Prologue

When I received the email circular offering me funding to attend SXSW, I snapped it up immediately! I had been aware of SXSW as being a 'big deal' amongst the Flash programming community, and was keen to see how I could leverage the ideas and creativity for creating new real-world experiences. The SXSW website afforded me the ability to research exactly who I needed to see and talk to. As devices like Microsoft's Surface table and Apple's iPhone have become more prevalent, I was also very interested in seeing the work being done in these areas. I certainly had the opportunity to meet a lot of interesting and like-minded people, and came home with some interesting contacts that I hope will serve my company well in the future.

Another great benefit of the trip was being amongst a group of talented and diverse individuals from around the South West. Although I wasn't part of the Umbrella Group, I was very impressed by their promotional efforts and the results they achieved. Any activities that help to promote South West digital companies will always benefit my business. Having the opportunity to share ideas with members of the group was also helpful, and will hopefully lead to new collaborations in the near future.

The main result of the festival has been a renewed energy and motivation for what I do. A lot of the talks really helped me clarify HMC Interactive's market position, and offered me insight into new markets that will help us survive the harsh economies of the coming months. The insights into Human Centric Design and Tangible Computing in particular have given me the confidence to invest more into R&D in these areas.

I would certainly consider attending next year, and would also like the opportunity to bring a larger team from my company along. Firstly to cover more sessions, but most importantly because of the motivational effects that the conference has. I also believe I have some insights to offer the festival, and will hopefully pursue the chance to run a panel.

Public funding is an essential ingredient in allowing UK companies to attend these sorts of events. Although the UK has a number of similar conferences and events, nothing really matches the scale of SXSW, and the sense of a global community gathering in one place. For this reason, I think it would be hard to replicate the success of SXSW in the UK without similar funding being available in other countries to allow foreign companies to attend.

To sum up, being able to attend SXSW was a huge benefit. The shear size meant that even niche topics were covered, and a lot of people had some very interesting things to say about subjects that directly affect my business. I look forward to next year!