Now that the madness of South by Southwest Interactive has subsided, it’s time to reflect on all the lessons learned from one of the world’s largest technology conferences.
And the good folks at the Austin Chamber of Commerce have been busy crunching numbers and making sense of all the data and talks at SXSW. The chamber’s Innovate Austin initiative partnered with W2O Group, a marketing firm, to provide key analysis of the Interactive festival which ran from March 7 through March 11.
“Austin prides itself on being cutting edge, we are continually reviewing our target sectors to align opportunities to better prepare for economic cycles,” Michele Skelding, Senior Vice President of Global Technology and Innovation at the Austin Chamber of Commerce, said in a statement. “During SXSW, Austin is at the center of creative and disruptive ideas. Through this initiative, our goal is to identify and cultivate these conversations and trends to drive strategies that will accelerate development through new talent, ideas and funding.”
One of the key findings was “more than 540,000 tweets were associated with the #SXSW hashtag around the world, peaking on Monday with 160,8881 unique mentions surrounding Edward Snowden’s session.”
And the analysis found that only 10 percent of “SXSW-related tweets originated in Austin with nearly four percent from New York City and more than three percent from San Francisco and Los Angeles, respectively.”
The event has definitely become a global stage with more London being the most active of 13 international cities analyzed, followed by Toronto, Paris, Vancouver, Singapore and Buenos Aires.
“The top trending topic was the relationship between national security and technology, driven by appearances by Edward Snowden (185,005 mentions) and Julian Assange (48,252 mentions),” according to the chamber. “Additional hot topics included wearable technology, 3-D printing, food innovation, mobile, and social business.”
For more information, visit the chamber’s site for a full analysis.
“The ideas that flow from SXSW shape what’s next in technology,” Bob Pearson, President, W2O Group, said in a news release. “Our partnership with the Austin Chamber enables us to utilize algorithms and cutting-edge software solutions to sort through what is important in Austin and share it with entrepreneurs wherever they may be. It’s our way of accelerating knowledge sharing from our city to yours.”
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