Beyond People in Power, Tech, and Politics: SXSW Sessions Cover Broad Topics

Temerlin Advertising students Hannah Tymochko and Lauren Cole explored sessions beyond marketing and technology at SXSW.

CNN’s Jake Trapper paired up with Bernie Sanders to cover an assortment of topics, many of which Sanders felt are not adequately covered on CNN. Some of his notable and long-time favorites include gun control, DACA, and the 1 percent. All seemed to leave with a more patriotic taste in their mouth.

Whether Democrat or a Republican, Sanders had a message for all of us. Americans should love and respect each other. In strength we are united, but divided we are weak. Every question resulted in strong messages of unity and love.

Both democrats and republicans made their presence known verbally at one point or another, but there seemed to be no disagreement on Sanders’ message of unity and collaboration.

This talk was drastically different from what I had expected to see at a technology conference, and could not have been a better start to my experience.

The Richards Group’s Chris Ferrel’s “I’ve Got No Screens: Internet’s Screenless Future” was a stark difference in content and tone. Marketing to a #screenlessfuture was educational and entertaining. Current advertising practices are built around the importance of screens in consumers’ lives, but Ferrel warns that the future will contain less and less interaction with screens and will instead rely on voice interactions (i.e. Alexa, Google Home, and Siri).

Unlike the Sanders’ session, Ferrel was filled with humor. The insertions of funny content were welcome. “OK Goo-Goo” showed a video of an 85 year old woman with a thick Italian accent interacting with her Google digital voice assistant. Important to advertisers, Ferrel predicts the rise of the screenless future.

Ferrel’s session was more of what I expected to see at SXSW. It related directly to things we have learned in the Temerlin Advertising Institute, but presented a new aspect to new-age advertising that I had not thought of before.

The different sessions speak to the diverse topics SXSW covers, and the amazing opportunity we have to make the SXSW experience our own. The ability to customize our adventure at SXSW has been incredible. The variety in sessions offered makes the SXSW experience one that attendees can personalize. While we all have the underlying commonality of being Temerlin students, we can cater our experience to our specific specialization and interests. People from all over the world who are in such different professions all come together to attend SXSW, and we are so lucky to be able to be a part of it.

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