SXSW: Where Interactive Industry Trendsetters Jumpstart Interactive Industry Trends

2015 Interactive Panel. Photo by Dawn McGee

SXSW Interactive reflects current industry trends — and also serves as a platform to set new ones. In 2015, Meerkat leveraged the SXSW platform to gain extensive worldwide buzz. This buzz pushed Twitter to launch Periscope just 10 days after the event concluded.

What will be the hottest trends at the 2016 SXSW Interactive Festival? Such predictions are incredibly difficult, especially at this point in time. That said, read below for our early bet on 10 tech-related topics that will gain lots of traction in March 2016 in Austin.

  1. We project that the startup ecosystem will remain very robust for the next 12 months — and we think that SXSW Interactive will continue to reflect this healthy ecosystem.

  2. At the 2016 SXSW Interactive Festival, we will see an even stronger emphasis on how geeks are impacting health and medtech industries. Much of this emphasis will occur via the SX Health & MedTech Expo, which launched at SXSW 2015. This emphasis parallels the University of Texas Dell Medical School, which admits its first class in fall 2016.
    Get your company involved at the SX Health & MedTech Expo, apply to be an exhibitor.

  3. Wearables will continue to gain lots of attention at SXSW 2016. This fast-growing industry intersects with many of the topics covered at SXSW, ranging from health to big data to hardware. Look for a lot of the wearable content to take place as part of the SXstyle speciality track of panels.

  4. Virtual reality and augmented reality are set to explode in 2016. SXSW will tackle this quickly-emerging trend via two days of sessions that will take place during the second part of the week — your Interactive, Film or Gold badge will gain you admission to these virtual reality and augmented reality sessions. This new track of programming will coincide with the SXSW Gaming Expo, which occurs Thursday, March 17 through Saturday, March 19.

  5. In addition to Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny and former President of Mexico Vicente Fox, more than 30 US Congressional leaders attended the 2015 SXSW Interactive Festival. This focus on government and policy will grow larger at the 2016 event, with more programming devoted to this topic and local, regional, national and international leaders converging in March in Austin.

  6. Expect to see even more international participation at the 2016 SXSW Interactive Festival, particularly within the SXSW Global Connections program. The continued growth of international participation at the event mirrors the continued development of international sectors of creativity and innovation around the world.

  7. The convergence of the music, film and technology industries is always a popular topic of discussion at SXSW. This trend will continue in March 2016 in Austin. Network with trend-setting industry leaders from these three industries by attending the extensive schedule of Convergence programming.

  8. Over the last decade, much of the growth of SXSW Interactive was powered by software and social media. In more recent years, however, we are seeing more and more activity within the hardware sector. Learn more about this burgeoning hardware sector (as well as the Maker Movement that is pushing much of this growth) by attending the three-day SX Create event at the Palmer Events Center.

  9. Across the globe, the concept of smart cities is gaining more and more traction. Look for a significant amount of programming to cover this topic at the 2016 SXSW Interactive Festival, with individual sessions covering everything from self-driving cars to co-working facilities to more energy efficient power grids to next-generation housing developments.

  10. The proliferation of broadband technology around the United States and around the world sets the stage for the Internet of Things revolution. At the 2016 SXSW Interactive Festival, look for more sessions covering IoT and the ever-connected world this technology enables. This programming will also explore the many privacy and security issues brought about by IoT.

A few other strong industry trends that we anticipate will see significant play at SXSW 2016 are AgTech, artificial intelligence, big data, the delivery-on-demand economy, diversity in tech, drones, journalism 2.0, privacy, robots, design thinking and synthetic bio.

Register to attend and join us in March 2016 to dive deep and learn more about these trends.

2015 Interactive Panel Session. Photo by Dawn McGee