up with Nasa and I’ll break down that experience for you. I spent some time in the Capital AR / VR Lab playing ping-pong and doing laundry with Rick and Morty in VR. Oculus, HTC, Google Daydream- they’re all here.
- Google Fiber House — I decorated my own Google Cardboard headset and watched live artists create “Wonder women” themed artwork using the HTC Vive and Google Tilt Brush
- Genetics — Mail in boxes are huge this year. We’re not talking your typical 23&me boxes. Full on sports analysis, empathy genetic tests. I saw a CRISPR setup and spoke ethics with a panels of experts.
- Mashable House — This year the Mashable house hosted some top notch celebs. Participants could “recreate” Beyonce’s famous maternity announcement and experiment with thermodynamic spray paint.
- Wearable tattoos — Are finally here fully transmitting your biometric data
- AI —It goes without saying that Artificial Intelligence and machine learning were HUGE this year. I’ll break down some of the most unique places Artificial Intelligence is being used.
- Experience Design — “Every touchpoint matters” I spoke to educators, Salesforce team members, a bar owner, two ModCloth employees, a travel concierge provider, healthcare leaders, a dutch chef, a master brewer, a NASA software developer, a Home Depot gameification trainer and a mindfulness coach on why experience design matters and how it is important to them.
- SWAG- It’s real & it’s everywhere! Want to see some of the best (and worst) ways that brands tried to get peoples attention?
- Food — Tacos, tacos, tacos- and the Austin Taco Project. “Chicken in a cone” (need I say more — don’t worry I will), Voodoo Donuts, late night 6th street pizza (a “speciality” of its own) and BRUNCH
- Sessions — Last but not least are SXSW interactive session. The “bread and butter” of any good tech conference, or are they? This year, it was increasingly more difficult to attend popular (or even unpopular) sessions. What if you wait in line for an hour? It doesn’t matter, the record breaking attendance numbers means more and more people are being turned away from sessions they (really do) care about. Long gone are the days of half standing — half siting along the walls “crouching tiger style” If you’re lucky enough to gain entrance — get ready to cozy up with your neighbor! Trying to take notes? Watch those elbows! The last thing you want is to spill the (overpriced) Starbucks coffee your seat mate (probably) spent 45 minutes waiting in line for (on the 2nd floor of the JW Marriot).
Stay tuned for this (and much, much, much more) in my 2017 breakdown
