SXSW 2017: Deconstructed

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DECONSTRUCTED

Transcript of SXSW 2017: Deconstructed

DECONSTRUCTED

INTRODUCTION

As SXSW Interactive comes to a close for another year, an inspired panel of creators, marketers and entrepreneurs stepped off the plane and into Porter Novelli’s office ‘Bankside 2’, to share their opinions on the good, the bad and the over-hyped at SXSW 2017.

It was a slimmed down conference this year – buzz at SXSW suggests the festival’s international attendance may be down due to Trump. Even so, there were 72,000 people, 2,800 sessions, 350 parties, 1.7 million tweets and a confluence of perspectives that is difficult to replicate.

The diversity was apparent in the sessions our panel had gone to – each coming back and shining a different light on the same day job challenges and how to overcome them.

As one put it, “#sxsw2017 is good for seeing things in a broader context - productive disorientation”, and another declared, “I always go to the maddest talks I can find”.

So what was SXSW talking about this year? We centered the panel’s discussion around the three biggest and most controversial topics at SXSW 2017:

‘The AI Revolution’ (#1), ‘Smart Clothing’ (#2) and ‘New Health Tech’ (#3). For those who couldn’t listen live, this report replays the best bits, including the frank perspectives of the experts (mind the expletives!), to give you a tangible and pragmatic view of SXSW 2017.

Here is the panel that has helped us to deconstruct SXSW Interactive 2017…

@GKMIL

NE1

@NIL

SLEONARD

@JO

SHDICKIN

S

LAURA JORDAN BAMBACHCHIEF CREATIVE OFFICER,MR PRESIDENT

JOSH DICKINSCULTURAL FUTURES TEAM AT FLAMINGO LONDON

GEMMA MILNECO-FOUNDER OF SCIENCE: DISRUPT

NILS LEONARDFOUNDER OF HALO

MATTHEW DRINKWATERHEAD OF LCF’S FASHION INNOVATION AGENCY

@DRIN

KMATT

@LAURAJA

YBEE

THE AI REVOLUTION

01

Everyone seemed to be touting the power and promise of Artificial Intelligence at SXSW this year (or alternatively, like Bruce Sterling – a futurist and science fiction writer, wondering if it will put us all out of work). The whole panel expressed irritation towards this dystopian vision of AI, “Robots are going to steal our jobs, we’re not going to have poets any more, that’s just bollocks”.

Porter Novelli’s host, Richard Zackheim, quoted billionaire Mark Cuban who said, “the world’s first trillionaires are going to come from somebody who masters AI”. Gemma Milne responded “While the marketing industry is still talking about AI as a future trend, a lot of other industries have already done it”. Disney for example spoke about how “Artificial intelligence is going to allow us to get closer to our characters” in their session Using AI & Machine Learning to Extend the Disney Magic.

On our panel, Laura Jordan Bambach, warned about the ethical issues of AI “they are run by private military corporations and coded by a very small group of society – young, white, very well-off, Western men”. She had been to a talk by Kate Crawford a former colleague, now advisor to The White House and founder of AI Now. “There is a big military operation underway at the moment running AI for border control for the States and once that’s in progress what happens at border control when a border control person can say to you ‘It’s not me it’s the AI, AI didn’t let you in’. Does this incredible power with no accountability equate to fascism?”.

PORTER NOVELLI WANTED TO KNOW WHAT THE GENERAL PUBLIC THOUGHT.

WE ASKED AN ETHEREAL QUESTION“WHAT’S GOING TO COME FIRST – A PERSON ON MARS, OR AI REPLACING YOUR JOB?”

Source: Toluna survey of 1000 UK adults, 22/03/2017

1 ,001 RESPONDENTS

A PERSON ON MARS

AI REPLACES YOUR OWN JOB

45%55%

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IT’S NOT ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, IT’S AUGMENTED INTELLIGENCE

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That’s how IBM spoke about AI at South By “We call it augmented intelligence because it’s not that the system should replace the human in their decisions, but that the system should support the human in making the decisions” Niklaus Waser, the head of IBM’s new HQ in Germany.

There was a lot of discussion about emotional intelligence at SXSW this year, and actually can Bots replace a human being? “No bloody way can they do that, because emotional intelligence isn’t just learning what you’re saying, and then saying ‘oh, I feel for you’, that’s actually a very abusive relationship” said Josh Dickens from Flamingo.

“Bots are successful when they serve a very specific purpose, that is making something quicker, easier and more efficient than a human being can do it”. This view, Dickens said, is Dharmesh Shah’s (Co-founder and CTO of HubSpot) who proclaimed in his presentation, “Chatbots are the most important technology development since the advent of the Internet”.

On the flip side, Gemma argued, “I think you’ve also got to remember, what is a Bot? It’s just a glorified flow chart. You know those ones in girl magazines, ‘Should you go on a date with him?’ That’s what a Bot is, genuinely. When it really works is when it starts learning from what you’re saying, which they’re not doing”.

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WEARABLES HAVE BEEN DESCRIBED AS IN THEIR AWKWARD TEENAGE YEARS. DO YOU THINK THAT’S A FAIR ASSESSMENT OF WHERE WE’RE AT WITH THAT TECHNOLOGY?

SMART CLOTHING

“Yes, I think it is”, said Matthew Drinkwater. “But the opportunity is really huge. For us seeing a platform for the body being created, and just moving the dialogue away from the wrist, is something which is genuinely exciting for us” (talking about Project Jacquard).

“I think it begins to show the direction that future retailers will go, as we begin to scale up the supply chain of conductive yarn and it is used by a much wider audience. I think you’ll see more applications of it”.

“But the truth is, the cult and sex of fashion is lost in wearables” says Nils Leonard. “The romantic in me hopes smart clothing will start to live the brand more, I want it to be naughty and cool and weird”.

A talk called the ‘Crossover of Future in ArtxTech by Women in Design’ by six women: Anouk, Behnaz, Tiffany Frenda, Noa Aviv, Wendy Fok and Dara Dotz, had inspired Laura Jordan Bambach. Their delicate and dangerous interactive garments were all about protection of personal space from the male gaze and body “I saw some amazing wearable stuff, which wasn’t Jacquard. There was one woman who had made this shawl and if a guy comes and stands near her boobs, it comes out like porcupines in waves. That to me is kinda cool”.

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Meanwhile, Bolt Threads, a biotechnology company, debuts $314 necktie made entirely from ‘spider silk’

However, we must be clear ‘No spiders were involved in making this spider silk’. Bolt Threads instead use genetically modified yeast, water, and sugar that make it molecularly the same as natural spider silk. It also has the potential to be both more sustainable and more versatile than existing textiles.

HYPE OR REALITY

“VINCI” ANDROID TOUCHSCREEN WIRELESS HEADPHONES

“XPERIA TOUCH”SONY’S PROJECTOR THAT

TURNS ANY SURFACE INTO A TOUCHSCREEN

“MAPLY”APP ALLOWS YOU TO

DISCOVER USER-GENERATED LOCAL EVENTS

‘SMART TAMPON’DETECTS ENDOMETRIOSIS

“THIS WAY”AI-DRIVEN RECRUITMENT APP THAT MATCHES CVS TO JOBS

“EXOSKELETON”A ROBOT FOR WAREHOUSE

WORKERS TO INCREASE ENDURANCE

HYPE HYPEREALITY

REALITY HYPE

REALITY REALITY REALITY

We asked our panel about the most inventive ideas coming

out of SXSW 2017 to give their verdict, Hype (just a fad) or

Reality (it’s here to stay)

“TELEBEAUTY”AN APP FOR VIDEO CALLS THAT

DIGITALLY APPLIES MAKEUP

“VAPETRONICS”THE WORLD’S FIRST MOBILE

CASE TO STORE/CHARGE YOUR VAPE PEN

03NEW HEALTH TECH

This year, the health theme was certainly in the spotlight, with a number of the official “Health Track” sessions having been moved to the main stage.

To a sold-out crowd of 1,300, Joe Biden, former Vice President of the United States, delivered an impassioned plea to “the techies” in the audience to find a cure for cancer. “You are the future,” Biden said in his first major speech on cancer since leaving the White House. “Many of you are developing technologies and innovations for purposes large and small that have nothing to do with cancer. But you can make a gigantic impact. Your ingenuity can have a profound impact on cancer.” Bidden told a packed audience how his son Beau’s death from brain cancer kept him from running for president in 2016, but spurred him into intense action.

“I think unless we change the way we reward talent, it’s not going to happen” said Gemma Milne. “I think the tech industry could encourage people to go and check their breasts, but I don’t think the next Mark Zuckerberg is going to spend his time trying to cure cancer. Unless he’s in Computational Biology or Material Physics and I think that’s more likely where it’s going to come from”.

Laura Jordan Bambach brought the conversation back to Biotech. “Over at SXSW Create, the maker and kids venue, I came across a new kind of maker group focused on biology rather than the usual engineering. From “Extract the DNA of a Strawberry” kits to “Make Your Own Microscope”, BioHive had plenty to offer the throngs of primary school kids that were there, and those of us grown ups who still love playing science”

Democratising biotechnology is something Gemma Milne had come across before “You should check out London biohackspace (LBHS) where you can do things like changing the colour of the plant, to brew your own insulin! It’s a great way to learn and be inspired.”

ABOUT PORTER NOVELLI

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For additional information, please visit www.porternovelli.com. Porter Novelli is a part of the Omnicom Public Relations Group.

About Omnicom Public Relations Group

Omnicom Public Relations Group is a global collective of three of the top global public relations agencies worldwide and specialist agencies in areas including public affairs, marketing to women, fashion, global health strategy and corporate social responsibility. It encompasses more than 6,000 public relations professionals in more than 330 offices worldwide who provide their expertise to companies, government agencies, NGOs and nonprofits across a wide range of industries.

Omnicom Public Relations Group is part of the DAS Group of Companies, a division of Omnicom Group Inc. that includes more than 200 companies in a wide range of marketing disciplines including advertising, public relations, healthcare, customer relationship management, events, promotional marketing, branding and research.

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SOURCE Porter Novelli London