From a few hundred attendees in 1994 to more than 32,000 registrants in 2014, the history of South By Southwest (SXSW) Interactive echoes the history of the digital industry: a little rocky at times, but in the end victorious. Now that the interactive part of this year’s festival is over, we’re taking a look back at our four favorite tech bites from the SXSW Interactive 2015 panelists.
Meerkat Takes Center Stage
Since the launch of Foursquare in 2009, SXSW has been lacking in the emerging digital product department. But the magic came back this year with the development of Meerkat, a live streaming app that allows users to host spontaneous video sessions through Twitter.
The rules of Meerkat? Be kind. And buy a T-shirt.
Countdown to The Internet of Things
In the Internet of Things, data is gathered and used for a variety of devices. From fitness wearables and watches to food packaging sensors and appliance monitoring, real-time connected technology products are slowly changing the way we live.
Gartner Inc. has predicted that by 2020, nearly 26 billion devices will comprise the Internet of Things. Others estimate 30 billion. There’s still plenty of infrastructure work to be done, but technology leaders like Samsung are predicting that products will be connected within the next five years. At SXSW, CEO of Cotential Erica Dhawan also weighed in on the topic:
“Those who understand how to engage with these new tools and technologies—it will be like the printing press and the steam engine, where people will look to use them as a force for good,” she told Adweek in an off-stage interview.
How does digital mesh with everyday people? We look forward to helping companies and industries figure this out.
Get Ready For The Third Wave
In a SXSW keynote speech, AOL co-founder Steve Case took the stage to talk about the history and future of the Internet. He broke it down into three waves.
- Wave 1: 1985-2000 — The Internet comes to life, with AOL being one of the leading pioneers
- Wave 2: 2000-present — Entrepreneurs built on top of the existing Internet (think Google, Twitter, Facebook and big name apps) to expand digital industry
- Industry disruptions: communications, media, commerce
- Wave 3: The future — Entrepreneurs think bigger, ushering in the rise of regional innovation economies and social-purpose investing.
- Every industry will be digitally impacted, including healthcare, education, transportation, energy and food.
Case says entrepreneurs will need to create strategic business partnerships —especially within government, healthcare and education — in order to thrive.
“The government spends more on health and learning than anybody else, by far. So successful third-wave entrepreneurs will need to engage more not only with governments as their principal regulator but also as their potentially largest customer,” Case said.
- Spyder Trap will be hosting its own event to talk about the future of healthcare innovation and its partnership with the digital industry. Click here to learn more.
Google X Gets Humble
After less-than-satisfactory performances from Google Glass and Project Loon, the head of the Google X division Astro Teller talked to SXSW attendees about his blueprint for success: failure.
“I don’t believe a mistake-free learning environment exists,” Teller said. “Failures are cheap if you do them first. Failures are expensive if you do them at the end.”
According to Teller, Google uses negative outcomes to fuel future success. As the age old saying goes, if you are going to try something new and fail, you should at least learn something from it.
What’s next from Google X? We’re looking forward to the self-driving cars everyone keeps talking about.