SXSW PanelPicker Is All Creative Thinking

The Forrest Four-Cast: August 27, 2017

There are absolutely no more tomorrows! Sunday, August 27 is your last and final day to vote for your favorite 2018 SXSW PanelPicker speaking proposals, as this interface closes for good at 11:59 pm PT.

One of the most frequent terms in this year’s SXSW PanelPicker is “creative,” which appears in 388 total entries. What follows are amongst the most attention-grabbing of these 388 speaking proposals:

1. Art Attack: Data as the New Creative Director: Creatives are being pushed more and more to factor in audience insights, behavioral data, and interest segmentation into their thinking. Some creative is even being adapted in real time through automation. Let’s talk about how creative is evolving through data, how traditional creative can better incorporate data, and when data goes too far.
2. The Art of Self-Care & Productivity for Creatives: Many creatives spend a massive amount of time creating and working that they often live unhealthy lives and tend to be inconsistent in many ways. We will discuss how to incorporate tools for productivity and the importance of self-care in the life of busy creative entrepreneurs.
3. Building The Creative Career You’re Meant to Have: This workshop teaches simple principles to help you identify opportunities to be more creative, demonstrate your potential to more creative companies and enjoy using your creativity for the rest of your career.
4. City Building, Creativity, & Burning Man: Every year in the Nevada desert, thousands of volunteers come together to plan, build, and dismantle Black Rock City, the home of Burning Man. This ongoing experiment in urbanism creates a context in which creativity, innovation, and celebration thrive. How is that context created, and to what extent is it mirrored in the reimagining of other Kim Cook, Director, the Director of Art & Civic Engagement at Burning Man.
5. How Coding Unlocks Creativity: Coding is often perceived as a cut-and-dry task for the left-brained. That perception couldn’t be farther from the truth. Everyone can and should code — especially creatives. This session will show that if we continue to restrict our image of coding to the cut and dry, we hold back creativity and the arts.
6. How to Get Fair Compensation for Creative Work: In an era when anyone can create content on a phone, the value of professional creative work is constantly up for negotiation. So how do you ask for what you deserve (and continue to get work)?
7. Inspiration v. Stealing: A Creative’s Dilemma: They say that all work is derivative, and it’s true: Nobody designs, writes or creates anything in a vacuum. But there is a line between drawing inspiration and stealing someone else’s idea. In today’s interconnected world, that line is getting harder and harder to see.
8. Supercharge Your Creative Process With AI: This hands-on workshop will explore how to make AI part of your creative process without being an expert in coding or data science. We’ll start by breaking down the most common myths about AI, followed by test-driving a new ideation process to help you create radically innovative products and customer experiences powered by AI and data.
9. Will AI Change the Creativity of the Future? As AI and machine learning are rapidly growing, they’re being applied to creative fields like art, photography, music, video and more. AI is writing songs, curating exhibitions, designing buildings, and more. How will AI change the creative process? Can a machine be a creative, or aid to the work of creatives? Speakers include TechCrunch Europe Editor Mike Butcher.
10. Women in Creative Industry Meet Up: Speaking to SXSW’s ethos of cross-industry collaboration and community, our Women In Creative Industry meet up would provide space for resource-sharing and valuable discussion between women entrepreneurs, freelancers, artists, business-owners, musicians and side hustlers.

Other search-worthy terms in the 2018 SXSW PanelPicker include “cars,” “diversity,” “robots,” and “global startups.” Find other popular buzzwords in this year’s interface by reading this post.

Speaking of cool content, stay tuned on August 29 as we announce the next round of Featured Speakers for March Magic. Buy your 2018 badge before fees increase on September 9 to save 35% on walkup fees.

Hugh Forrest serves as Chief Programming Officer at SXSW, the world’s most unique gathering of creative professionals. He also tries to write at least four paragraphs per day on Medium. These posts often cover tech-related trends; other times they focus on books, pop culture, sports and other current events.