An Education in Strategy

SXSW is a lot of things. It’s a product demonstration. It’s a networking event. It’s one giant brand activation. It’s a fanboy’s paradise. It’s a star’s big break. And if you have any ounce of self-respect, it’s a plate of pulled pork from Stubb’s BBQ. More than anything else, however, it’s a place to learn.

For the better part of a week, attendees are treated to an always-on stream of information. Every imaginable subset of the interactive world is put on display. If you want to learn more about something, you can. Multiple times over. Before noon. Whether you’re interested in coding, fashion, global warming, or singularities, there’s a session for you.

If you’re hoping to learn about strategy, however, you’ll be hard pressed to find such a tailored education. This type of learning doesn’t happen in the giant lecture halls of the Austin Convention Center. Or if it does, it doesn’t come in PowerPoint format. Rather, strategists learn from everything in between. The people are the presentation. The crowds, the conference. And with Austin playing host to over 60,000 high-strung geeks for the week, there was a lot to take in.

Consider, for example, the scene outside of conference room 13AB at 11:00 on Sunday morning. I had arrived hoping to catch a live-stream of Lena Dunham’s keynote address. I did not have a film badge, however, so I was not let in. Luckily, I wasn’t alone. Soon there was a little crowd of us gathered around the hallway’s wall-mount display. For the full hour we sat in silence, the homeless audience growing by the minute. And then Lena laid down the hammer. And suddenly I was made painfully aware of my surroundings. As the actor spoke about gender inequality in Hollywood, I realized that I was the only man within a 50 foot radius. There must have been 30 women spread across floor around me. And I was sitting in a chair. The only chair. I was literally embodying the privileged male vantage point. This how a strategist learns.

The next day one of my colleagues noticed something funny about the Q&A sessions. As Americans took the mic they often introduced themselves as entrepreneurs. Foreigners rarely identified themselves in this way. This is how a strategist learns.

That night I witnessed a woman spill a drink on her dress. She turned to a stranger, another woman, and asked to use her Tide-to-Go pen. It was not a question of whether or not she owned a Tide-to-Go pen, but a question of how fast she could produce it. For men, stains are inevitable, unavoidable. For women, at least in this moment, they seemed to act more like a challenge. This is how a strategist learns.

Each year, SXSW brings together the best and the brightest in interactive for a week of sharing, collaborating, and reimagining. Self-proclaimed entrepreneurs sit alongside CEOs. Videographers compare notes with academics. They all come to Austin to fill their brains with knowledge.

And the strategists sit back. And learn.

Asher Stamell
Strategist
Naked NY

Photo credit: in_rainbows69, Flickr.