SXSW 2018: I've seen the future

South by Southwest, abbreviated to SXSW, was held from 9 to 18 March in Austin, Texas. It started out in 1987 as a music fair. As the music promoters from the distant coasts were too lazy to make their way to Texas to watch the local music scene, a few clever people hit on the idea of this festival. And its success has proved them right.

Nowadays "South by" is far more than just a music festival. Films were introduced in 1994. Today it is a leading digital industry conference and its "Interactive Program" by far makes up the largest part of it. Some 70,000 people attended the conference this year, 40 percent of them from abroad. More than 1,000 people even traveled all the way from Germany to Austin. The film festival also had around 70,000 visitors and the additional gaming fair another 50,000. People can take part in the music festival at any time with their entry passes. There were also bracelets solely for the music event. Overall, some 170,000 people attended the music festival. And there are even more impressive record numbers: 50,000 hotel rooms were used in the city for the fair, although the countless Airbnb homes were not included in the statistics. Many residents of Austin get rather annoyed and choose to leave the city, funding a dream holiday with the rental income. I didn't even meet my landlord, as he had managed to finance a trip to Japan with the income. This fair is a massive economic factor for Austin with revenues of around 325 million US dollars. The ticket prices are something else. 1,150 US dollars is the early-bird price charged for the best ticket, the so-called "Platinum Ticket", although you will pay 1,650 dollars if you want to buy this ticket at short notice. That's a lot of money but this Platinum Ticket gives you entry to all events, including music events. Unlike the other tickets, like Interactive, Music or Film, the Platinum Ticket sometimes also gives holders privileged access to the often full events.

The organizers of SXSW emphasize again and again that the conferences and the festival for interactive media, film and music form the heart of the South by. The reality is that rising interest in the fair means that it is developing into a forum for creatives from all sectors. SXSW now has 24 different areas on its program, including "Brands and Marketing", "Development and Code", “Entertainment Influencers", Government", "Health", "Intelligent Future" and "Social Impact". I am intrigued by the different forms of presentation, such as keynote speeches, panel discussions, iLabs, mental session workshops, as well as book readings and, of course, concerts. The sheer density of events on the program was overwhelming and it was a constant challenge trying to coordinate myself. Some of the titles of the events were rather vague so that you had to look more closely to see who was on the stage. The app was the central coordination point and was considerably improved this year. It now includes a new function that uses color coding to show whether the event rooms are already very full, saving time queuing in vain. A spare battery is essential as no battery can keep pace with this 'app marathon' day and night. You should also not underestimate the distances between the different event venues, particularly the Austin Convention Center, and the countless hotels in the city center. Criss-crossing the city is part of the experience as there are so many surprising things to see everywhere. Even queuing can be enjoyable as you always meet people who have something interesting to tell. But you've got to make the first move yourself. It's up to you what you make of it.

The conference has become much more political since Donald Trump entered office. I was surprised last year on my first visit how vehement the New Jersey Senator Cory Booker's criticism of the President was. This year, Trump's opposing candidate Bernie Sanders was the super-hero and, aged 76, was celebrated as a true icon by the somewhat younger audience.

The surprise guest however was Elon Musk, who spontaneously turned up at an event by Jonathan Nolan, who was introducing his new series "Westworld". The next day, extra tickets were given out for a Q & A session with Elon Musk, but they were sold out in a flash. Although the visitors were international, it was mainly Americans who spoke on the stage. A pleasing exception to this was the Austrian superstar Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was also Governor of California between 2003 and 2011. Another celebrity was the juror from the popular American series "Shark Tank", Daymond John, who mainly made his money from the FUBU clothing brand. He appeared looking like a superstar but then shared a number of personal insights in an interview. An interesting fact is that he consciously produced his first T-shirts in XXXL and then handed them out free of charge to the bouncers standing outside New York clubs who then wore them as free models. Unfortunately we often noticed that some speakers are not used to speaking with a microphone. Strong regional dialects, unclear mumbling and inadequate acoustics in many rooms made it hard in places not only for non-native Americans to understand what was being said.

Now to the content. A number of mega-themes dominated the event. The spotlight was on blockbuster issues, like artificial intelligence, autonomous driving and, above all, the post-smartphone era. It was impressive that, particularly at this conference, nothing happens without a smartphone and existing app. The future researcher Amy Webb was particularly impressive and most clearly conjured up the demise of the smartphone. She revealed her theory that smart glasses and, above all, interactive functions in clothing will replace the time-consuming back and forth with the phone. Personally, I found it interesting that the human factor is still highly rated, particularly in connection with autonomous driving. The psychotherapist, Esther Perel, named speaker of the event, came across especially well as she championed human communication overall. A session with the Daimler Chrysler futurist, Alexander Mankowsky, stayed in my mind. It wasn't just the fact that he was one of the few Germans to speak, and also spoke with an extremely broad German accent, but the content of his talk on cars was concise and to the point – an impressive panel discussion. There was also a focus on the diversity of teams, particularly with regard to women and minorities, such as black people. The widely acclaimed Melinda Gates was a committed representative for this cause. Bozoma Saint John, Chief Brand Officer at Uber, glittered rather more with her loud sequined dress than with the content of her talk.

The dominant technical theme at SXSW was once again blockchain and cryptocurrencies. The session with Joseph Lubin, co-founder of Ethereum, was also one of the best-attended sessions, however, it was obvious how many people watched blankly although he talked very clearly and in a structured way. But it is still the case that this technology is unclear, as the speaker also admitted. It's also interesting that he spoke about cryptoeconomics and blockchain not primarily as a currency, but rather as a platform for decentralized applications, rather like small program packages. He referred to the opportunities as crypofuel and mentioned the example of the Ujo platform, the word for "container" in Esperanto, which provides the opportunity of transmitting music from the artist to the customer without the need for an intermediary.

Personally I was not drawn in as much by the major keynote speakers, but intentionally sought out smaller sessions. As I am currently setting up an innovation lab in Silicon Valley, part of which will also invest in start-ups, I also attended a number of sessions on "corporate venture capital". The term "corporate venture capital" (CVC) is used to describe the activities of companies who specifically invest in start-ups. This is attractive from the point of view of start-ups, as corporate venture capital often wants no shares, something that can be embarrassing for start-ups in the very early stages. It's also interesting to note that a number of larger companies have developed their corporate activities with the "TechStars" platform. What is important, according to the speakers, is that the representatives of these companies do not simply put up money but are also involved in person with the start-ups. Companies can be really helpful to companies by developing a story with them and then reinforcing this through the companies' networks. Unlike venture funds, which often want to generate an ultra-high multiplier through high sales in the shortest possible time, corporate activities often refer to strategic investments. I also found it remarkable that employees of the Johnson & Johnson Corporate VC JLab have set up their own start-up. Anyone who was hoping to glean information in these sessions about the structured selection of start-ups would have been rather disappointed. The experienced German investor Dr Bernhard Gold, who has been living in San Francisco for many years, answered a question about the major differences between European and American start-ups by saying that he regards the method of presentation as being crucial. American start-ups would present themselves in a much more professional manner, something that, in my view, is called for throughout the American school system.

Many companies also presented themselves with precisely this content. The presentation by Mercedes, the only visible car manufacturer, came across as being really positive. It constructed its own Mercedes world in the Sir Swante Palm Park between two large hotels with the slogan "me Convention". Mercedes is also one of the four main sponsors of the festival and in 2017 created the first much acclaimed offshoot of the conference at the IAA in September. This year it announced that it is planning a similar activity for next year in Stockholm. Other companies from the information technology and media sector rented entire houses and creatively decorative them with colorful films. A separate district was created in the Rainey Street nightlife district, its attractiveness often being seen by the long queues in front of the entrances. Rather like a modern world exhibition, many countries also had national presences. Although German companies, with the exception of Mercedes, were very reticent and, as already mentioned, Germans were in the minority on the stage, German institutions had made significant investment in the "German Haus". Federal and state representative bodies presented start-ups and a rich cultural offering in the German Haus, although admittedly it was rather dark and gloomy. It was located in the cool Barracuda Club on 7th Street, tucked away beside the "Salvation Army" and Community Center. If you turned off one road too early, you had to walk through the many homeless people, illustrating the parallel society living at close quarters.

Personally I hung around for a few days longer this year to enjoy some musical events. Whereas 177 bands played at the first festival 31 years ago, this time there were over 2,000 bands on 100 stages, including a record number of 24 bands from Germany. MEUTE, the Hamburg-based techno-marching band, attracted a lot of attention with a spontaneous performance on the famous 6th Street where the majority of the many music clubs are located. The music festival has also featured a number of famous events over the years. John Mayer signed his first record contract here in 2000. In 2004, the as-yet unknown James Blunt played his way into the hearts of his audience. I attended three evening events in the British Embassy where young bands from the island were playing. Apart from the countless newcomers, well-known music acts playing this year included the American legend Superchunk, which I was also able to see briefly after queuing for an hour. I didn't attend the Russian Pussy Riot performance, nor the Wedding Present performance, a well-known alternative band I knew from my youth. I also missed the session by Kim Deal, the well-known bass player from the cult bands The Pixies and Breeders, who spoke to sound engineer Steve Albini.

However, I would like to draw your attention to the SXSW Accelerator Pitch. I attended its award ceremony, as it presents awards to successful start-ups. The presentations were totally impressive and were not allowed to be longer than a minute at the award ceremony. There was also an exhibition with a rather wild jumble of companies, start-ups and representatives from different regions and universities, including smaller stands which sold overpriced Chinese massage equipment. Last year I found this fair quite lively, although slightly more annoying this year – possibly due to the fact that I attended CES in Las Vegas several weeks ago that, in my view, was the ultimate future fair in terms of exhibiting companies. Visiting South by Southwest is a crazy experience and more and more people are flocking to Austin. Although there is a lot of building work going on here, the city has a feeling of still not being finished and, alongside brand new high-rise apartment buildings, stand broken down brick buildings in which the most creative clubs are to be found. Everyone hopes that the city manages to retain this balance in line with its famous slogan "Keep the city weird". Although the majority of Austin residents leave the city when South by Southwest is on, the ultra-liberal atmosphere in the midst of the more reactionary state of Texas gives it a special charm. There are caravans selling food and music everywhere. Although Uber and Lyft were banned from the city last year because of a regional conflict, in 2018 they were allowed to drive again and Lyft was even the official festival carrier. Personally I walked everywhere and also enjoyed doing so in pleasant temperatures. And anyone who didn't want to walk could take one of the many wild designs of bike rickshaw – again typical for Austin.

In my opinion, the conference shows how, despite widespread criticism, you can continue to keep the magic of the beginning alive, in spite of the incredible crowds it now attracts. People from all over the world come together, all pursuing different disciplines. However, what they all have in common is the urge to create something new through creativity and inspiration. The different disciplines merge together and the process of composing a new piece of music or creating and marketing a new product are becoming increasingly similar and are possibly even mutually dependent on each other. With all the systems, a differentiation is made between playing on the entire keyboard and creative stimulus – mediocrity and excellence. That is precisely what you experience quite wonderfully in Austin.