South By Southwest: Anatomy of a Successful Conference

What began as a simple music festival in Austin, Texas, in 1987 has become one of the most influential events in the United States. South By Southwest -- also called SXSW or simply South By -- now includes film and technology components, and it's a mecca for music junkies, cinema buffs and cutting-edge social technologies looking to become the next big thing (both Twitter and Foursquare got their start here).

The music program, which drew 700 registrants in its first year, had some 17,000 this year (March 9-18), while SXSW Film and SXSW Interactive brought in about 16,000 and 24,500 people, respectively, to the Austin Convention Center. But thousands upon thousands of unregistered groupies also travel to Austin, seeking the plethora of after-parties and independently ticketed events, hoping to mingle, party, and score some free food and drink. While it's impossible to officially tally everyone that comes through town during the 10-day event, some insiders estimate the 2012 event drew as many as 300,000 people to Austin.

To delve deeper into the conference's appeal, M&C went to this year's gathering and picked the brains of Mike Shea, executive director of SXSW; Steven Stout, director of meetings and events for Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals and an Austin resident; and Jason Preston, vice president of strategy and product with the Redmond, Wash.-based events production company Parnassus Group, who was one of many speakers on the show's jam-packed agenda. Following are key takeaways that can be applied to any event.

Create lots of lounging spacePlanners pay for every square foot of a venue, so why not use it? At SXSW, "There wasn't a corner in the convention center that didn't have some interactive lounge or activity for attendees to experience," says Stout. "There's this imperative that we want attendees to spend their time in the sessions and not in the common areas, but if someone wants to go network in a lounge instead of head to a lecture, that's still a win. You're still providing valuable education, because networking is one of the main reasons why people come to face-to-face events."

For the entirety of the show, the convention center's floors, corridors and corners were dotted with sofa-stocked lounges, whiteboards and cell-phone charging stations, many of which were sponsored, and all of which were constantly trafficked by attendees from morning to night. "Everywhere you turned there was a place to sit," Stout notes. "It makes interactions so informal and organic."

Crowdsource education This year's SXSW featured 1,033 panelist sessions that ranged from technology trends in education to "Sex on the Web: The Sabotage of Relationships?" Part of what makes SXSW's educational program unique is that "anyone, anywhere can submit an idea for a panel," says Mike Shea. "We were crowdsourcing our speakers before crowdsourcing was popular, and it's probably the best thing we ever did."

Hopeful speakers submit their concepts through the SXSW PanelPicker, which is open to voting by the public, after which a jury of SXSW organizers picks from the finalists and determines the educational offerings for the year.

Last year, 3,231 session ideas were submitted, so the initial public voting serves as a screening process before organizers even see proposals. It also "gives the SXSW staff a built-in sense of demand for the sessions -- a better sense of which room they should use, how many seats and what kind of space," says Preston, who is working on a project to offer a similar crowdsourcing platform called SessionPicker, which will allow any planner anywhere to create a similar process for a fee. (Preston's project still is in the development stage but is ready to use.) "Simply by getting the public involved, it generates a lot of discussion online and becomes an effective mechanism for keeping the conversation alive year-round," he says.

While the crowdsourcing process allows almost anyone to be a speaker, that also means that panelists' experience levels can vary drastically. To ensure that sessions consistently deliver the quality content SXSW is known for, organizers set up speakers with an online account, complete with checklists, presentation tips and deadlines for them to follow. In addition, SXSW speaker liaisons help panelists by walking them through the preconference process, ensuring they are well prepared for the big day. "It's interactive for a speaker to go online, log in and see his or her progress against the digital checklist SXSW provides, and get instructions and messages from a centralized system," says Preston. "They have made the process of prepping speakers a scalable thing, which isn't an easy task."   
Encourage roommatesSXSW has more than 70 hotel partners around Austin, though properties keep filling up and many registrants end up on waiting lists. In response, event organizers encourage single occupants who have two beds to swap out their room for accommodations with a single bed. This allows attendees who might have a colleague or friend on the waitlist to pair up and make the most of available digs. Registrants interested in proffering their rooms simply e-mail SXSW's housing bureau, which handles the logistics.  

Think beyond the shuttle While traditional shuttle buses are a consistent and reliable way to get around campus at SXSW, they are only one of many options. This year, the event pioneered a bike-share program called SXCycles, which allowed attendees to check out bicycles, helmets, locks and lights for nighttime riding. The program, which was complimentary for registrants, paired well with the bike-friendly and eco-conscious city of Austin and allowed delegates to get in a little exercise between sessions.  

Those who preferred four wheels to two could flag down one of the many Chevrolet Cruzes circulating around the SXSW campus, picking up badge-holding participants and whisking them off to their destinations at no charge. The program, sponsored by Chevrolet and branded Catch A Chevy, was wildly popular.