How SXSW EDU Lives On, Online

Brian Reed and Greg Rosenbaum are the co-founders and executive producers of South by Southwest edu, one of the several tracks of the ultra cool month long festival that takes place each year in Austin, Texas, under the moniker of South by Southwest. Traditionally is a four day event offering compelling sessions, in-depth workshops, engaging learning experiences, mentorship, film screenings, future focused competitions and exposition for networking opportunities. And so much more. Obviously, this year, because of the pandemic, it will be happening virtually, but wanted to get in front of Greg and Ron and talk about their journey from what was a canceled event from last year to a pretty impressive looking lineup online virtually for this year. And talk a little bit about what is in store for South by Southwest. After all, the business stops and with it, here's Ron and Greg. So, gentlemen, thank you so much for taking the time to meet with me today. It's really, really great to see you, Ken. And congratulations on the podcast where we're excited. But Yeah. And Greg and I started, you know, 11 years ago. Yeah Yeah. So so we've had more fun than the law usually allows, but we're really excited for this year's event. As you say, a year ago, we were very excited for our last year's event. It was our 10th anniversary, probably the biggest South by you from a program, sponsorship, registration, engagement we'd ever had. We were really, really excited and looking forward to celebrating the birthday with the community and thanking them for it. Obviously, things turned out a little differently than we planned. And, you know, from in hindsight, looking back a year later now, I think it was a really smart decision. But in the moment when the city canceled South by not only to you, but the music and failed and the tech conferences as well, it was a real gut punch. I mean, sort of like working all year for an almost a shopping for Christmas. You know, had all these gifts and presents. We were excited to share. And then all of a sudden, the tree is gone and it's not happening. So so it's been an interesting year, but has permitted us to, I think, attack it all the more energetically and enthusiastically this year. So we're looking forward to an online event. This March 9th through 11th. Greg and the team have done a great job of sort of transitioning to a digital experience from what we all know, has been a really fun in real life experience. So so we have we're excited. Looking forward to March. Yeah so, Greg, tell us a little bit about the lineup that you have and maybe some of the decision making that went into folks who would be, you know, on the agenda that maybe wouldn't have been on the agenda during a normal year, or vice versa. I mean, talk about some of the pivots of those decision making items. Yeah, I mean, it's been a journey in the last 12 months, to say the least. I think coming out of last year's unfortunate cancellation, we tried to stand up a variation of that event virtually week over week by doing short content every week, trying to engage the community over a period of time. And then over the summer, it's been a lot of time as an organization reflecting on what is the best way to deliver meaningful connection in this moment to people. And we decided that it was to stand up our event in March as a fully virtual event. And I think we've been reflecting a lot about what is missed when you're not in person, which we think those serendipitous connections running into you, Kevin, over coffee at the Hilton or the Austin Convention Center is really hard to do in a virtual setting. But there's also a lot more attention when you go to a virtual you're building a schedule, you're connecting with people one on one. You're building out that map of what your dad looks like. And so we've tried to lean into that and create a program that is not overwhelming. It's much more focused. We have about a fifth of the programming we typically do on site. Usually for your time, we had over 500 sessions. I think we plan 1,200 speakers in this year. We're going to make it more digestible, shorter form content, hands-on workshops, but all shorter, easier to get into. And then I think to your point, we've been able to engage speakers that I don't know that we would have been able to engage without the need to travel to Austin. And so I'm excited to hear that. Our opening keynote this year is Oprah Winfrey in conversation with Dr. Bruce Perry. And we also have a conversation with Chris Evans, who is Captain America has got this initiative about civic education and building a non-partisan approach to that. And so we're really finding ways to access new voices who are passionate about education and learning. But we haven't been able to bring them to the event in the community before. Yeah, that's very exciting. And I noticed that even on the education side as well, that the use of this technology, Zoom or Google Meet to whatever. I mean, you can well, look, I led you to big fish right here to talk to me maybe during the week before South by Southwest to you. I would not be. Thank you in person to talk to, but because of this technology, we're able to do it right. So I mean, there's some certain pros to all this. You know, the rhythm of it for us, producing the event is certainly a lot different. And a great point is created. A lot of nice opportunities for us as well. Again, superexcited with Miss Winfrey being on the program. We've really been chasing her for more than a decade. Kevin, we know she's passionate about a number of things in education, and we've been intrigued with her school in Africa and a number of our other initiatives. And I think the topic that surfaced of interest to her and to us. And I think to the community at large is really trauma. This year, which unfortunately resonates pretty deeply given the kind of traumatic year, we've all had across a myriad of things. So certainly in the classroom and on campus with our online learning and all of that have all the inequities, that pivot is sort of demonstrated. And of course, the National conversation about race is ongoing, that economic disruption of the pandemic. And so it feels like there are a lot of really rich topical conversations and Education's a little bit of a mirror that's reflecting a lot of these challenges back. So I think that the program is rich as a result of the experience of our shared experience and again, with a crowdsourced program really loving the communities contributions to really lining up prominent and important conversations that. Have either of you seen a difference in user behavior or attendee behavior when it comes to using online? I mean, has there been a build up in the community in terms of anticipation for the speakers? And I know in years past, there's always been an intention to continue to the community online through fritted conversations and things like that, and not speaking for South by southwest, but in other initiatives that I've been in, those have always had of varying degrees of success, where especially maybe after an in-person event, things drop off pretty hard, pretty quick before there's a build up in anticipation to the next year. Can you talk a little bit about the online dynamics that SBI has experienced since last March in the build up to this? And do you anticipate those behaviors to stay the same or to change back to whatever you go back to, whatever normal is there? Those are all really good questions. And I hope we have really good answers coming out of this, this March's experience standing up online. I think we've reflected a little bit and certainly have kind of experiences, an organization like the challenge of revisioning how to support a community that we've been endeavoring to do for the last decade or. And so I think we make certain suppositions. So I think to Greg's point, we have a more concentrated program. We've gone from maybe 18 content tracks to eight. I think we've gone from a dozen different session formats to half a dozen. And I think it's out of respect for a community that not only is juggling work and passionate about their professional roles, but in which life is imposed as well in a way that's different than that. So so I think where we make certain assumptions, as in, again, a more concentrated kind of find your own experience approach to the event this year is one aspect of it. So I think with that, there are a couple of observations. One, we've seen great international engagement to connect virtually, because if you're free from the burdens and the costs of travel and time associated with getting here, that you can again, as we observe with this podcast, jump online together. That's that's pretty that's pretty powerful. We also, I think, anticipate that unlike in real life, your travel plans, your hotel requires you to plan much more in advance. So we see maybe a little more immediacy in the community's decision to, I think, participate or engage. And again, I think a lot of these are suppositions. We we might confirm or correct based upon the experience. We have with the community online this year. So those are at least a couple of quick reactions that come to my mind. And I just add, I think one of the things that will be interesting is when you're on site, everything Happens Live and the majority of it doesn't happen again. But we have a lot of content that will happen like. Then we'll live on in this on-demand universe of content for people to go back to and revisit, and that means that, you know, as you mentioned, we've had an online networking platform to connect to the in-person event in years past. When it's all online, both the content and the networking can live on host events. I think there's potentially a longer tail to the online engagement than in terrans point than we know yet. But it will we're expecting to see a little more engagement beyond just those three days in March. And then again, I go back to it. I have a much higher tolerance. Well, not only for Zoom for Zoom meetings, but also consuming content online. Right that maybe will be archived where five years ago, I said, well, that's the old. That's yesterday's news. But now I kind of pull more of a more importance out of it. And realize that there's still value in there, even though it's archived. Right yeah, absolutely, and I think one of the things that we are proud to do and excited to unveil is not only are we coming to the community through the computer and through mobile phone, but we're also going to do a connected TV. So appreciating that we spend so much time in front of our computers, stepping away from that, saying back on the couch and enjoying some of the content in a different format, hopefully helps alleviate some of the Zoom fatigue that I know we all experience from time. Right let's look at the other side of the coin here a little bit in terms of business models of events in general. So talk about your partners and your sponsors. And you've always had you've always had great support on that side. It seems that you have some great support this year going forward. Is there a difference in expectation from the sponsor side? And I'll look back at some of the events that I used to do as well. There was definitely an expectation of, say, lead generation or going beyond just the brand recognition, but making those connections. And as we said, that it's a lot of the business, and especially with there. I was in a lot of really interesting meetings that would come out of in person, you know, mixers in the hallway. Have you noticed a difference there or difference in expectation on the sponsor side of the coin? Yeah, I'll answer briefly any way. I think that sponsors are really exploring this space along with us. And I think are approaching it with fresh expectations, to your point, you know, traditional trade shows often measured by each and they're certainly an element of that. And again, I think we can facilitate greater connections and access and dialogue in some ways spiritually and maybe the concrete trade show floor really permitted us to do. And yet, on the same token, I think south, by you, to you, it's always been a bit more of a thought leadership event than and a focus on quality over quantity. And so it was less about 100 leads than the three conversations you had that were really moving your business forward. So I feel and I have great respect and we're standing up a virtual exhibit hall, a convention area, and have had, again, a lot of great response from our both longtime sponsors and new sponsors associated with the event. But I think we're all approaching it with probably eyes wide open, looking at, you know, we've been fans in the past of saying, let's try things. And those things at work. Let's really get behind and throw a lot of gas on a fire and whatnot. And I think our supporting partners and organizations come to this event with some of that same hunger to just learn what is the best, best engagement for a unique community at a unique moment in time on it. And so, again, we've had a lot of support from our partners over the year and feel like that endures and is even richer this year than in the past, as we're all trying to figure out and learn new models of it. The and I had to I mean, I think, you know, one of the challenges to being in the trade show is you're kind of have to respond to the foot traffic that comes by, but you can also get lost in five exhibit halls or however big the show is in an online setting. I think people will find you a little more discovery, but intention and you have an ability to maybe portray all the different facets of your work, able to demo more easily, be able to connect one on one with clients and build those more meaningful relationships without having to stand at that table and just wait for the traffic to come through when the coffee break happens or whenever that the flow is really going. So, you know, the jury's out, but I think we're hopeful that that will create new and meaningful ways for folks to connect to. Now Ron, you mentioned the 10th anniversary last year. And believe it or not, I did some due diligence. I did a little reporting before the podcast here, and notice that you had an essay that was put up on the four, I think about this time next year about some of the trends that you both have identified through the years. I found it really interesting because a number of those items have been what I've identified this year as accelerating, number one, being the idea of social emotional learning and the importance of social emotional learning. Maybe two years ago, I might have been a little cynical thinking that was just one of those phrases in the education space that was theoretical and not real. It became real very quickly within days. Write the second was the idea of student voice and having more of a student voice than there was 10 years ago when South by Southwest began. Another one was the idea of personalized learning. Something else that this year has just kind of accelerated. If you can think back to when you mean the piece is almost prescient in terms of the number of things that you were looking at. Can you expound if you can recall that piece and look at some of those topics and think about how you've seen them accelerate or not accelerate in this past year? I really, really like and appreciate the question, and I think we spent a lot of time reflecting on kind of the evolution of the community's interest year over year and certainly against the backdrop of this year. I think it has been really striking for all of us. And I'll throw out maybe a couple quick, quick examples that come to mind. And and invite Greg to compliment with some of his observations as well, starting maybe where you did social and emotional learning, I think has really evolved and grown and relevant something. Trauma is sort of a conversation. And the same. I think a few years ago, that conversation was principally focused on learners and young learners. Frankly, I think that in the last couple of years, it's grown to appreciate. It's not unique to young learners. It's true of all learners, and it's not even restricted to learners. It's a conversation. It's pretty dynamic for teachers and administrators as well. And so I think that, again, social and emotional health is in the reaction to the pandemic, you realize what a social safety net schools provide. And when that is challenged, it sort of revisits kind of their important role, not only for social and emotional health, but food and food access, mental health and safety. Here's an article in the Boston paper today about reports of child abuse in many ways skyrocketing, in other ways being underreported. And so I think that it's again, to a point made earlier, kind of a traumatic time in that respect. So I think clearly a trend that evolves and I think is grown in breadth and depth and substance in many ways, since the preliminary conversations are really conversations we had about to maybe rockhole and a little more optimistic sort of approach, I think we think a lot about. OK, let me start with a dark space again, but get to a brighter place in a hurry. The economic devastation surrounding this, where we see education deeply aligned, reskilling and upskilling and work reimagined in to go forward. And so I think, again, these are topics that have had roots for some time with the community itself biting you. But I think they've grown in relevance and vibrancy. And in much like you observed, Kevin, he was sort of an interesting topic that was maybe, you know, maybe distant to our day to day when all of a sudden we're realizing now this is pretty much everybody's day to day in various forms and fashion, sort of dealing with this. I think I could talk about race and equity, which has always been a strong topic. You that's taking on again. I should. I should just because I'll just carry on with it. But I think even greater urgency and relevance as so many of the conversations that you know, and I'll pick up on that thread, because that's something that we have to Ron's point, spent a lot of time focusing on at the event. And I think when you take education into the community, you take learning into people's homes. You empowered or have parents playing more of a role in that education, providing and students having to take ownership in ways they hadn't before. It is more important than ever that the education is responsive and culturally responsive. Learning is an important piece of that. And we're reflecting a lot of the current issues and events that are happening. We're talking about civic education and digital literacy and just making sense of the world and understanding that how education can fuel that. And also, you know, that's a powerful thing to do when it can fulfill that mission. You know, I think the other thing, too, is, is we've seen a tech ecosystem really change in the decade that we were reflecting on it. And I think in our early years, you spent a lot of time talking about hardware. We had Chromebooks and all sorts of things launching at the event, talked about illnesses. But I think we've really seen the conversation evolve even in the last couple of years before the pandemic. But that attack that helps empower the human parts of learning that creates capacity for the educator student dynamic or for students to feel empowered in their learning is really taken off. And the tools that enable that are really the ones that are succeeding. And I think we're seeing now the importance of those tools is really prevalent that yes, to your point, personalized learning is happening. We're seeing the pandemic work better for some and worse for others. But at the core, the human component that is missing from being distant from one another is really essential to education. And I think is just an. War and peace were missing right now. A lot of the conversations I've had with school district tech directors and superintendents, most of them being on the innovative side, most likely attending South by Southwest in the past, almost have a little bit of a guilt associated with the fact that they keep saying, you know, these are the things that we've advocated for years and we've always met resistance from school boards or parents or from teachers. And now there was no there was no choice. All these things needed to be adopted. And now a lot of people in our community understand the importance of these things. And that going forward, they're going to stick. I mean, a lot of districts all of a sudden have virtual academies where they're going to continue to have fully remote setups going forward for students who want to have that sort of situation. Likewise, the hybrid and the flexibilities that that's going forward. So there do seem to be a number of positives that are coming out of the madness, right? Yeah, very much. So You know, it's interesting, Kevin, a little more than a decade ago, I think one of the things that we thought about it launching South by you is, how do we hold up education as a sector and have it recognized socially the way that we love our music stars and our film makers in our new media, inventors and entrepreneurs. And so forth? Well, you know, the pandemic has given a tremendous escalator to holding up education as a sector and highlighting its relevance in many ways. And to your point, these are conversations. I think we've been having for a decade and longer on it. One of the shows that I think we're experiencing is this the sort of imperative for action, like there's been a lot of transition from inspiration to impact on the. So there is a greater hunger, I think, today at how do I apply this best practice in a way that really moves the needle in the ways that I desire. And so I think that, again, along with the sort of increased recognition of education is a greater desire on the part of educators to contribute to the impact to making things better. And supporting it along. So that's an energy that we always enjoy getting from the community that feels is rich and strong as ever, even given all the challenges we're talking about. I was just going to say, going forward, I think one of the things that will really be an area that needs to be addressed in sort of seeing this in the workforce, reskilling and training space, but how do we do with the learning loss that has happened over the last year? And what role can edtech play in facilitating and supporting that alongside the education community coming back online. And in person? Yeah, well, gentlemen, I knew the hardest part of this entire conversation would be to end it, assuming there are so many of the things that we could talk about and go on with. But I do appreciate your time. I know you're busy leading up very much. Look forward to next week and attending and reporting virtually. I'm hoping to get a number of your panelists and your speakers on future episodes of that tech today. And do look forward to seeing you again in person next March. I'm going I'm putting the bet down that it will be back in person in Australia where we're surely hopeful and optimistic as well, but encourage everybody to stay healthy and be attentive and do all the things we've found over the last year have made it helpful for us all. And together. Maybe we can get there. Absolutely possible. Guys, Thanks for having us and thanks, everybody, for watching. We'll see in the next one.