For as long as it has existed, SXSW® has been the place for creative people and creative ideas to converge and collide. Each year hundreds of thousands of people intersect in Austin to share their ideas and forge connections across industries and continents.
The inaugural SXSW Sydney will be no different. From October 15 to 22, thinkers and business leaders from across the Creative Industries – advertising, marketing, design, public relations, and more – will arrive in Sydney to offer their expertise and inspire conversations and collaborations.
If you work in one of these industries, SXSW Sydney is a must-attend event, with countless panels and discussions, mentor sessions, workshops, and showcases that will offer you unprecedented access to some of the best minds in the business.
So what can you expect? Glad you asked.
There will be a lot happening within the Creative Industries across the week at SXSW Sydney. But there are some key dates to keep in your diary:
The answer is simple: a lot. More than 700 speakers will be heading to SXSW Sydney to share their insights and knowledge, and plenty of them will be experts in the Creative Industries. Expect to hear world-leading speakers and industry leaders now announced including:
De-extinction entrepreneur Ben Lamm, Motion Picture Association CEO Charles Rivkin, advertising icon David Droga, Google Australia MD Mel Silva, Netflix ANZ Director of Content Que Minh Luu, broadcaster Osher Günsberg, World Surfing Champion Layne Beachley, tech entrepreneur Paul Bassat, Reddit CMO Roxy Young, artistic director Wesley Enoch K-pop Chief A&R Officer at SM Entertainment, Chris Lee, Expedia CTO Rathi Murthy and many more.
The Advertising and Marketing Conference Track will platform groundbreaking new ideas and explore current and future issues within the industry. More than 300 sessions will take place across the week, across a huge variety of topics such as the future of sports marketing, the future of creativity and AI, startup mythbusting, the trends that will shape advertising in 2050, and about whether trademarks are necessary anymore in this rapidly evolving world.
There’ll also be must-see Session Select panels for you to take in, like ‘The Art of Experience: Beyond The Instagram Wall’, which will discuss creative strategies that drive our culture forward and create meaningful experiences.
These sessions will all take place within the walls of Sydney’s iconic Powerhouse Museum in Ultimo, which will be taken over for SXSW Sydney by renowned marketing agency WPP.
Coming along to SXSW Sydney can be a big undertaking, we get it. There’s so much to do and see and parties to attend and people to meet and everything can very quickly add up! So if you’re keen on heading to Sydney in October, it’s definitely worth having a chat with your boss about sending you to SXSW Sydney.
There’s no need to be nervous about this conversation either, as we’ve made you a very handy guide about how to convince your boss – you can have a look over it right here.
Don’t miss out on everything SXSW Sydney has to offer. Grab your Badge today and start getting excited for the biggest event of the year.
Plus, if you buy a Badge now you’ll save hundreds of dollars when compared to final release prices. It pays to get in early. Get yours here.
If you want to throw yourself (or your team) into the action at SXSW Sydney, there are a few ways to do so. Submissions for SXSW Sydney Pitch are open now, as are submissions to our Games Showcase. Expressions of Interest for the Expo are also open as well.
Read more about how to participate in SXSW Sydney over here.
