Clarke and O’Connor’s SXSW Diary – so far
DDB Sydney’s Creative Technology Director Shaun O’Connor and Digital Creative Director David Clarke are covering SXSW exclusively for Campaign Brief until March 17.
So far.
There were a whole bunch of interesting talks, demos and pitches going on day one. I got into four talks, an accelerator session and managed to meet with a few ex colleagues working at technology companies in Silicon Valley.
‘The Emperor’s New Wearables’ panel was one of the better ones for me. The title wasn’t what got me in, it was more the speakers and what they’re working on.
Sandra Lopez worked on My Intelligent Communication Accessory (MICA), a collaboration between Intel and Opening Ceremony.
Travis Bogard, Vice President of Product Management & Strategy at Jawbone fielded a bunch of questions from young, eager engineers. The biggest question from the session was ‘How are you going to filter what people need/want to see with a wearable amongst all of the noise?’. That question didn’t really get answered. Context was said to be a start in addressing this, and when paired with machine learning, it could form a smart base. Bogard gave his point of view on this whole Internet of Things, stating that wearables are the key to unlocking it. Jawbone will work with hardware manufacturers, connecting them through their system.
Google Glass came up a few times, being referenced as a failure.
Was it? Or was it a pretty good open test. It’s true that people really didn’t like it. Maybe the next version of Google Glass will build on these learnings. Google are one of the only companies that can do this.
A clearly demonstrated learning from this session was that collaboration is the key. These wearables need to marry design, fashion and technology and neither of the speakers and there companies are good at all of these things.
This whole ‘wearables’ term needs to go away.
I also attended a panel talking about The In-Stadium Fan Experience in MLS. Being such a young league allows the franchises to try and test new technology. The addition of a young tech savvy crowd means that the uptake rate and engagement levels are super high. The smart use of technology at games enables fans to lead the in stadium activity, they’re a part of the brand, not just following.
Watching people in the Biz Stone talk was interesting. The girl in front of me was tweeting every second thing that resembled a quote. For the 30 minutes I was there she looked up maybe twice. There are a lot of people here viewing the festival through their iPhone, Oculus headset and hashtags.
– Shaun O’Connor
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