Download pdf - Epsilon Guide to SXSW Interactive 2016

2016 SXSW Interactive offers a robust and deep range of topics by some of the best thought leaders from marketing to technology. We’ve specially curated a list of must attend talks and panels based on their relevance of topic, application to your business, strength of speakers, and how they align to the following five key trend territories we’ve identified for 2016. 1.  Social Messaging 2.  AI and Emotive Robotics 3.  Virtual Reality 4.  Dark Social 5.  Connected Everything

For additional insight and analysis of the trends above, feel free to reach out to our Chief Digital Officer, Tom Edwards at [email protected]

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Friday, March 11

Lerer’s Theory of Media Evolution

Why: Understand how the evolving media landscape will change the way we connect and build trust with consumers.

Hilton Austin Downtown | Salon G

We’re Not Gonna Take It: Ad Blocking and User Revolt

Why: With a host of ad-blocking companies (aided by Apple) making it easier for users to avoid ad views, it is getting harder to reach customers. Find out who’s doing what to fix this issue.

Sheraton Austin | Capitol Ballroom

11:00am – 12:00pm

12:30 – 1:30pm

The Next Multibillion Opportunity: Marketing in Messaging

Why: A panel of key executives from Kik, Snap, Comedy Central and Unilever will address how to effectively engage consumers in messaging apps to reach audiences. Brands need to understand the right way and what’s available to effectively connect.

Hilton Austin Downtown | Salon J

Proximity Predictions: The Future of Advertising

Why: Brand and mobile marketers come together to predict how mobile engagement will evolve over the next 18 months. As smartphones and sensors provide brands the ability to connect with their audiences, it’s important to understand how emerging technologies will allow us to do this more effectively and efficiently.

Courtyard Marriott | Rio Grande Ballroom

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Deep Web and Dark Social: Is Anything Really Private?

Why: Understand the implications of Deep Web i.e. Facebook and Dark Social i.e. email, text messaging and its overall impact on how consumers are connecting behind the scenes to uncover richer insights into your customer’s online behavior.

Austin Convention Center | Room 8ABC

Go Native or Go Home: Ads and Addictive Content

Why: As ad-blocking adoption grows, native content provides brands a solution to connect with their customers in an authentic way. This panel should provide insights into how both brands and bloggers are collaborating and co-creating content together.

Westin Austin Downtown | Continental 3

3:30 – 4:30pm

5:00 – 6:00pm

Marketing to Moments that Matter

Why: Gain insights on how consumers connect around their most important moments on Facebook and Instagram and how brands can participate to enhance these moments. Get good insights into not only the right way to enrich moments, but also get your audience to amplify your brand message with their networks.

Hilton Austin Downtown | Salon H |

Mobile Deep Linking: Let’s Talk about Apps, Baby

Why: With over 1.5M apps, discovery is becoming a significant challenge for brands to get their app discovered. Deep-linking offers a solution for brand to partner with other app platforms to create a cohesive seamless experiences, thus driving discovery and engagement.

JW Marriott | Salon D

Saturday, March 12

Get the Message! The Rise of Conversational UI

Why: The rise of AI and chatbots is forcing designers and experienced designers to reconsider interaction models between systems and consumers. Chatbots offers brands a unique ability to scale connections with their users and promote content discovery, but it is important to delineate the differences in interaction models between chatbots/human and human/human interaction.


IoT: A Thousand Touchpoints of Marketing

Why: Discuss the rules of engagement of a connected world, when everything could be a message: what are the organizing principles for branding and advertising in a sublimely connected world. Brand marketers need to understand the ramifications of when every device is connected, the role of devices, how and what data to capture, and when and how to message in an ubiquitous world.


9:30 – 10:30 am

11:00 am – 12:00 pm

The Future Will Be Personalized

Why: Personalization is becoming expected. Consumers are bombarded with so many messages they will now only pay attention to things that matter to them when they matter the most. Brands need to understand how they can take this further into the product level to drive deeper loyalty.

Westin Austin Downtown | Continental 1-2

Virtual Reality and the New Sales Experience

Why: The implications of VR in the retail space and what that means for brands as we move to a “Retail Everywhere” environment. Understanding how to design the right virtual experience can help drive trial and in-store traffic.



LEGO Group and Cartoon Network: Building Future Fans

Why: Finding the right partner and platform is becoming invaluable in an environment where it’s becoming more difficult to scale your reach. Partners can not only help you reach the right audience, but also connect with them in a deeper and more contextually relevant way.

Austin Convention Center | Room 12AB

12:30 – 1:30 pm

3:30 – 4:30 pm

AI and Your Shopping Habits:

Why: In addition to this being hosted by some of the biggest online shopping platforms, Zappos and Pinterest, this panel will provide you with insights and examples of how different companies are using machine learning to uber-curate and personalize their customers’ shopping experiences.

Westin Austin Downtown | Continental 3

Rise of the Social Employee

Why: Social Media isn’t just a tool for consumers to broadcast their feelings and opinions about brands to their networks, but also been a vehicle for employees to do the same thing about your company. The CEO of Hearsay Social discusses how you can leverage this new paradigm and turn it into a way to attract new and deepen existing relationships with clients.

Hilton Austin Downtown | Salon E

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Sunday, March 13

Analytics for Social Marketing

Why: Aligning your organization on the right social metrics can help transform Big Data into actionable insights that will help you uncover new patterns and trends, providing insights for your product development, and micro-segment customers to refine marketing campaigns.


9:30 – 10:30 am

11:00 am – 12:00 pm

The API Economy: Develop, Innovate, Transform

Why: API’s act as the digital glue that creates seamless experiences between different services and applications. Google, for example, leverages the Uber API to keep their users within the Google maps. As the use of API explodes, brands need to understand how they are changing the way brands are building customer centric seamless experiences


Human-Centered Design: Why Empathy Isn't Enough

Why: Successful branded experiences are designed around the needs and behaviors of its customers. In this discussion, one of the best brand experience designers will share principles and tool on how to design experiences that delight, change behavior and transform your brand experience.

JW Marriott | Salon FGH


Creating a Meaningful Dialogue Through Video

Why: Video has become the primary form of content for people to connect with each other and for brands to connect with their audiences. Hear the head of brand solutions for Vimeo and the Director of Content Strategy for Edelman discuss how brands, platforms and creators can partner to create meaningful rich content for their right audience.


Mo' Money Mo' Problems: Luxury Confronts Digital

Why: Learn how luxury brands can remain exclusive even in the openness and infinite web. Panelists from Havas Luxe, Giorgio Armani and Lamercatique will explore how luxury brands can remain niche and aspirational while embracing digital and social channels.


2:00 – 3:00 pm

3:30 – 4:30 pm

Let’s Drop the Term Millennials

Why: Millennials are now the largest spending cohort, but we need to think beyond their impact now and think about their influence on culture and design for future generations. Philipe Von Borris, CEO and Co-founder of Refinery29, will explain to us why we need to reframe Millennial from an age-group to a mindset, and what this means for the future of business and society.

Hilton Austin Downtown | Salon H

Understanding Average: The Inertia of Culture

Why: The idea of mass adoption or achieving scale can be difficult in environment of niches and personalization. Learn insights into the behavior of average Americans and how you can leverage these to inform your strategy and creative.


Deconstructing Creepy: New Tech, Old Social Norms

Why: Privacy has been one of the most highly debated topics. Executives from both Slack technologies and the Future of Privacy forum discuss risk mitigation strategies on how to avoid the next privacy snafu.

Hilton Austin Downtown | Salon K

12:30 – 1:30 pm

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Monday, March 13

Smart Ad Campaigns: It’s Not about the Product

Why: Consumers are looking beyond brands just selling them products to delivering content that connects in a meaningful way. This panel will provide you with insights and thought starters on how you can create content that inspires genuine and loyal relationships with customers.


Less Is More: Curated Consumption Why: The internet has created choice paralysis on a mass scale. Infinite product and service options lead to few discoveries and opportunities wasted. More and more consumers are turning to sources they trust to curate lists of choices so they don’t have to. Learn how companies like Pluto TV are curating content to drive higher engagement and loyalty with their platform.


9:30 – 10:30 am

11:00 am – 12:00 pm

The Social Celebrity Secret Sauce

Why: Celebrities aren’t born out of TV or movies anymore, they can come from any social platform, and today they wield an enormous amount of influence on their audiences. Learn from some of the top online celebrities their secrets on how they grow and engage with their audiences.

Austin Convention Center | Next Stage

Lead, Not Follow: The Consumer's Mobile Journey

Why: Smartphones are the primary interaction point between brands and consumers. They are with them from the moment they wake till the moment they go to sleep. In this panel discussion, you’ll learn the rules of engagement on how leading brands are proactively leading customers through the mobile purchase journey rather than following them.



How All Brands Can Win with Game Advertising

Why: Twitch, Facebook, Nielsen, and IAB come together to discuss how brands set key game industry trends, the type of advertising formats, and share use cases on how brands are using live gaming, one of the fastest growing industries, for into maximum brand impact.


12:30 – 1:30 pm

3:30 – 4:30 pm

Live Streaming Is Bigger than You Think

Why: If you can’t make it to How All Brands Can Win with Game Advertising presentation then here is another chance to learn how companies like Twitch and Coca-Cola are using live-streaming and gaming to drive engagement.


5:00 – 6:00pm

12 Inevitable Tech Forces That Will Shape Our Future

Why: Because it’s Kevin Kelly, one of the founding editors of Wired Magazine and one of the most prolific thinkers of our time. He will take you through a journey of 12 forces from AI to VR and beyond that will fundamentally change the marketing landscape.

Austin Convention Center | Ballroom D

Building Great Data Visualizations: A Case Study

Why: Let’s face it, data can be a dry thing to present. Learn how experts from Climate Central and the founder of Radish Lab partnered to convert temperature data into a compelling, yet simple, interactive visual.


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Tuesday, March 15

Immersive Content: The Future of Storytelling

Why: Immersive content is the next level of storytelling. Publications like the New York Times have been experimenting with immersive content such as Google Cardboard, but how will it evolve as technology progresses? O2 and the United Nations will take you through their first foray into VR films and discuss where it might be going.

Austin Convention Center | Ballroom C

Predictive Decisions to Deliver High Performance

Why: Formula 1 is one of the most complex sports with almost infinite variables that could go along. Learn from the McLaren Racing team how they use predictive analytics to deliver on high performance and take a lesson on how we can apply the same approach to data analytics.

Austin Convention Center | Ballroom 8ABC

12:30 – 1:30 pm

2:00 – 3:00pm

Making Distributed Content Work in News

Why: Although not a marketing focused talk, panelists from two of the largest news sources will provide insights and opportunities on how to make distributed content work.

Austin Convention Center | Ballroom 8ABC


Subtle Interfaces: Designing for Calm Tech

Why: We keep thinking of interfaces as only a screen, but there are also other screen-less variations, for example Amazon’s voice controlled Alexa, that we can design for and deliver messaging. This panel will discuss how they design for varied experiences and share insights on how they design products that respond to social contexts.


3:30 – 4:30 pm

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Mashable House Experience the internet of the future

The Main | 610 E 6th St

IBM Cognitive Studio Come experience Watson as you are guided through a playground for your cognitive senses at the IBM Cognitive Studio!

Brazos Hall | 204 E 4th St

Gatorade Fuel Lab Showcase of the latest in sports fuel innovation through an immersive experience. To serve today’s evolved athlete, Gatorade is combining new data about performance, nutrition and

Brazos Hall | 204 E 4th St

Kodak Moments Step inside a memory and go on a journey through the senses and the meaning of moments in the digital age. Directed by Marcos Lutyens.

Austin Convention Center | Ballroom D

Refinery 29’s School of Self Expression An immersive classroom — and visual playground — where creativity, technology, and style collide. Explore expert-led classes, interactive art installations, and the newest tech fueling expression today.

Mexic-arte | 419 Congress Ave


Continental Club

Hotel Vegas

Shakespear’s

Scoot In

Bars with Live Music

Recommended Events And Lounges

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Casino El Camino

Cheer Up Charlie’s

Hole in the Wall

Bars

Spiderhouse

Coffee Shop/Bar Restaurant with Live Music and Film

Franklin's bbq

Enchiladas y Mas

Komé Sushi Kitchen

Hoover's Cooking

Chilito

Alborz Persian

Restaurants

El Patio

Lucy’s Fried Chicken

Hoboken Pie

Stubb's BBQ

The Parlor Pizza

Magnolia Café