My Biggest Takeaway from SXSW Interactive 2011

Image
March 18, 2011

Content note: While this blog post is outdated, it still offers valuable insights into past sales and marketing trends. For the latest strategies and up-to-date information, we encourage you to explore our newer posts on the ever-evolving landscape of sales and marketing.

My brain is mush, and my eyes are droopy. I must have just gotten back from SXSW. After 5 days of driving, 4 days of conferences, and countless Red Bulls, I am back in Ann Arbor.

If you’ve never been to Austin for the SXSW Conference, my experience can be best summed up as: “Digital Boot Camp”

No monetary value can be placed on the 4 days I spent in Austin. Surrounded by some of my closest peers from South East Michigan, fellow Midwesterners from Columbus, and technology and digital marketing folks from around the globe, I got to see the inner workings. Even though we all work in relatively the same industry, utilizing the same media channels and sharing more than most people would think is humanly possible, you rarely get to see the day-to-day grind of someone else.

For me, the experience was similar to a check-up at my doctor’s office.

Working in Ann Arbor, plugging away in my office, I know what my day-to-day looks like. I know how I manage my time, I know how I interact with my clients, and I know how I tackle problems and questions. Working side by side with folks who are some of the best at what they do was a good way to see how I match up. Whether they knew it or not, my teammates and friends that I spent time with in Austin really molded how the rest of my work week has gone. Little tips here and there about time management, content strategy, workflow, and countless other “nerd debates” are constantly popping up.

Outside of those in the small family that we formed in Austin, the panels, classes, and discussions in passing gave me just as much to think about. Whether it be a short commercial about the good things happening in Detroit (we gave quite a few of those) or a question about what really makes someone an “influencer ” while we shared a power strip to charge our phones, these small interactions and takeaways will be what I remember most about the 2011 SXSW Interactive Conference.

If you’d like to get a full recap of the Chevy Roadtrip Challenge portion of my trip, my teammate Nikki Stephan did a really good job wrapping it all up in her post on our team’s website.