Happy Sunday!
Intense. Overwhelming. Mind blowing. These three words define well my perception about South By Southwest - conference and festivals dedicated to the convergence of technology, film, music, education, and culture. Every March, since 1987, creative minds gather in Austin to discuss cutting-edge ideas, discover new interests, and network with other professionals who share an appetite for forward-focused experiences.
It was my first time at SXSW - and it is truly an overflow on information. Therefore, in order to organize my head around everything I saw, I decided to dedicate this week’s newsletter to the conference itself. This will not be your usual summary about an event with takeaways from all sessions I saw - I will describe here my experience from a personal standpoint , what I really found interesting and how I think I can apply what I learned in my day to day activites.
Even though I know I am biased - for a straight forward summary on key panels, the Itau BBA team that went to the event (pitcure above!) put together a great product: Itau BBA Inside SXSW. Take a look if you want to understand the specifics of selected panels.
Next week I will go back to the usual newsletter format!
Now – let’s go ahead to SXSW… Please bear in mind that these are strictly my opinion, based on my background and personal interests. Feel free to share this newsletter with anyone who might be interested – to subscribe, just click on the link below!
PS: This is a LatAm Tech newsletter - there is no way to ignore what is happening in Ukraine - and in the world for that matter. However, I will leave comments on the topic to the experts on the subject.
PS2: Itau BBA is holding a Tech Founders Summit in April supported by General Atlantic, Softbank, Monashees, Riverwood, Astella, Valor and Endeavor showcasing key industry leaders from Brazilian unicorns - if you want to subscribe to the online event, click here. For more info, feel free to reply to this email.
Preparing for SXSW:
When we decided to go to the event, I confess I underestimated the magnitude of what it would be. Colleagues that had been there before would say wonders about how the experience was - and I thought that they were all somewhat exaggerated. I was completely wrong. The constant feeling of FOMO, overflow of information, interesting ideas and people that are open and willing to discuss, and the vibe of the city are all entirely true.
Looking back, I would have prepared myself more. That is: instead of only choosing from the schedule what I wanted to see and what I found interesting (which is already a difficult task given that in the same time frame you can have more than 10 panel options), I would have studied the panelists, scheduled a mentor session, and understand the brand activations before actually arriving to Austin in order to make optimize every experience that I had.
In retrospect: I would have also been bolder in “thinking outside the box”. Given my natural interest in tech, VCs and startups – I ended up watching a lot of sessions on “emerging technology trends” or “venture capital world looking ahead” – which were organized by Pitchbook. Even though they were useful to some extent, I think I would try to watch more panels on things that are not part of my day-to-day dynamics (which was a strategy that I started doing in the last two days – we spent 5 days in the conference). I believe the right way to go is to watch one “key name”/ “featured” session per day – such as Amy Webb, Scott Galloway, Mark Zuckerberg, Greg Daniels – and on the remaining slots of your day (up to 6, depending on your energy) mix and match other industries and concepts. For example, on the last day I watched a panel on “Psychedelics for Therapeutics and Well-being”, and one on “How Web 3.0 can revolutionize music royalties”. Even though these panels are not directly related to my job – they seem to exercise another part of my brain, thus leading me to perhaps have new ideas or think about concepts from another standpoint. In sum, SXSW is the place to “think outside the box” – and I would have done more of that.
During SXSW:
I saw the following panels during the 5 days that I was there (I might have missed a few in the list below, but for all that matters, if I recall their names, these ones were that were remarkable in one way or another):
-Venturing Into New Territory: VC Ecosystems & Tech;
- Keynote: Reggie Fils-Aimé
- The Future of Tech Starts on the Farm
- Frances Haugen: The Facebook Whistleblower
-Blitzscaling in Unconventional Industries;
-How People Talk and What It Means for Tech;
-10 Non-Obvious Megatrends Shaping 2022 and Beyond;
-Amy Webb Launches 2022 Emerging Tech Trend Report;
-Provocative Predictions With Scott Galloway
-Welcome to Your Digital Afterlife: Upload Creator Greg Daniels In Conversation With Amy Webb
-VCs Creating Markets And Future Proofing Industries
-Interview with Mark Zuckerberg
-Synthetics: Fad, Fiction or Future?
Things I learned - and that are worth sharing:
This would become a bible if I were to write everything I learned. Anyways, I came to the conclusion in SXSW that “the more I learn, the less I know”. I had mixed feelings while I was there – even though I was constantly learning and hearing new things, I got very anxious during many moments because the more I consumed the information, the more I knew what else is out there for me to learn.
Here are the things that I think you will all find useful:
Simple definition for Web 1.0; 2.0 and 3.0:
Web 1.0: Using – this is the basic internet, we are users using a service such as AOL. Occured 25-30 years ago.
Web 2.0: Creating – the era of social media and content creating, this is what we are using now.
Web 3.0: Owning – Digital ownership, blockchain that allows you to prove you own something and also to pass on such ownership for a price. This is where Metaverse, DAO, Synthetics and Smart Contracts are.
What is the Metaverse?
Before arriving at SXSW, I confess this concept was kind of abstract for me. As I am not a gamer, it is hard to tangibilize what is the Metaverse through reading about it (at least for me). At the conference, I got to experience it, and learn the concept several times from industry leaders.
Simply put, the metavers in the next chapter of the internet. It will be the successor to mobile internet. The key characteristic is that you can be present with other people, in another place, discussing a topic – no matter where you are in the world. Creators continue to be the center, building the experience. It is the next evolution in terms of how we experience media and moments.
If you think about it – sharing content followed a timeline or steps:
1. Text: beginning of Facebook, ICQ, Orkut – people shared ideas with plain texts
2. Photos: Instagram
3. Videos: TikTok, Reels, Youtube
4. Metaverse: the next logical step is a medium in which you are immersed in, this is what metaverse is all about.
The metaverse is NOT about owning a million dollar yatch that does not exist, it is about people expressing themselves in different forms (different avatars) – being able to experience any where in the world being any where in the world. Ultimately, it is about inclusion, as it will not matter where you are physically since you can get anywhere in the metaverse.
You have to be fun, create memories and give the sense of collaboration and the sense of community: web 3.0 and the metaverse is about experiences and not about ads.
General Concepts :
• people's brain tend to focus only on the dark spots, on what's obvious, it does not consider the white spots and what is not that clear.
• AI is already able to recognize you by your breath and heartbeat, the fact is that AI systems do not need your face to know who you are anymore.
• NFT solve de scarcity problem of art, but is already saturated.
• In 10 years frow now, Synthetic biology will be as popular as AI is today.
• Decentralization will benefit some, but not all.
• We will need to redefine what is "real".
• People who understands people wins: understanding people is a key trait to success
• We are sadly surrounded by BS, we become skeptical and therefore end up avoiding situations that would be actually useful.
Implementing SXSW in my day to day routine:
The networking part of the event is very important. The fact that everyone in the event is open to new conversations 100% of the time makes it a perfect place to meet new people and learn business ideas. I was able to connect to 28 “new people” during the event – good number for 5 days (btw – hope you all are reading this 😊 )
I think I am generally a people person – but there is still room to grow in this aspect. Being always open to exchange is hard, and the visit to SXSW made me believe even more on how important is being always open to new people and ideas. I will definitely implement this in my day to day.
Good vs. Bad Presenters: I am currently working on my presentation and “stage” skills – and the event was important to understand how industry leaders position themselves to speak to a crowd – showing confidence, knowledge – but also being humble. I saw presentations which the content was not that good – but the fact that the presenter was, made me learn and embrace certain characteristics. On the flip side, great content might boring if a presenter is not that engaging. Watching so many panels and noting what I can implement in my presentation strategies was super important.
What am I reading?
Itau BBA Inside SXSW. Take a look here to see our bullet points by panel (as mentioned above).
Book “Brazil Fintech” - I have mentioned here before that I had the honor of writing a chapter in this book about fintech concepts alongside 30 brilliant women. I got a tip from a reader on a specific chapter that I would like to point out: Os gigantes se reinventam - a jornada de transformação digital dos bancos tradicionais. (Portuguese speakers). You can purchase the book (hard copy or on Kindle) in the link above.
What did I listen/watch?
Surprise show by Ashanti (I am a true Hip Hop fan) during SXSW!!!
Quote of the week:
"I'am not a speed reader, I' am a speed understander". Isaac Asimov
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