The annual SXSW Austin gathering has become a rite of passage and ritual for many in the creative, technological and marketing fields in the US. It was the place Twitter [ed: RIP] started to gain traction, has launched the careers of some of the biggest stars in the world and sets the tone for discussions in the US and, ergo, around the world. This year, B&T’s Managing Director, Rosie Oakshott, made her first pilgrimage to Austin to see what all the fuss is about. Here’s the first instalment of her Rosie’s Recap series with (almost) everything that happened on day one and two.
It’s day one of my first-ever SXSW, and I’m feeling a little late to the party, a bit jetlagged, and incredibly excited. It seems like there are already hundreds of events and sessions that I’ve somehow missed. One of the biggest pieces of advice I’ve received: SXSW is all about turning FOMO into JOMO (the joy of missing out)… let’s try that.
Although this is my first SXSW in Austin, I have the best guide in SXSW veteran and B&T editorial consultant, Greg ‘Sparrow’ Graham.
Each day, I’ll cover the best content coming out of SXSW for our industry, report on the brand activations that are floating my boat and give you a rundown on the BBQ places Sparrow takes me to (without stealing his social media thunder, of course!).
For now, I’ve arrived, I’ve picked up my pass, and I’m off to meet the Aussie WhatsApp group IRL…
Day 2
It’s day two, I’m fresh and ready to get into the sessions. I kicked off the morning with Amy Webb’s 2025 Emerging Tech Trends. I didn’t expect her first quote to be from Vladimir Lenin: “There are weeks when decades happen”. She was, of course, referring to the current political climate in the USA. The iconoclastic Professor Scott Galloway’s would mention it later in the day, too.
Webb announced that she renamed her company to FTSG (Future Today Strategy Group) and explained that by tracking signals within an obscene amount of data, her team of only six (!) use their methodology to model and identify long term trends. They then combine these trends with ‘the things that we don’t know’ to build out ‘macro-scenarios’ which tell us what’s plausible in the future.
The theme of FTSG’s Tech Trends Report for 2025 is ‘Beyond’. It’s a 1,000 pages long, if you fancy something to read before bed.
Next it was Disney’s session titled: ‘The Future of World-Building at Disney’. The session began with robotic Star Wars droids entering the stage followed by Disney Entertainment co-chairman, Alan Bergman and Disney Experiences chairman, Josh D’Amaro. Bergman and D’Amaro explained the role of ‘imagineering’ at Disney in order to bring the worlds from the screen to life. The session then took us through a range of experiences designed by the imagineering team at their many Walt Disney Theme Parks.
Bergman and D’Amaro firstly surprised the audience by inviting Jon Favreau, director of The Mandalorian and Grogu, Leslie Evans, executive R&D Imagineer and Asa Kamala, executive of creative and interactive experiences at Imagineering to detail the robotic technology that goes into building The Mandalorian experiences at Tokyo Disneyland, Disneyland Paris and Walt Disney World.
If that wasn’t enough, Pete Dexter, CEO of Pixar Animation Studios, and Disney Imagineer Michael Hung followed to announce a brand new Monsters, Inc. attraction at their theme parks, ‘Monstropolis’.
At this point the audience were sure that D’Amaro and Bergman were back on stage to wrap the session but, in true SXSW fashion, there was another surprise; Robert Downey Jr wandered onto the stage and began pretending to ‘kiss babies’!
Downey Jr delighted the audience by explaining his involvement in the ‘Imagineering’ of the Iron Man experience at the Disney theme parks and raved about working with the Disney creatives.
“What I witnessed when I got a look behind the curtain of the Imagineering labs, dear me. It’s the living embodiment of the ‘Stark Enterprises’ mission statement. The curiosity, the passion, the inventiveness, the occasional flare for the dramatic, but most of all it’s the drive to put something out into the world to make life better.”
I then had time for a wander around the Austin Convention Centre between sessions. I found YouTube’s ‘concierge’ where you could pick up branded goodies. They also had a hot sauce tasting area (which I didn’t try), a podcast studio (which I also didn’t try!).
Scott Galloway’s predictions were up next. Galloway is always a favourite of mine and he did not disappoint.
Galloway predicted that the power couple of 2025 will be OpenAI and Nvidia which he called ‘Openvidia’. He explained how Nvidia dominates GPUs like no other company and that its CEO Jensen Huang is now personally worth more than Intel and last week was worth more than Boeing.
He went on to address the power of the major US tech companies in politics.
“These companies are now such a powerful part of our economy that we are now electing political leaders from the business environment. They have a huge influence over society and their character matters,” he said.
He even described the leaders of these companies as having “cowardice dominance”.
Galloway’s media prediction is that podcasts will be the major channel for 2025.
“One in two adults have listened to a podcast in the last 30 days, and it’s growing faster than any ad supported media,” he explained.
He wrapped his session with a Q&A where he addressed the importance of supporting young men with male leadership.
“There are three times as many women applying to be a big sister in New York, as men applying to be big brothers. In song, if we want better men, we need to be better men,” he said.
Oh, and finally as a personal highlight, we sat pretty close to Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey for The Last of Us Cast & Creators session. I swear Pascal was looking right at me—it doesn’t get cooler than that!
I’m hoping to get to more houses and stages outside of the keynote tomorrow. But for now, I’m off to eat some Gus’s Fried Chicken and to find some live music. I’m absolutely loving Austin so far.
Stay tuned to B&T for more of Rosie’s Recaps from SXSW Austin.
