What I learned at SXSW Sydney Days 1 and 2

...apart from: FOMO is inevitable when there are up to nine concurrent talk/panel options for a given session slot!

But firstly, for the uninitiated, WTF is SXSW Sydney?

SXSW = Conference-y Festival (or Festival-y Conference) for Music, Screen, Tech & Innovation

I attended the Austin version in 2012 and was equally FOMO challenged, but still recollect it as a brilliant experience.

In part, it was fabulous because of the speakers. I got to see Al Gore in conversation with Sean Parker, Frank Abagnale Jnr (Catch Me If You Can is based on him), Ray Kurzweil , Kimbra, Tim Ferriss, Gary Vaynerchuk, Chase Jarvis, Anthony Bourdain, Lowrider, Billy Corgan, and a plethora of others I have failed to recall after 11 years.

Far more fun and impactful were my fellow delegates. I got to hang out with some awesome folks. They opened my eyes to some incredible opportunities I wouldn't have known about, or how to approach them, alone. I learned A LOT - at least as much I learned from the sessions I attended.

So, when I saw the first ever SXSW to happen outside the US would be in Sydney, I was up front and centre, buying a platinum badge (which, as Kane Jackson has pointed out, was a privilege not everyone can afford ).

Now, I'm sitting in my hotel in Sydney decompressing after Day 2.

Here's the highlights I've seen so far:

Day 1 - Sun 15 Oct

14:30 Adam Spencer interviewing Professor Toby Walsh, Professor Georgina Long AO and Dr Cameron Ferris.

They did admirably under trying circumstances - there's nothing like having a melanoma specialist speaking about immunotherapy to a group sitting in 2pm spring sun with bugger-all shade available.

I especially liked Prof Walsh's soundbites and alliteration:

• AI helps free us up from the 4D's - work that is dirty, dull, difficult or dangerous, and
• The future of healthcare is predictive, preventative and personalised.

17:00 Film - The Royal Hotel

It was EXCELLENT.

Having worked in Kalgoorlie in 2004/5 during the transition from topless to 'covered nipples' skimpies, this was like watching scenes from my distant past. Hugo Weaving and Ursula Yovich are exceptional, and Julia Garner was outstanding.

I can't say much more without giving away the storyline, so I'll simply end with:

See. This. Film.

Day 2 - Mon 16 Oct

10:00 The Joy and Power of Play

This panel was the perfect way to kick off the day, expertly moderated by Allison Langdon and featuring Dr Kate Raynes-Goldie , Professor Pasi Sahlberg and Ryan 'Brickman' McNaught.

I loved Professor Sahlberg's emphasis on play being a human right and a way of being, not just an activity. Which makes the fact that play is declining worldwide and the fact that Australian students have 30% more formal adult-guided education than the OECD average a worry.

He pointed out that parents have the most important role in ensuring their children get to play, hopefully enabling at least an hour a day, and ideally outdoors.

Dr Raynes-Goldie gave us four ways to encourage corporates to bring more play into their workplaces, for example through Lego Serious Play:

• find a champion who has the ear of decision makers to ask for it,
• show them the science about how play improves team bonding and cognitive performance,
• remind them they'd be in good company, joining the likes of Samsung, Virgin and IKEA, and finally
• Stage a demo.

I can personally testify that one session of Lego Serious Play is all it takes to make a convert! It's revolutionised my confidence in playing Lego with my kids too.

Brickman gave an excellent example of integrating play into corporate life too: in his team, everyone gets to build whatever they want for two weeks each year. The company keeps the build, but the creative person gets paid unscheduled time to explore something they deeply want to build. Win-win!

11:30 Head and Heart: The Art of Modern Leadership

I was over the moon to see the scheduling meant I could see both Dr Kirstin Ferguson and Robyn Denholm, and this was Dr Ferguson sharing with us the finding of her research for her latest best-selling book (which shares the title of this talk).

Her presentation was as fabulous as you'd expect from someone who'd just finished a five-week speaking tour of the States, and I especially loved her word-to-wisdom ratio.

Points also for the most effective lead magnet approach I've ever seen in a talk. Everyone got four minutes in the middle of the session to pull out their devices and complete her quiz to find out which leadership strengths were strongest and therefore which type of leader they most tended to be (heart or head).

It only works because the lead magnet (a report summarising your findings) is high quality and useful. Professional speakers take note!

12:30 The Science of Start-Up

I think I've seen too many of these and was quite hungry by this time so it kinda all washed over me, but what stood out was serial founder Julie Stevanja's commentary on women converting prevention (downside, risk) questions to promotion (upside, growth) questions during pitches. Loved the way she explained this: https://app.searchie.io/watch/OlDdEbxENy

14:00 Robyn Denholm in conversation with Sarah O'Carroll

OMFG Robyn Denholm is the shiz!

My fave line from her session:

The energy transition globally is Australia's to lose.

Ouch. Right in the kisser.

She's right though - we've got all the minerals, and we have the smarts to manufacture. Will our government and industry leaders take up the challenge and reintroduce manufacturing in Oz? Thank goodness Ms Denholm is Chair of the Tech Council of Australia and can champion that idea for us. As she pointed out - it won't wait for us to get our act together.

I also loved her 'ruthless prioritisation' approach. I'm personally a 'ruthless de-prioritisation' person, but it's the same gist.

15:30 Full Stack Human

This won Session Of The Day for me. Big call given the previous three sessions, but I'm standing by it.

Shasta Henry and Tané Hunter from Future Crunch likened full stack developers (those who can handle databases, back end code and front end user experience) as these roles in a restaurant:

• Database = stocking the pantry. Ensuring only high quality ingredients are used.
• Back end = kitchen. Assembling the ingredients in a way we can consume.
• Front end = plating and serving. Getting the food to the customer in an enjoyable way.

...what a beautiful analogy!

But that wasn't the best bit. They best bit was how they explained ways we can apply that thinking to our prehistoric hardware - basically giving ourselves a software upgrade. There's too much to cover in this article, you'll just have to see it yourself sometime.

My biggest actionable takeaway was The Information Diet. I'll be subscribing to Future Crunch to flood out the McDonald's equivalent crap that currently fills my feed.

Bravo Future Crunch team!

I also caught the Betoota Advocate wrap up with Rohit Bhavgara, but will hold off on his stuff till tomorrow :)

Now, to curate my calendar for tomorrow and narrow down my shortlist of 15 things to around five. Wish me luck!