Career-enhancing connections make the SXSW Interactive Festival so special to so many digital creatives. Come to Austin in March to connect yourself (or your company) to the new ideas, new technologies and new business opportunities that will shape the future, as well as game-changing insights from the world's most innovative thought-leaders. Registration for the 2014 SXSW Interactive Festival opens the first week of August 2013 -- buy your badge early to take advantage of the lowest prices and the best selection of lodging.
The innovative approach to kids clothing taken by North Carolina textile company Lolly Wolly Doodle has begun to generate a fairly significant buzz. As noted in the Wall Street Journal, "At a time when major retailers grapple with the fallout from outsourcing apparel manufacturing to developing countries, a small, rapidly growing children’s apparel upstart is proving that clothing can be made locally and at scale, by leveraging technology such as Facebook and the concept of just-in-time manufacturing."
This buzz has led to a $20 million investment in Lolly Wolly Doodle from Revolution Growth, a fund led by Steve Case. Speaking to the WSJ, Case cited how impressed he was by the company's innovative business model: "The money they save by eliminating the inventory risk is pretty significant. This has the potential to be a billion-dollar company."
The ongoing NSA scandal has pushed concerns about identity, governmental surveillance, and data security to the front of our collective consciousness. For an enlightening perspective on these weighty concerns, listen to the free podcast of the "Privacy in the Age of Augmented Reality" presentation from the 2013 SXSW Interactive Festival. This session features the expertise of Alessandro Acquisti, who holds a PhD from UC Berkeley, and Master degrees from UC Berkeley, the London School of Economics, and Trinity College Dublin. He is currently an associate professor at Carnegie Mellon where the bulk of his work focuses on the economics of privacy. Acquisti's studies have spearheaded the application of behavioral economics to the analysis of privacy and information security decision making, and the analysis of privacy and disclosure behavior in online social networks.
To hear the free podcast of the "Privacy in the Age of Augmented Reality presentation, click here. Once on the schedule page, click on the orange "play" link under the description of this session.
Network with organizers of the all-new SXSW V2V event at a special Meet Up in Los Angeles on Monday evening, June 17. Scheduled from 6:00-8:00 pm at the [Hotel Shangri-la](1301 Ocean Ave in Santa Monica), this get-together also provides a great opportunity to meet other Southern California digital creatives, innovators, entrepreneurs and startups. Click here to RSVP for this Monday, June 17 Meet Up and to be eligible to win a free registration for SXSW V2V 2013 (must be in attendance at Hotel Shangri-la to win).
The entry process for the 2014 SXSW PanelPicker begins soon: Monday, July 1. A year ago, this interface generated more than 3000 speaking proposals from digital creatives from across the United States and around the world. We expect that total to be even higher for the 2014 PanelPicker season. With so many entries from so many smart people, how can you make sure that your proposal has the best chance for success? Submitting your idea as a solo presentation (as opposed to a panel) is one key strategy to get an edge on your competition.
Presenting at the SXSW Interactive Festival often leads to exciting new career opportunities. Such is the case with Cory Booker, who earned the honor of Best Speaker at the 2013 event after his amazing on-stage interview with Time's Steve Snyder at the Long Center.
photo courtesy of Case Foundation
photo by JoJo Marion
photo courtesy of Cory Booker
