Photo by Peter McCradySXSW Interactive conference director
Hugh Forrest is the director of the annual South by Southwest Interactive conference, scheduled for March 7–11, in Austin. This event brings together more than 30,000 digital creatives from throughout the United States and around the world. These guests are able to attend five days of panels, presentations, brainstorming, networking, deal-making, socializing, creating, innovating and fun. Forrest majored in English at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. Before joining the SXSW team, he founded a small alternative publication called The Austin Challenger and wrote for several other newspapers.
What's new at SXSW this year?
We have lot of new stuff this year, as we try to do every year. Some of the new stuff we have for 2014: We have added a more formal awards ceremony for our accelerator pitch competition. This is the pitch competition for startups within the event. So we now have an awards ceremony, which will just make it a little bit easier for folks to identify the winners. We've also added a gaming awards competition and ceremony. That'll occur March 8 at the Long Center. As with most of our gaming stuff, that is community-focused, meaning that it's free. Another community event that we are changing a little bit for 2014 is this thing we call SXSW Create, which is sort of our mini version of a Maker Fair. We are moving Create to the terrace of the Long Center. The last thing I'll mention is that we've added a track of sports programming for 2014.
Do you have any tips for someone who is submitting a proposal of a panel for SXSW Interactive and wants to get in? What works?
The tips that I have are to try to make the proposal as straightforward as possible. Consider the context that there are 3,000 other proposals. So we'll get a proposal that will be something totally abstract like 'Beyond the Fence.' If you're looking at 3,000 proposals—whether you're an advisory board person or staff—when you see 'Beyond the Fence,' it doesn't tell you anything. You're going to move on. We also try to counsel people to be as specific and focused as possible. Depth is much better than width. That's a factor of the event because we've got 600 or 700 total sessions. You don't need to explain social media A–Z in your panel. Pick one small aspect of it— 'Why Soccer Moms Aren't Using Pinterest Anymore'—and focus on that as opposed to everything.
How do companies benefit from being in SXSW?
In our best days, something like SXSW Interactive brings together a lot of media, first-adopters, trendsetters people who push the envelope. So for a company like Pinterest, coming to SXSW, even after they've been out for a while, it's a great way to get their message to these early adopters with a lot of social media who will get this message out.
