Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With
Speaker 1: tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello again, everyone,
Speaker 1: Welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Poett, and
Speaker 1: I'm an editor at how stuff works dot com and
Speaker 1: sitting across from me as always a senior writer, Jonathan Strickland.
Speaker 1: All my exes live in Texas. That's why I hang
Speaker 1: my hat in Tennessee. Nice. It took me a while
Speaker 1: to pull that one up ollow my memory. So today
Speaker 1: we're going west, yes, and a little south Yes. South
Speaker 1: By Southwest. Yeah, it's um, it's funny. Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: it's a big thing now. Yeah, it's a huge thing now.
Speaker 1: So south By Southwest is this amazing, bizarre, insane crow
Speaker 1: ow did awesome conference that takes place in Austin, Texas,
Speaker 1: the main one, anyway, you'll see little little satellite south
Speaker 1: By Southwest events happen in other places, but the big
Speaker 1: one happens in Austin. And it actually started out back
Speaker 1: in seven as the south By Southwest Music Conference. Yes,
Speaker 1: actually my band played south By Southwest in two thousand
Speaker 1: and four. Is the last time that I was actually
Speaker 1: there and um, yeah, actually at one point there were
Speaker 1: a series of events. Uh there was north By Northwest
Speaker 1: and north By Northeast, which the latter I think is
Speaker 1: still going. Um and uh yeah at the time, I
Speaker 1: can tell you, and it's not the main focus, but
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's it was all kinds of bands
Speaker 1: representing all kinds of music. Basically. It lots of little establishments, clubs,
Speaker 1: bars and things like that. And um, the idea that
Speaker 1: you were an indie musician at south By Southwest in
Speaker 1: the early two thousand's, I mean, of course it's that
Speaker 1: was almost twenty years in. Is the music conference that
Speaker 1: was a pretty big thing. We were really excited to
Speaker 1: have the opportunity to play. Yeah, I mean, independent bands
Speaker 1: would use this as an opportunity to get to get
Speaker 1: out there, to get seen by new fans, to possibly
Speaker 1: get picked up by a record label, even because he
Speaker 1: had record label executives going to these conferences to see
Speaker 1: which bands were hot, which ones got got really good
Speaker 1: fan reaction, which ones might be a good investment from
Speaker 1: a record label standpoint, Even if small record labels as
Speaker 1: well as big ones would go to south By Southwest
Speaker 1: and check out the acts there, and uh, you know
Speaker 1: that was the whole real purpose of it. I mean,
Speaker 1: Austin has always been known as a live music town. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because you've got the University of Texas there. Yes, um
Speaker 1: ghost sooners. Just kidding, I'm kidding, I'm kidding. Please don't
Speaker 1: come after me, long horns. I love you, I love you.
Speaker 1: I think I think the phrase you were looking for
Speaker 1: was hookum horns, go a and m anyway there, just
Speaker 1: asking for trouble, you know, And if you want to
Speaker 1: get at me, just say go yellow jackets. So so,
Speaker 1: Austin is a is definitely a college town. There are
Speaker 1: lots and lots of students there at the University of
Speaker 1: Texas and it's a great place to uh you know,
Speaker 1: they like to go out for entertainment and do all
Speaker 1: kinds of hanging out. So it was a good place
Speaker 1: to go see live music. I'm sure quite a few
Speaker 1: of them are in bands. Uh. Texas is known for
Speaker 1: its music programs. I think Austin, Texas shares a lot
Speaker 1: with Athens, Georgia, which is where I went to college.
Speaker 1: And Athens, Georgia also has a very lively live music scene.
Speaker 1: And it was a joke at least among me and
Speaker 1: my friends that if you attended the University of Georgia,
Speaker 1: you are either in a band, you were good friends
Speaker 1: with someone who was in a band, or you roomed
Speaker 1: with someone who is in a band. Yeah, so you
Speaker 1: were you were. You were at most a degree of
Speaker 1: separation away from a band. And when I say band,
Speaker 1: I mean a group of people who would get together
Speaker 1: at generally the same time and generally play music instruments
Speaker 1: and generally the same way. You have to be really
Speaker 1: loose with your definition. But uh yeah, so yeah, you
Speaker 1: had all these great venues. You had the culture in
Speaker 1: in Texas that Austin has this great kind of unofficial
Speaker 1: motto I guess it's technically official now called keep it Weird.
Speaker 1: Where they got this kind of wacky weird sense that
Speaker 1: you've got the improv everywhere. Guys coming out of the
Speaker 1: University of Texas, I mean they're brilliant. Um well, I
Speaker 1: mean college towns are are often known for the you know,
Speaker 1: sort of counterculture thing where all kinds you have people
Speaker 1: with all kinds of different interests and people who are
Speaker 1: uh learning more about themselves and so they try try
Speaker 1: on different hats, so to speak. But Yeah, it's a
Speaker 1: it's a great place to go see a show, great
Speaker 1: place to get something to eat. Yeah, the food there
Speaker 1: so but but we were saying, you know, it's not
Speaker 1: just it's not just music. But started to become attracted
Speaker 1: to this conference and and because there were some companies
Speaker 1: in Austin that uh, that we're in the technology space
Speaker 1: and and you you've got a lot of cross over here.
Speaker 1: I mean, not everyone. You you know, we can't just
Speaker 1: easily define people into a simple category like this is
Speaker 1: a musician, this is an engineer, this is you know,
Speaker 1: a film producer, because a lot of these people have
Speaker 1: interests that go across those boundaries. Yeah, we had, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, in the in the nineties and the two thousands,
Speaker 1: there were lots of kids who were getting into technology. Um,
Speaker 1: you know. Plus, you know, you have the big companies relocating,
Speaker 1: as we were talking about Dell and and some of
Speaker 1: the places who opened shop. There are a lot of
Speaker 1: a lot of software companies. A lot of game companies
Speaker 1: were out of Austin up so tragically many of those
Speaker 1: have closed since then. But during the big computer game boom,
Speaker 1: there were a lot of offices that opened out in
Speaker 1: Austin that led the people who who managed south By
Speaker 1: Southwest to expand the conference to to be more than
Speaker 1: just music, to be a film and technology as well. Yeah,
Speaker 1: was the first year where they officially created the the
Speaker 1: south By Southwest Film and Multi Media Conference. Uh. Now,
Speaker 1: at that time it still was that that was you know,
Speaker 1: the earliest years of it. By a few years later
Speaker 1: and they actually had three tracks of programming, which was
Speaker 1: south By Southwest Music, south By Southwest Film, and the
Speaker 1: new south By Southwest Interactive and interactive is pretty much
Speaker 1: all things technology computer mobile, although at that time in
Speaker 1: mobile was still a few several years off, you know,
Speaker 1: people were just using cell phones, not not smartphones. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And and let me tell you that that uh, you know,
Speaker 1: south By Southwest over the past few years has become
Speaker 1: a really big thing for the technology sector. But um,
Speaker 1: even a few years after, uh, after its expansion into
Speaker 1: the interactive front, UM, I could tell you that when
Speaker 1: my band played there, Now, I wasn't admittedly I was,
Speaker 1: I wasn't a tech journalist at that point. Um, but
Speaker 1: the inter active side, while I was sort of interested
Speaker 1: and wanted to go it was it seemed more closed
Speaker 1: off to me. It wasn't really uh nearly as big
Speaker 1: a thing in two thousand four when I went as
Speaker 1: it is now in two thousand and eleven. UM, And
Speaker 1: I'm not quite sure exactly what happened with that. I mean,
Speaker 1: there are there are some things that we can point to,
Speaker 1: uh and I'm sure we'll get to this in just
Speaker 1: a minute. But UM, I'm not certain exactly why south
Speaker 1: By Southwest took off, other than the fact that it's
Speaker 1: a really cool place to be. You know, you have
Speaker 1: I don't know, I has to use the word competition.
Speaker 1: You think about Macworld and uh, you know E three
Speaker 1: UM and the C E S conferences and in places
Speaker 1: like that and UM C T I A and places
Speaker 1: where you would also go look for technology. UM. But
Speaker 1: they're not the same. They don't have the same vibe
Speaker 1: that south By Southwest has. Yes, south By Southwest and
Speaker 1: world the conference is all about sharing information, right, and
Speaker 1: sharing knowledge and and kind of looking ahead at what
Speaker 1: where technology is going and how to take advantage of that.
Speaker 1: We do have to remember that chiefly south By Southwest
Speaker 1: is a conference. There are kind of two worlds that
Speaker 1: go on at a south By Southwest. Yes, there are, right,
Speaker 1: You've got your world of conference. Whi's got all the
Speaker 1: panels and the discussions, and you've got these really smart
Speaker 1: people all getting together and really talking about what makes
Speaker 1: people tick, what makes technology tick, where the two intersect
Speaker 1: and the best way to take advantage of it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's it's at two pm down there and at
Speaker 1: the hall and go check it out. And that's when
Speaker 1: and where it's going to happen. And it'll be a
Speaker 1: panel discussion with some Sometimes these panel discussions have really
Speaker 1: I mean big movers and shakers in the technology world.
Speaker 1: We're talking about folks like Zuckerberg has been speakers at
Speaker 1: south By Southwest Rights founder of founder of Facebook. All right,
Speaker 1: were you like the alleged founder of I saw this
Speaker 1: documentary anyway, I believe him to be the founder, but
Speaker 1: others disagree. Founder of Facebook, the tesla is the inventor
Speaker 1: of radio, founder of Facebook, and the uh so, yeah,
Speaker 1: there you've got. You've got that world. But then you
Speaker 1: have the other world that happens at south By Southwest,
Speaker 1: which is their vampires and werewolves. It depends on what
Speaker 1: part of Austin you're in. Their vats. Austin's got a
Speaker 1: lot of bats. There are bats. I recommend going to
Speaker 1: see the Bridge with the Bats. Yes, that's that's kind
Speaker 1: of fun. My wife, my wife and I went and
Speaker 1: saw it, and my wife said that was the one
Speaker 1: and only time she ever has to do that. But
Speaker 1: it's cool. It is cool. She was not a big fan.
Speaker 1: But yeah. The the other world is the party world,
Speaker 1: the world in which people are getting together to schmooze
Speaker 1: and kind of network and hobnob and they're hanging out
Speaker 1: at various parties. UM south By Southwest has actually gotten
Speaker 1: some criticism about this because the party scene has really
Speaker 1: exploded over the last few years, particularly once Interactive really
Speaker 1: started getting big. Becau you suddenly all these these guys,
Speaker 1: these young guys and women, these young people, i should say,
Speaker 1: these young people who have a big influx of money,
Speaker 1: often from venture capital, and they're trying to get noticed,
Speaker 1: and they're throwing extravagant parties and they're hosting food trucks
Speaker 1: where you can get free food from them, and which
Speaker 1: is always a great way of of getting a bunch
Speaker 1: of people to really be happy about your products, at
Speaker 1: least for the you know, a five minute segment of time. UM.
Speaker 1: And there's some criticism being directed that it's taking focus
Speaker 1: away from the whole thinking about technology and people element
Speaker 1: of the conference. The parties are overshadowing it um But
Speaker 1: at the same time, the parties are a way for
Speaker 1: you to actually meet with other people who are launching products.
Speaker 1: There may be potential partnerships you can strike up at
Speaker 1: these meetings, or you can meet people who are actual
Speaker 1: users and get real time feedback from people saying, you know,
Speaker 1: I tried using your app and I think it's a
Speaker 1: great idea, but it's you know, I really wanted to
Speaker 1: do this with it and it doesn't let me. And
Speaker 1: the kind of the person who've developed the app might say,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, you're right, that's brilliant. I don't know
Speaker 1: why we didn't build that in. We will. I am
Speaker 1: going to make a note and we are going to
Speaker 1: build that into the next version, and who knows, that
Speaker 1: might be the thing that makes that particular app take
Speaker 1: off in the market. So it's a really valuable part
Speaker 1: of the conference experience, but again it's kind of started
Speaker 1: to overshadow the actual conference. There are people who will
Speaker 1: tell you, because I've talked to them, that you don't
Speaker 1: need to get a badge to go to this conference.
Speaker 1: This conference is not just it's open to the public,
Speaker 1: but you have to pay to go, and it's expensive.
Speaker 1: A badge to this conference. We're talking over a thousand dollars,
Speaker 1: depending upon the level of access you want and and
Speaker 1: how many of the tracks of programming you want access to.
Speaker 1: Because it's just interactive, it's going to be a different
Speaker 1: amount than if you want pass to the entire conference. So, uh,
Speaker 1: the thing about the parties is you don't necessarily have
Speaker 1: to have a badge to go to those. So there
Speaker 1: are a lot of people who go to south By
Speaker 1: Southwest who are not actually attending the conference. They're just
Speaker 1: going to all the other satellite events around the city.
Speaker 1: I was one of those, in the interest of full
Speaker 1: disclosure for for south By Southwest eleven. Well, Caroline McCarthy
Speaker 1: at sen basically, by the way, the day we're recording this,
Speaker 1: which is May six, two thou eleven, is her last
Speaker 1: day at Senet. Really, Caroline's leaving Senet today. That's terrible.
Speaker 1: She's a great reporter. She's moving on to Google. Okay, okay,
Speaker 1: so we'll see more, yes we will. But she wrote
Speaker 1: a piece and I want to talk about the main
Speaker 1: thread of that in a moment, but um, she was
Speaker 1: she actually traced it back. It was Twitter, yep in
Speaker 1: two thousand seven, which is when Capital E everything, Capital
Speaker 1: C change. Yeah. One of the things we see of
Speaker 1: south By Southwest especially recently is that companies that especially
Speaker 1: social companies, companies that depend upon some sort of social
Speaker 1: media or social push or social element in their their service,
Speaker 1: they use south By Southwest as kind of a launching point.
Speaker 1: It's not an official launch, but it's a good way
Speaker 1: to get some of the movers and shakers and technology
Speaker 1: interested in your product. If you can get them using
Speaker 1: it and and talking about it, then their word of
Speaker 1: mouth is worth millions in advertising dollars. Well. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: if you think about it, it's exactly where the Music
Speaker 1: Conference was when it started. It's it's a place where
Speaker 1: people go to discover stuff, be discover stuff, and be discovered. Um.
Speaker 1: And apparently it was Twitter in two thousand seven that
Speaker 1: decided to basically use south By Southwest and it's as
Speaker 1: it's coming out party. Hey we're here, check this out.
Speaker 1: You can catch up with everybody with your smartphone. Again.
Speaker 1: Art phones around two thousand seven were starting to become
Speaker 1: a consumer thing and suddenly it's the same year of
Speaker 1: the iPhone, and that's when things started getting crazy. And
Speaker 1: the main focus of uh, Caroline's article was you know,
Speaker 1: people who are of the old timers, if you will,
Speaker 1: who are used to Hey, I got a booth at
Speaker 1: the conference. We gave out some t shirts and key
Speaker 1: chains and talked to some people, uh, you know the
Speaker 1: people and looking back on it, that's the way it was.
Speaker 1: But now people are dressing up in costumes and walking
Speaker 1: down the street. There are are mobile people in vans
Speaker 1: and cars who drive around until they find a group
Speaker 1: of people then you know, basically make a sales pitch
Speaker 1: to them out in the middle of the street. And
Speaker 1: just all kinds of weird guerrilla marketing tactics that are
Speaker 1: there for companies that are launching or or trying to
Speaker 1: gain market share. There's even established companies that will use us.
Speaker 1: Like Chevy did this at eleven. They had a really
Speaker 1: clever a pair of really clever tactics. One was to
Speaker 1: promote the Vault. They gave free rides around Austin, so
Speaker 1: you could hop into an official Chevy Vault and be
Speaker 1: taken to a different part of Austin. Now, the important
Speaker 1: part of that is being able to recognize a Chevy
Speaker 1: Vault and not jumping into some random person's car that
Speaker 1: is then your car, jacking that and and and getting
Speaker 1: back Yeah, and then however are but they also had
Speaker 1: also had they also had mobile charging stations for you
Speaker 1: to charge your electronics. I saw that from a few companies.
Speaker 1: A few companies had these. Uh. Either you would go
Speaker 1: to a specific place and you could plug your device
Speaker 1: in and have it charged while you are hanging out
Speaker 1: and chatting with people. Or they would have people walking
Speaker 1: around with essentially battery packs on backpacks and you could
Speaker 1: plug into them and and recharge your device while they
Speaker 1: gave you, you know, a pitch about whatever the product was. Um.
Speaker 1: So that was a very clever way of doing it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and uh, it's a lot of companies have been taking
Speaker 1: advantage of that. Meanwhile, the conference is still going. Don't
Speaker 1: don't ignore that. I mean, there were some interesting panels,
Speaker 1: especially in this past year, like, um, here's one beyond
Speaker 1: the check in location and the social web. So one
Speaker 1: of the big things to come out of both South
Speaker 1: by Southwest and apps in general is this whole idea
Speaker 1: of location check in which you could argue was really
Speaker 1: kind of champion by four Square, which four Square had
Speaker 1: a big launch it south By Southwest in the in
Speaker 1: the past, and that's kind of where it first got
Speaker 1: that big word of mouth. I mean, the service had
Speaker 1: been active already, but it really started to hit the
Speaker 1: ground running at south By Southwest a few years ago. Uh.
Speaker 1: But the panel here was talking about how do you
Speaker 1: add value to checking into a location? Because just checking
Speaker 1: into a location is you know, you're a lerning your
Speaker 1: friends where you are, which can be cool, but if
Speaker 1: if you want to have your apps stand apart from others,
Speaker 1: you have to find ways to partner with companies so
Speaker 1: that you create reward systems for checking in. So it's
Speaker 1: it's giving people a chance to think beyond just how
Speaker 1: do I achieve this technologically, to how do I achieve
Speaker 1: this in a way that's a sustainable business model, you know.
Speaker 1: And it's really that element of south By Southwest is
Speaker 1: invaluable to people who are launching a product, not just
Speaker 1: to get the word of mouth, but really to get
Speaker 1: the perspective of people who have tread this path already,
Speaker 1: who kind of know, you know, the pitfalls that are ahead,
Speaker 1: to build their knowledge and say, oh, you know what,
Speaker 1: we can learn a lesson from this person's experience. We
Speaker 1: can we can do the things that that helped this
Speaker 1: person succeed and avoid the things that set this person
Speaker 1: back and uh and implement that into our service, and
Speaker 1: then we have a better chance for success. It's still
Speaker 1: not a guarantee, of course, because I mean the public's fickle, right.
Speaker 1: There are how many how many different versions of of
Speaker 1: Twitter we're there? I mean besides Twitter that you know,
Speaker 1: you had other uh short messaging service type um uh
Speaker 1: projects out there, and really Twitter is the only one
Speaker 1: that has has had any true success, and even Twitter
Speaker 1: has had a problem making money off of that. So,
Speaker 1: like I said, it's not a guarantee for success, but
Speaker 1: it does help you out. But I mean there's everything
Speaker 1: like learning about user interface design and what kind of
Speaker 1: interfaces appealed to users and which ones don't appeal to users.
Speaker 1: And sometimes there's a psychological element in there, like why
Speaker 1: do people prefer prefer one method of input over another?
Speaker 1: What's holding people back from doing more voice recognition apps?
Speaker 1: Or is there anything holding people back? Is it? Is
Speaker 1: it a technology thing? Is it a user thing? These
Speaker 1: are the sort of discussions that go on at south
Speaker 1: By Southwest that are very important from a development standpoint. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're they're very high level. Yeah, because it's very conceptual. Right,
Speaker 1: it might not be the sort of thing that the
Speaker 1: general public wants to sit in and watch unless you're
Speaker 1: just interested in the subject. But it's not like you're
Speaker 1: going to go to one of these panels then walk
Speaker 1: out saying, you know, um, uh well, I'm glad I
Speaker 1: went there. I can I can use this information in
Speaker 1: the future. You may not have any real use for it.
Speaker 1: You might have more insight, which to me is almost
Speaker 1: as valuable. But not No, that's not the case for everybody.
Speaker 1: Other people might say I could have gone and had
Speaker 1: a taco well there, and you know it's also Austin
Speaker 1: is also used as a stomping ground for new technology
Speaker 1: before it really becomes big. I mean, Twitter's one example. Uh.
Speaker 1: You know what I found in doing research for the
Speaker 1: podcast that in two thousand and ten, um, there were
Speaker 1: QR codes. PC World actually had an article about the
Speaker 1: the QR codes that were popping up everywhere in the city. Um,
Speaker 1: and this was I mean, it's they're not even really common.
Speaker 1: We just did a podcast on QR codes and how
Speaker 1: uh and Pan. They've been old hat for quite some time.
Speaker 1: But uh, here in the United States, they're still not
Speaker 1: widely widely used. A lot of people don't know what
Speaker 1: they are. They just see him as those funny looking
Speaker 1: black and white boxes. They're popping up more frequently than
Speaker 1: than a couple of years ago. I mean, I've seen
Speaker 1: them on advertisements the train system here in Atlanta. But
Speaker 1: but they're still not you know, at that that point
Speaker 1: that was, you know, a year and a half ago,
Speaker 1: they still weren't widely used. Um, but you know, the
Speaker 1: flavor of the conference really is changing, and it's being
Speaker 1: noticed by far greater I mean you mentioned Chevy. I
Speaker 1: think the other big name this year was Apple and
Speaker 1: the sudden appearance of the Apple store out of nowhere,
Speaker 1: right yeah, in Austin. I think Austin has and folks
Speaker 1: in Austin you can correct me if I'm wrong. Once
Speaker 1: you're done yelling at me for yelling ghost Senners and
Speaker 1: go a and m um, you can yell me for
Speaker 1: being wrong if I'm If I'm wrong about this, but
Speaker 1: I believe there are two Apple stores in the general
Speaker 1: Austin area and I there of which are convenient to
Speaker 1: downtown and the first day of the south by Southwest
Speaker 1: Conference Interactive Conference of happened to fall on the same
Speaker 1: day as the iPad to launch. So here's Apple saying, hey,
Speaker 1: look are key demographic the people who are most likely
Speaker 1: to adopt our technology as soon as it comes out
Speaker 1: are converging on Austin. Uh this day, And we could
Speaker 1: get some good PR and make a lot of sales
Speaker 1: if we just created a temporary store in the downtown
Speaker 1: Austin area to cater to this crowd. And so they did,
Speaker 1: and uh and the line for this place was really impressive.
Speaker 1: I was actually there. I was watching, uh this Weekend
Speaker 1: Tech cover the line. So Brian Brushwood, Jason Howell, a
Speaker 1: couple of other people were out there kind of interviewing
Speaker 1: folks in line. My wife got in line. She actually
Speaker 1: bought one of the iPad two's from the temporary Apple
Speaker 1: store in Austin. And uh, yeah, it was. It was.
Speaker 1: It was like a party atmosphere. And that was exactly
Speaker 1: the right move for Apple as far as a PR
Speaker 1: move is concerned, because it it was catering to their
Speaker 1: most passionate fan base. Yeah, this this was an example.
Speaker 1: I think this is a foreshadowing of things to come,
Speaker 1: both Chevy and and Apple doing this. Um, yeah, that
Speaker 1: was the funny thing because apparently there was a very
Speaker 1: poorly kept secret because this the store before it opened,
Speaker 1: the store to have any indication, it had no signage,
Speaker 1: had had black opaque plastic film over all the windows,
Speaker 1: so you could not see into the store. However, I
Speaker 1: will say that the entrance to the store shared an
Speaker 1: entrance with a gold gem. You would walk into the
Speaker 1: first set of double doors, and then there's a stairway
Speaker 1: down to a gym, and then the second set of
Speaker 1: double doors would lead directly into the store. So you
Speaker 1: had all these people who were using the gem, which
Speaker 1: was remaining open, going in and out, and it's possible
Speaker 1: that maybe some of them cause a glimpse of what
Speaker 1: was going on. That might have been the source of
Speaker 1: the initial leak. I don't know, or it could have
Speaker 1: just been, you know, some Apple employees saying the wrong
Speaker 1: thing to the right person. I don't know. I would
Speaker 1: just I would just like to take this moment to
Speaker 1: make it completely irrelevant aside and say I still don't
Speaker 1: see how Batman could build a bat cave with all
Speaker 1: that technology stuff inside and have nobody understand. He didn't
Speaker 1: do it by himself. Somebody had to have leaked that anyway.
Speaker 1: I think he talked to Clark Kent about it, but
Speaker 1: they know the the you know, if Apple can't do
Speaker 1: it well. And it was also kind of interesting to
Speaker 1: watch them the progress as people lined up to get
Speaker 1: into the Apple store. They actually assigned each customer their
Speaker 1: own Apple rep to go in and talk about the
Speaker 1: iPad and then walk over and get a sale. And
Speaker 1: that's how they made they kept traffic. Uh, they would
Speaker 1: only allow the same number of people in as there
Speaker 1: were available Apple reps, so they people would go in.
Speaker 1: As Apple reps became available, another person would go in,
Speaker 1: and then the next person would stay up up. It
Speaker 1: was a neat way of keeping the traffic going. But
Speaker 1: at the same time you saw these huge men and women,
Speaker 1: I mean bulging with muscles, just sauntering in then thinking
Speaker 1: what the heck is going on here before they going
Speaker 1: downstairs to to go work out. It was entertaining. I
Speaker 1: actually saw several of them walk in and walk back out.
Speaker 1: As I was waiting for my wife to get out
Speaker 1: of the Apple store, she apparently engaged the Apple representative
Speaker 1: in a long philosophical discussion about the IPEd two before
Speaker 1: she bought one. I love my wife interesting. I waited
Speaker 1: a long time for her. But yeah, it's it's definitely changed.
Speaker 1: It is. It is really becoming a a a mixture,
Speaker 1: I guess and I and there's some people who are
Speaker 1: disenchanted with that change. They feel that it's grown too much.
Speaker 1: It's that it's the focus is off of what it
Speaker 1: used to be. It's kind of like the old It's
Speaker 1: just like the way you feel if you if you
Speaker 1: were a fan of a band when it was really
Speaker 1: obscurely what I was thinking of. Yeah, and then the
Speaker 1: end gets really really popular, and then you're like, but
Speaker 1: I like them when they were when no one knew them,
Speaker 1: and I liked them back when they were you know,
Speaker 1: they had these intimate shows and they interacted with fans.
Speaker 1: Now they're so huge that they don't do that. They're
Speaker 1: not the same guys anymore. You've sold out, man, and
Speaker 1: that that or when you're you're the store or the
Speaker 1: restaurant that you always go down to the corner because
Speaker 1: they're like the local store and they're they're the nicest people.
Speaker 1: And then they got featured in the paper and now
Speaker 1: you can never get in there, yea, or they you know,
Speaker 1: they open another location and then another location and suddenly
Speaker 1: they're in seventeen states and you go, well, I don't
Speaker 1: want to go there. And it's so you know, it's
Speaker 1: you kind of And on the one hand, you're you're
Speaker 1: excited because they're they're succeeding south By Southwest. Interactive is
Speaker 1: as its own thing now it's not the you know,
Speaker 1: the little brother of the music conference anymore. It's its
Speaker 1: own thing. Yeah, Interactive has gotten huge the point where um,
Speaker 1: I mean like I attended uh, like I said, the
Speaker 1: peripheral stuff in twenty eleven and I got to see
Speaker 1: a lot of this going on. I will say that
Speaker 1: the themes of eleven were interesting to me. Uh. It's
Speaker 1: all about mobile, which isn't a big surprise because that's
Speaker 1: that's where everyone's focus is right now, because everyone's you know,
Speaker 1: adopting the smartphone or tablet uh form factors. So mobile
Speaker 1: has become a big, big concentration in the world of
Speaker 1: technology in general, not just at at south By Southwest,
Speaker 1: and so uh, I would say, like one of the
Speaker 1: companies that had a really big presence at South By
Speaker 1: Southwest and a lot of word of mouth was group On,
Speaker 1: which of course we already knew about before south By Southwest,
Speaker 1: but it really got very popular, possibly because they were
Speaker 1: giving out free impanadas um as well as other elements. Uh.
Speaker 1: Four square remained huge. Scavenger, which is a kind of
Speaker 1: a it's sort of a four Square type model paired
Speaker 1: with a game element. Actually, gamification was a huge topic.
Speaker 1: The whole idea of adding a game layer to your
Speaker 1: service so that there is this or the intrinsic reward
Speaker 1: system within your service that keeps people coming back to
Speaker 1: it and using it over and over. They don't just
Speaker 1: find it, discover it, use it for a month and
Speaker 1: then forget about it. They want to keep using it
Speaker 1: because they get tangible rewards or sometimes even intangible rewards
Speaker 1: if it's the right kind of reward. It doesn't matter
Speaker 1: if it's tangible or not. Well, that's that's pretty impressive.
Speaker 1: This Gavenger was there considering you know, Goala is based
Speaker 1: in Austin, Texas, made by a company called Alamo Fire. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Goala was also there. Of course, you're in their backyard. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it was. It's a lot of companies treading on each
Speaker 1: other's toes. And then another thing that I thought was
Speaker 1: interesting was that UM group messaging services were We're big.
Speaker 1: Beluga was one UM, which I think Facebook has purchased
Speaker 1: Beluga since then, I can look, yeah, check check that out.
Speaker 1: I might be I might be wrong about that, but
Speaker 1: it was. It's this idea of creating a service where
Speaker 1: you can send out messages to a specific group of people,
Speaker 1: as opposed to like Twitter, where you're broadcasting it to
Speaker 1: everyone unless you've created a private timeline where only people
Speaker 1: you've you've UM designated can follow you. But like Group
Speaker 1: Me and Beluga both had this sort of h broadcast
Speaker 1: to a specific group of people. Yea the Facebook. Facebook
Speaker 1: acquired Beluga in the beginning of March eleven. There you go,
Speaker 1: so right around right around south by southwest. Um. So
Speaker 1: the group me and Beluga both have kind of similar
Speaker 1: functions where you you text to this group of friends.
Speaker 1: So it's kind of what Twitter was supposed to be
Speaker 1: when Twitter first launched. You know, Twitter has changed dramatically
Speaker 1: in a use case scenario, right like the service itself
Speaker 1: has remained more or less the same. They've added some elements,
Speaker 1: a lot of the elements they've added were elements that
Speaker 1: were introduced by users to make the service more uh useful.
Speaker 1: But then Twitter went and said, that's a great idea,
Speaker 1: let's incorporate that into the model, like retweets and hashtags
Speaker 1: and things like that. Um. They weren't necessarily part of
Speaker 1: Twitter's original uh model, but they got incorporated once people
Speaker 1: started using them. Well, originally, when Twitter launched, it was
Speaker 1: this idea that you could maintain contact with your group
Speaker 1: of friends by writing what you were doing, and other
Speaker 1: people would who are following you, who are friends of yours,
Speaker 1: see what you're doing and they think, oh, awesome. You know,
Speaker 1: Bob's just down the street and I haven't seen him
Speaker 1: in forever. I'm gonna just pop in and say hi.
Speaker 1: Uh and uh. You know, that was kind of the
Speaker 1: concept behind Twitter, and now it's totally grown beyond that.
Speaker 1: It's become a marketing uh tool. It's become an interactive
Speaker 1: tool for for people who have a following who want
Speaker 1: to maintain contact with that following. It's become very useful.
Speaker 1: It's become a news gathering tool. News breaks because of Twitter,
Speaker 1: the you know, the at the time we're recording this,
Speaker 1: of course, the biggest item in the news is the
Speaker 1: the death of Osama bin Laden and that news bro
Speaker 1: on Twitter before it broke anywhere else. Yes, so you
Speaker 1: know this, this tool has become an amazing uh a
Speaker 1: part of our lives since it's since its initial launch.
Speaker 1: But I would say that goes well beyond what the
Speaker 1: inventors of Twitter thought they were getting into when they
Speaker 1: launched the product. They thought, I think based upon the
Speaker 1: interviews I've read and the just based upon the evolution
Speaker 1: of Twitter itself, they thought they were more along the
Speaker 1: lines of Group Me and Beluga. But but it's interesting
Speaker 1: that that's still really important that still played a big
Speaker 1: role in south By Southwest. Well, I mean even big
Speaker 1: companies were launching products too, because um, Microsoft really pushed
Speaker 1: Internet Explorer nine south By Southwest this year. So um,
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's definitely changed in character and grown
Speaker 1: to a scale that probably not even the founders of
Speaker 1: south By Southwest really had imagined. Speaking of things growing
Speaker 1: beyond belief, um, so I say it's it's definitely becoming
Speaker 1: one of the places to be for, you know, the
Speaker 1: tech sector and to keep your eye on. If you
Speaker 1: can't go, yeah, I would, I would recommend try and
Speaker 1: take a trip out to Austin one year and at
Speaker 1: least go to some of the uh the parties and
Speaker 1: stuff that. You you know, if you don't, if you
Speaker 1: don't have the might to invest in a badge, you're
Speaker 1: not gonna get the whole experience. Because I mean, I
Speaker 1: can say honestly, I did not get the full experience.
Speaker 1: I didn't attend any of these panels that are actually
Speaker 1: genuinely interesting to me and I think would have been
Speaker 1: very enlightening. But I didn't have a pass. So what
Speaker 1: I did was I went to the parties. Now, the
Speaker 1: parties are great. I'm not gonna, you know, downplay that.
Speaker 1: The parties are a lot of fun. I went to
Speaker 1: a party by held by Revision three. I went to
Speaker 1: one tech media yeah st I went to seen Nets party.
Speaker 1: I went to this weekend text uh party. Now, these
Speaker 1: these companies, what they end up doing is they end
Speaker 1: up renting out a bar, or a restaurant and or
Speaker 1: even a even a huge space in the case of
Speaker 1: Revision three, and then they invite to come that Usually
Speaker 1: you have to register beforehand because these places have a
Speaker 1: limited amount of space and therefore a limited number of people.
Speaker 1: Can come in. Um, it's not that, you know, it's
Speaker 1: not that we're trying to do preferential treatment. It's just
Speaker 1: that there's literally only so many bodies you can cram
Speaker 1: into that space before the fire marshal will shut it down. Uh.
Speaker 1: And then they usually have some sort of programming there.
Speaker 1: They might have a band play, they might do in
Speaker 1: the case of Revision three and Seen That and Twit.
Speaker 1: You know, all of these are are tech have tech
Speaker 1: journalism elements to them. So they would do shows, live
Speaker 1: shows in front of the crowd, which was kind of cool,
Speaker 1: and uh, it was neat seeing how these tech journalists
Speaker 1: were interacting with their fans, how they were covering the
Speaker 1: conference itself, how they were covering tech news in general.
Speaker 1: Actually had quite a few fans come up to me
Speaker 1: who recognized me and they talked to me about Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was crazy. I was being treated like a celebrity.
Speaker 1: And of course, for one thing, I was hanging out
Speaker 1: with all the hosts because I happen to I know
Speaker 1: them because their peers, right. But uh, but it was
Speaker 1: weird to be have that turned on me and people
Speaker 1: were like chatting. I just thought they were chatting with me.
Speaker 1: And then they're like, I really like your show. Oh
Speaker 1: you're a fan. Awesome, that's great. I keep forgetting people
Speaker 1: listen to us, um something. I figured we'd just come
Speaker 1: in here to talk in the microphone sometimes. But yeah,
Speaker 1: it was a great experience. But even as you know,
Speaker 1: there were some of those parties no one knew who
Speaker 1: I was, which was great too. I just got to
Speaker 1: hang out there and watch the show and listen to
Speaker 1: bands play. I got to see some exclusive content that
Speaker 1: was released right there at south By Southwest. It's a
Speaker 1: really neat experience, and you do get a chance to
Speaker 1: you know, the person who's staying next to you might
Speaker 1: be the next uh, Mark Zuckerberg or biz Stone. You
Speaker 1: might be staying next to the next big mover and
Speaker 1: shaker and technology. You never know, so it's really an
Speaker 1: an amazing experience. Plus the person on your left might
Speaker 1: be in the next band. That makes it huge. That's
Speaker 1: true because a lot of the bands like to hang
Speaker 1: out at the various events as well. You know, you
Speaker 1: never know. I got to uh, I got to eat
Speaker 1: barbecue in the same restaurant as Felicia Day. I saw
Speaker 1: her come in and I was like, oh, she's so
Speaker 1: pretty and I thought, I'm gonna go up and say hi,
Speaker 1: and then I thought, no way, everyone in the world
Speaker 1: has come up to Felicia day to say Hi. I'm
Speaker 1: going to let her eat her barbecue in peace. Yes,
Speaker 1: And that's when I became a grown up. Well, so yeah,
Speaker 1: I would say that if if you're going to look
Speaker 1: for the latest gadgets, you'd go to see Es. You're
Speaker 1: going to look for video game cardware and software, go
Speaker 1: to E three. And if you're interested in the experience
Speaker 1: of using daily, everyday type technology the web, mobile devices
Speaker 1: and how they are used, south By Southwest Interactive is
Speaker 1: probably the Yeah, that's really the define. I mean, they're
Speaker 1: all great conferences, but they really have different focuses, and
Speaker 1: you know, I think it's uh yeah, especially if you're
Speaker 1: if you are interested in developing product products, south By
Speaker 1: Southwest is a great place to go, just again to
Speaker 1: see because there's an engineer aspect where you're like, oh,
Speaker 1: I've learned a cool way of how to do such
Speaker 1: and such. But then there's the social engineer aspect where
Speaker 1: you think, well, are people interested in using this, and
Speaker 1: how are they interested in using this? And are there
Speaker 1: ways that they would want to use this, and I
Speaker 1: haven't thought of that. Perhaps I should think about before
Speaker 1: I release it. South By Southwest would be invaluable to
Speaker 1: you because you've got people who have done that already
Speaker 1: and they talk about what works and what doesn't work,
Speaker 1: and and a lot of the stuff there is just
Speaker 1: playing crazy fun. We had pee Hermann out there doing
Speaker 1: a special show. Yeah, he did his He did his
Speaker 1: Broadway show for I think it may have been one
Speaker 1: night only, but I know he did a performance. I
Speaker 1: wasn't able to get in. I didn't know about until
Speaker 1: literally I walked up to the theater and saw that
Speaker 1: it was happening, and I thought, oh my gosh. If
Speaker 1: I had known about this beforehand, I would have secured tickets. Um.
Speaker 1: But I mean you get to see that. You get
Speaker 1: to see there's their television and movie stars walking around.
Speaker 1: I got my picture taken with one and it was awesome. Musicians.
Speaker 1: It's just it's a cool vibe and everyone's just kind
Speaker 1: of hanging out and chatting and eating tacos. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's like my ideal of heaven, right, hanging out and
Speaker 1: talking eating tacos. Well very cool then, So guys, um,
Speaker 1: that's our that's our kind of our overview of south
Speaker 1: By Southwest. I'm sure that that event will continue to
Speaker 1: get larger and larger. Who knows, we may see uh
Speaker 1: yet another spinoff conference happened because of this, or it
Speaker 1: may even be that we see venue scaling back because
Speaker 1: it's getting so big that it's getting out of control.
Speaker 1: And it's kind of hard to say at this point.
Speaker 1: I would consider south By Southwest twenty eleven to be
Speaker 1: a success based upon the people I talked to and
Speaker 1: experiences I had. But then that was my very first
Speaker 1: south By Southwest, so I didn't I wasn't going there thinking, man,
Speaker 1: this ums to be real. Man, not real anymore. See,
Speaker 1: I had a different experience. Let see, I I get that.
Speaker 1: You know, I've been on both sides that I understand
Speaker 1: it well. Hopefully in the future we'll be able to
Speaker 1: send some house stuff works folks out to south By
Speaker 1: Southwest and we'll keep you guys posted on that if
Speaker 1: it does happen. Uh Yeah, it would be awesome because
Speaker 1: then we could stand around talk about stuff neat tacos
Speaker 1: and I'll be happy. I'll be the bald guy with
Speaker 1: the huge smile on his face and a taco in
Speaker 1: his hand. So we'll keep you guys posted on that.
Speaker 1: We'll let you know if anything develops. Um, there's nothing
Speaker 1: in set in stone right now, so but we'll we'll
Speaker 1: we'll try it because I'm determined to make sure we
Speaker 1: get back there. We'll stare at them with puppy dog Yeah,
Speaker 1: we'll do the puppy dog eyes look and maybe that'll
Speaker 1: help anyway. But I do recommend checking it out if
Speaker 1: you're interested in the social aspect of technology and kind
Speaker 1: of how people work. Really, uh, take a look and
Speaker 1: Chris and I will talk to you again soon. If
Speaker 1: you guys have any topics you want us to tackle,
Speaker 1: let's know on Twitter or Facebook. The handle there is
Speaker 1: tech Stuff h s W or you can shoot us
Speaker 1: an email and that address is tech stuff at how
Speaker 1: stuff Works dot com. Chris and I will talk to
Speaker 1: you with tacos in hand really soon. Be sure to
Speaker 1: check out our new video podcast, Stuff from the Future.
Speaker 1: Join How Stuff Work staff as we explore the most
Speaker 1: promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow. The How Stuff Works
Speaker 1: iPhone app has arrived. Download it today on iTunes. Brought
Speaker 1: to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera it's ready.
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