Katy Arnander, director of programming at SXSW London, teased this year’s conference program Tuesday evening at an event at a hip bar in the uber-cool neighborhood of Shoreditch, East London, where the festival is staged. The bar’s name, Equal Parts, neatly reflected the nature of SXSW London, as outlined by Arnander.
The festival, whose second edition runs June 1-6, revealed its live music component last week, and on Thursday it’ll be the turn of its conference lineup, with speakers drawn from the worlds of business, tech, politics and the arts. The film and series program will be unveiled next week.
Its programming chiefs – Katarina Sherling, head of conference, Anna Bogutskaya, head of screen, and Adem Holness, head of music – were all present at Tuesday’s stylish shindig.
First, for the uninitiated, Arnander drew a distinction between the London festival and the original in Austin, Texas, which celebrated its 40th edition this month.
“Essentially, we’re not exactly a clone from Austin – so we haven’t transported the full Austin vibe to London, but what we have done is we’ve decided to create our own vibe here in Shoreditch,” she said.
“That means that we’re leaning very heavily locally, not only Shoreditch, but also East London and London generally, which means that our program has got this flavor, if you like, that comes through being in this part of London, which is a highly convergent part of London. We have music, screen, there’s the City of London down the road [the financial district], big business; there’s Silicon Roundabout [Old Street], tech; there’s designers, creativity, fashion and, of course, visual artists, and all of those are based heavily in this part of London.”
She added, “What we like to say is that South by Southwest provides a lens by which you can look into all of these areas that I’ve just mentioned. So, it’s not just a festival of tech, it’s not just a festival of music, it’s not just a festival of screen, not just a festival of business, but it actually transcends and transgresses all of those areas, and that’s why we’re doing it here in Shoreditch.
“It’s the kind of lens around convergence that brings the energy to the work that we do, and this creates an ecosystem around the festival, which means that our delegates have this experience that allows them to travel across the neighborhood, across our various venues, and have these different experiences.”
Looking back at last year’s edition, Arnander said that they had over 25,000 audience visitors, delegates and companies from over 86 countries, 34 venues, and over 1,000 speakers.
Speakers last year included Deepak Chopra, Jane Goodall, Idris Elba, Wyclef Jean, Nile Rodgers, Björn Ulvaeus of ABBA, Asif Kapadia, Julian Lennon, Joseph Fiennes, Katharine Hamnett and Sophie Turner, and VIP guests included Tom Hiddleston, Orlando Bloom, Bryce Dallas, Nick Mohammed and King Charles.
Looking ahead at this year’s edition, Arnander said, “We’re doubling down on what we did last year in terms of the content that we’re leaning into, but what we discovered last year was there are areas where we’re going to lean much more deeply into. One of them that we know is very important for an event like South by Southwest is connecting, networking, putting people together. Putting people from the film industry together with the tech industry, putting people who work in AI together with fashion designers. Putting musicians together with fintech. All of these are opportunities to mix and mingle and share and create ideas.”
From listening to their audience and drawing from their learnings from last year, the programmers have zeroed in on six themes “that are pertinent and that people really want to hear about,” she said.
One theme is about “AI and the new power structure,” Arnander said. “Last year, we were all about AI. Everybody wants to know about AI. This year, we now know AI is here to stay, and we’re all using it. So we’re actually delving a little bit deeper into what that means,” she said. “What does AI mean in terms of government? What does it mean in terms of information, misinformation?”
Another theme is “living longer, living better,” Arnander said, pointing to discussions about “the development of new drugs, high-speed R&D processes with AI,” among other related topics.
Yet another theme is: “How culture can save humanity,” she said. “I think a lot of us here are connected to the cultural sector, and I think more and more culture provides us with a lens by which we can manage and cope with AI, because one will not exist without the other.”
Other themes include the importance of free speech, creativity in the algorithm age, and futurism in practice, including areas like robotics and space travel.
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