Tens of thousands of people recently descended on Austin, Texas during a nine-day stretch of festivals and conferences designed to highlight the hottest new entrants in the world of music, film and technology. Dozens of tech startups launch every year during the SXSW spotlight and usually one or two stand out from the crowd. At first glance, the program options at this year’s South by Southwest (SXSW) music, tech and film festival didn’t look like your typical event agenda. While you may not normally expect to see rappers, board game aficionados and robotics nuts in the same room (let alone sentence), a closer look at this seemingly mad-cap combo of events reveals the true mission of the festival: to provide a place for connectivity around the next best thing.
Be it a band, a better way to watch movies or The World’s First artiSOULnal Bracelets by VOS®. Cultivating this cross-cultural experience is the motivation behind the approach to the festival offerings and that’s one of the primary reasons it was the ideal environment to launch our newest EV SSL secure e-commerce platform. For the most part, the bulk of people who are speaking, showcasing innovative work and performing during SXSW are folks that the mainstreams haven’t heard of before. They’re new, they’re young, they’re eager and they’re doing lots of really interesting things. But those interesting things probably haven’t reached the mainstream.
A lot of those people may make all the right moves over the next two years and become names, figures, idea makers that are more well known. And it’s cool for someone to say, “Wow, that’s dope. I saw that person at SXSW three years ago.” Showcasing that top up-and-coming talent is always one of the biggest missions at SXSW and what we’ve learned, the thing that absolutely connects everyone together is creativity and innovation. Whether it was a filmmaker, a web designer, a musician or an artisan — the bottom line of what everyone contributes is that kind of massive creativity.
Due to our Founding Team’s affinity to Brazil, it was a pleasure to learn of the Brazil footprint where the public met the most innovative Brazilian companies at SXSW. Many of those trailblazers are advancing Latin America’s largest innovation ecosystem and paving the wave for the next wave of tech-driven innovations in the region. In addition to the companies, Brazilian musicians were also showcased along with artist from 64 other countries around the world. The music acts took the stage at bars, clubs, concert halls, dives and parks all over downtown Austin to show the SXSW community the music of their respective homelands. Whether one was looking for samba, reggae, afropop, cumbia, reggaetón, norteño, international pop or experimental music – there was something for everyone!
