SXSW Gives Communication Students Glimpse of New Media Trends

By Summer Allgyer, senior, public relations

As an Austin native, I have always gone to the beach during Spring Break. This year I decided to keep it local and learn about new interactive strategies at SXSW.

South by Southwest is one of the many annual events that puts Austin on the map as a growing metropolis for technology, innovation, and of course, music.

The weeklong festival includes events related to film and music, and panel discussions for everything interactive.

The conference transforms downtown Austin, and has put pressure on local PR and advertising agencies to showcase their abilities and knowledge.

In hopes of recruiting new talent and business, firms offer their own free events, happy hours and panel sessions. This creates a perfect opportunity for cash-strapped students to network with industry professionals and learn about digital-media trends.

Throughout the week, I attended interactive happy hours, followed and contributed to conversations on Twitter, exchanged a few business cards and saw some amazing bands, all for free.

Another public relations student, senior Julia Alaniz, stayed in Austin to attend a few interactive events, and found that most professionals were surprised, yet impressed, to see students like her there.

"Most of the professionals thought I was there for the free breakfast and were shocked to hear that I was there to learn more about social media," says Julia.

Julia's presence at The Social Media Breakfast and The Statesman's Social Media Awards put her in touch with entrepreneurs, business owners and digital-media pros like Josh Williams, the founder of Uppward, a location-based social network used in airports.

It's amazing that SXSW presents so many opportunities in our own backyard, yet so few students take advantage of them.

Austin firm Idea City had an innovative program called SXSurrogate. It sent 37 employees to the interactive conference to learn and report back to the agency in live time on Twitter, through a trending post tagged #ICSX. Employees were also able to send full-length posts to their Twitter, Facebook and the Idea City Surrogate blog from their phones using the synergistic program Posterous.

One post from Idea City's Account Manager Amy Rodgers summarizes some of the topics and tips that were buzzing during SXSW interactive:

Be OK with failure -- fail forward.

Don't have much digital experience? At least be informed and have a POV. Create your own experience.

Brands want more -- brands want to differentiate and do something unique and engaging.

Consider presenting creative in the form of a press release. Present digital components first and TV last.

Be transparent and authentic.

QR codes -- where are these appropriate for our clients?

Facebook overtook Google as the #1 site in U.S. -- and apparently more people use FarmVille than Twitter -- think about it.

Our industry demands that we as future employees be plugged in, abreast of current media trends and ready to use these tactics in our careers. This year's SXSW interactive provided a taste of all these things.

It makes you wonder what next year will be like.