PATA 2019 South by Southwest: Transforming a destination city and - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

PATA 2019

South by Southwest:

Transforming a destination city and the events industry

SXSW Origins

• 1987: Music industry conference and festival launched

by a small group of Austin Music Professionals in a tiny

• ffice at the Austin Chronicle newsweekly
• 1990: Mike Shea joined as a consultant
• 1994: Added Film and Interactive (technology)
• 2009: Added SXSW EDU (education)

SXSW Center Opened June 2019

SXSW’s secret sauce

• All content is curated and much of it is crowd-sourced
• Endless variety of experiences in meeting rooms +

storefronts + theaters + parks + city streets + rooftops

• Sense of possibility - anything might happen at any time
• Vibe is very informal but always professional - be your

(best) self

• Austin, Texas -- best city in the world

Some common misconceptions

• SXSW is a consumer festival. SXSW is for business but fun

business -- a B2B event for creative professionals.

• SXSW is run by the city. SXSW is a privately owned corporation

that produces the event without government subsidies.

• SXSW has gotten too big! How big is too big? Attendees and

press continue to rave about the SXSW experience.

Businesses at SXSW

Why do professionals attend?

• Creatives come to be inspired
• Businesses come to establish their brand and launch products
• Media come to discover the new next thing
• Distributors and content providers find content and creators
• Everyone comes to learn from their peers and grow

The SXSW demographic

• Age 26 -34 (34%)
• Income $150,000+ annually (39%)
• Startup business (19%)
• Decision makers at work (25%)
• Looking for new business opportunities (59%)

74% are from the USA

26% are from 105 other countries

SXSW growth from 1987 to 2019 (33 years if you’re counting)

• Attendees +10,530%

700 to 73,716

• Conference Sessions +14,000%

15 to 2,147

• Music Fest Artists +1,109%

177 to 1,964

• Films Screened +42,500%

1 to 425

Austin, Texas home of SXSW

Austin Texas’s image in 1987

• Medium-sized college town that’s a mecca for artists and

weirdos from the rest of Texas

• Economy is non-diversified – primarily state government

(Texas’s capital city) and University of Texas

• Tourists ignore Austin and visit the Alamo and Riverwalk in San

Antonio (100 miles away).

• Willie. Nelson.

Austin skyline circa 1987

Austin growth from 1987 to 2019

• Population +283%

744,000 to 2,111,000.

• Air Passengers +337%

3.8 million to 12.8 million

• Prime Hotel Rooms +733%

1,500 to 11,000+

• Exhibition Space +988%

25,000sf to 247,00sf

Austin skyline circa 2017

SXSW influence on Austin growth

• SXSW brought the world to Austin (and the world like it)
• City built/expanded a Convention Center for events “like SXSW”
• Hotel companies noticed SXSW premium rates and added

capacity to meet demand

• Airport expanded and new airline routes increase capacity
• New events imported (Formula 1) and created (Austin City

Limits and Texas Book Festival and more)

SXSW & Austin: How they grew together for 33 years

• Businesses and governments and citizens worked for

growth (they faced considerable opposition at times)

• SXSW and Austin were authentic and stayed true to

their own cultures even as those cultures evolved and became more worldly

• Growth was organic and happened from within – not

imposed from the outside

Beneficial Impact of SXSW on the City of Austin

• 2019 Economic Benefit to Austin: $355.9 million
• 30 Years of Economic Benefit to Austin $2.02 billion
• International Media Valuation of $339.6 million
• Fuel for the city’s economic engine year-round

Austin’s culture shift

• Austin shed its “small town” image is now perceived as cutting

edge in the arts, sciences and more

• Now a leading cultural and event (and foodie!) destination for

GenNext and Baby Boomers alike

• Startups and established tech companies all want a major

presence in Austin because it’s a recruiting tool as a livable city for techies and creatives of all stripes

Can we have a SXSW in our city / state / country?

• Cloning such a unique event isn’t easy

(we know because we’ve tried)

• In 1987 SXSW filled a void – the world

needed a new music industry event and an event must fill a need to succeed

• The “next SXSW” will always be

compared to the “real SXSW” and that bar is set very high

Festivalization of Meetings

Festivalization of Meetings

• New buzz word coined circa 2017
• Loosening traditional conference structures and

incorporating interactive elements

• SXSW was a pioneer -- mixing festival informality with

conference and trade show business practices

• Trend also moves in the opposite direction as music and

film and technology events now include conference elements outside their original sphere

SKIFT said…

The festivalization of meetings trend started with the multidisciplinary programming at SXSW and TED. That has since inspired a surge of new “innovation conferences” in cities of all sizes worldwide...

Populous said…

The mecca of business + entertainment festivals, SXSW... happened organically and it all started with a concert-centric

• format. Event planners should learn from festival-first

events, minimize boundaries, encourage chance encounters and produce casual content.

Attendees like festivalisation

• Immersive activities are stimulating
• Festivalisation encourages inventing new ways of delivering

and receiving information

• Professionals from different fields share with and learn from
• ne another – technologists and filmmakers and venture

capitalists and athletes and politicians

• Festivalisation leads to unexpected encounters and

serendipitous inspiration

Virtual Reality Room at JW Marriott

Immersive Art Experience

SXSW Pitch Stage

Music Fest in Convention Center

Brands want festivalization

• Experiential activities are more memorable than traditional promotions
• Clients can innovate outside traditional conference hours and venues
• Instagrammable opportunities create viral buzz

Lockheed Martin Zero Gravity Photo

Marvel Universe Spider-man

Mercedes Smart vehicle activation

Creatives and professionals like festivalisation

• They can showcase their creations +

technology + music + films + ideas

• Their work is validated by their peers
• They learn the state of their industry

SXSW Gaming Awards Winners

Bill Murray (he can’t stay away)

HBO ACTIVATION: BLEED FOR THE THROWN

HBO Game of Thrones Event

Olivia Wilde Film Fest red carpet

Future Directions for the Events Industry

• Meetings & Events is an estimated $840 billion industry
• Attendees have shown willingness to travel further and

spend more for experiential and immersive events

• Industry projections identify Pacific Asian destinations

(and South America) as the next growth regions for conventions, events and festivals

What’s the takeaway?

• Adapt to new models – be nimble – encourage serendipity
• Events are transformative – they change people, places and

minds – embrace the change

• Identify a void in the world of events and be an agent of creation

to fill the void

Thank. You.

SXSW Resources

Website & Conference Information & Exhibitions Information: www.sxsw.com Register & Attend: www.sxsw.com/attend Marketing at SXSW: www.sxsw.com/marketing Sponsorship Opportunities: www.sxsw.com/marketing/sponsorship-opportunities Statistics, Demographics & Economic Impact: www.sxsw.com/facts-figures-quotes