This yearly conference saw Music, Film and Interactive people descend upon Austin, Texas in the US for two weeks of panels, meetups, day parties (with beer), night parties (with beer x 10) and drunken networking revelry.
I was there to check out the conference, stalk the Singapore delegation, meet old friends and make new ones.
So let’s start with…
The SXSW Trade Show:
Exploring the booths.
A message board at the trade show.
A Fedora mascot prancing around.
There were many games and prizes to be won at various booths.
Introducing…the Singapore Pavilion:
(Some 101 on incorporating a company in Singapore.)
Steven from IDA speaking to someone interested in Singapore.
The lounge at the Singapore Pavilion.
Introducing…the startups:
(From left): Hong Ting and Wenhan from 2359media, the company behind MobDis
Julian from Zopim doing his pitch.
Socialico presenting GameMaki.
Audrey, cofounder of PlayMoolah
MobileWalla (previously Wordster)
Varun of GoToCamera was momentarily displaced when I was there snapping away. Check out our quick 5-question interview with him at SXSW. More on GoToCamera.
Lichi from Chalkboard
Jay from Brandtology doing a demo. Brandtology was recently acquired.
Another startup, Sambaash also had a booth, but when I was there taking pics, they haven’t yet arrived at SXSW. I didn’t take a pic of their empty booth.
On the contrary, Foound was not found at SXSW…(sorry, couldn’t resist):
While mobile startup Foound was supposed to have been at SXSW, they pulled out and remained in Singapore to focus on their product instead.
Danny Tan, founder and CEO of Foound told SGE, “We felt that SXSW was getting too “noisy” and didn’t feel that we would have achieved as much there as we originally wanted. More importantly, our team is focused on building the next iteration of our service here, which will be quite a major revamp.”
2359 Media found SXSW useful:
“For MobDis, SXSW brought together some of the top creative and design minds from interactive agencies across US (and to a lesser extend across the world), who provided us with invaluable feedback and, through the friendships established both during and after conference hours, opened doors for potential business deals to be completed in the months to come.”
(From left): Gwen (SGE), Keith (GameMaki), Audrey (PlayMoolah), Lichi (Chalkboard)
(From left): Gwen (SGE), Steven (IDA), Joachim (IDA)
Introducing…the Microsoft BizSpark Accelerator pitching sessions:
Advisory board and judges of the Accelerator.
GoToCamera pitched under the Innovative Web Technologies category. They didn’t make it to the finals, but great try, Varun!
ViKi pitched under the Entertainment Technologies category and got into the finals but unfortunately, didn’t win. Great effort, Razmig, nonetheless!
Razmig (pictured center) pitching ViKi on stage during the finals. Photo by Audrey of PlayMoolah.
At the Singapore @ Tech Summit…
We had a really good one hour session where entrepreneurs and people interested in business opportunities in Singapore engaged with our Singapore delegation.
SG ROARS! The Singapore SXSW Party at 512 bar:
Mingling. Singapore + Beer + Asian food + Live music = Wicked!
(From left): Unnamed, Steven (IDA), Julian (Zopim), Joachim (IDA), Audrey (PlayMoolah), Gwen (SGE)
You can see Shashank (SimpliFlying) on the right.
(From left): Gwen (SGE), Vlad (WebOfThings), Rafi (inventor of the first smart rabbit, Nabaztag), Dom (WebOfThings), Vahe (INM), Christine (CityInnovation)
(From left): Gwen (SGE) and Joachim (IDA) with the band in our background.
The goodie bag included a chilli crab soft toy.
With a recipe to boot!
Twilight at the Singapore party.
As cofounder and CEO of Zopim, Julian says, “SXSWi was in one word: EPIC. SXSi was essentially Social Media meets Tech meets Townhall size meetings. To say that we networked with top minds in our industry is an understatement. Ingratiation would be a better term as we got closer to quite a few potential clients and partners. Biz opportunities were opened, high value business targets which we would otherwise never have met were befriended. If you are launching your next product to the world, there is clearly no other better place than SXSW to showcase your service.”
NEXT YEAR, SXSW Interactive 2012 will happen over March 9-13. Set aside those dates!
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