SXSW day two: Staying curious and dealing with the Fear of Missing Out

What it does mean is that every single person who visits SXSW ends up having a very different experience to anyone else. Indeed, I can guarantee that the only time all of the Engine contingent here out in Texas will be attending the same thing is when England take on Wales in the Six Nations on Sunday.

So please forgive me if my review of Saturday at SXSW misses out something that everyone ends up talking about, or that you’ve seen lots of people on Twitter attending. You just have to pick a session and stick to it, and not constantly haunt yourself with the Fear of Missing Out.

I guess an excellent way to illustrate the above point is Julian Assange. The Wikileaks founder spoke at SXSW on Saturday, and from those I was speaking to, he was guaranteed to pull in quite a crowd. But while he was speaking in the main Exhibition Hall (via Skype), I found myself in a session by Microsoft VP Stephen Kim, who ran a talk snappily titled ‘Beyond Technology: Designing for People.’

Despite Assange, the room was still relatively full, and deservedly so. A slow start soon gave way to a host of exciting demonstrations that couldn’t help but stir the soul with a feeling that the future is bright in useful tech.

Microsoft’s approach is to find ways of better connecting the world. “We see technology as a way to solve the deep human needs of interaction,” Kim said. And what seemed to typify that best was the work being done with Xbox Kinect. No longer is the Kinnect simply a way of enhancing gaming (although a revolutionary new system that Kim termed ‘Illumi Room’ certainly takes that genre up a notch), the device can also now be used in business, in areas like health. Indeed Kim showed how the Kinect’s sign language translation capability is helping deaf people communicate with their doctors. It really was fascinating stuff.

Less fascinating, but just as enthralling, was the Saturday keynote, provided by Dr Neil DeGrasse Tyson. You may know him as the man responsible for demoting Pluto from planet status. Embarrassingly, you may like me know him more as the guy who spars with Sheldon in The Big Bang Theory.

In a captivating hour (Tyson’s delivery is supremely polished, and when he was on one of his monologues you could hear a pin drop in a 3,500 seater auditorium filled to capacity), Tyson drummed home a theory that we really should all try and work much harder to abide by – that is, stay curious. “Some lessons need to be learnt first hand,” Tyson explained. “If you think the price of college is costly, try the cost of ignorance.” It’s a lesson that mustn't just be abided by high school kids or even those getting into the industry for the first time. Everyone must try and retain some sort of childlike curiosity. To want to explore new areas. To question everything. Only then will we be able to discover something new and unique.

The final session of the day covered the subject of Combinational Creativity. The issue of collaboration already seems like a recurring theme at SXSW, and it’s true that bringing two brilliant minds together from differing areas of expertise can produce something far more interesting than the norm.

And while this panel contained more SXSW clichés than a high-school sitcom (abundant uses of the word ‘awesome’, superlatives galore etc), it did become abundantly clear that when a brand shows genuine willingness to collaborate with interesting people and ‘try something new’, rather than just chase hits or likes, then something very exciting can happen. Think Red Bull. Think Gatorade. Think Old Spice. There’s a reason these brands are winning Cannes Lions. It’s because they’re brave, they’re daring, and passionate about their brands.

So today pretty much summed up the whole overall SXSW experience. It’s diverse, it’s thought provoking and it can be pretty intense. And while everyone will be kicking themselves at some point about something they didn’t attend, you can’t fail to come away inspired by the session that you were at.