#SxSW Wrap-up: Moving the Needle & Our Cheese
Looking back on our four days in Austin, we were struck by a common message spoken and implied by the many purpose-driven speakers we listened to. Here it is: Find an organizing principle for your company, your project, product or community to move the needle. Why? Because you are unlikely to change the future without focus and agreement on your principle. And you are likely to be surprised at the impact you will have on all aspects of your work (culture, secondary initiatives, etc.) This statement can be deceptively simple, but in a panel on “first principles thinking” the discussion touched on the difficulty of drilling down to what really matters.
A great example of a focused organizing principle came from the group behind inserthealth.org who declared “Health should be a design goal”. They suggest that if an organization had health as their core focus for any product they designed, modified or optimized they would make a difference in in the lives of their customers, employees and in fact have greater social impact than once a year volunteering opportunity. It would make social impact a part of the everyday work.
If we had to find one organizing principle for SxSW, it would be “eliminating inequity”. Many were thinking, talking and presenting on this topic and how it applies to various fields. If they weren’t you could be sure they’d get a question from the audience on the topic. The organizers of SxSW, or those who voted for the talks, clearly selected for issues surrounding diversity, inclusion, and equity. For example, the Design track was dominated by talks such as:
- Achieving Gender Equity in Design Leadership
- Close the Digital Divide: Design for Social Impact
- How you can fight bias with content strategy
- The language of aroma, designing for inclusivity
- Virtual Humanity: designing Ethical Immersive Worlds
- Code is not neutral
- 400 years of Inequality
More than ever, social responsibility and the desire to make the world a better place was palpable at SxSW. Art installations like “Belonging(s)” told the story of displaced people and their immigration to Australia stories. They ask the question: “What if you had to leave your homeland forever? What’s the one item you couldn’t live without?” Videos of immigrants holding their beloved object and talking about why it was so important was deeply moving and put in sharp contrast with their comment; “for many in the developed world can be consumed with material objects”. It also felt like a bit of a poke in the ribs of the US.
We continued to explore the connection of art, culture and technology, in viewing installations like those mentioned above and attending a talk by Google Arts + Culture about the power of art, culture and technology to unite, teach, connect and inspire innovation was a beautiful highlight.
And how did we end our adventure? Well we visited a beautiful land called Cheeselandia where 100’s of Wisconsin cheeses (and dare I say cheese culture) were on display for the whole world to see. The lines were long, and the wait was worth it. We loved the espresso rubbed Sartori. On Wisconsin!
