SXSW PanelPicker Trends: Cannabis
The Forrest Four-Cast: August 16, 2018
Community voting and commenting for the 5000+ speaking proposals in the 2019 SXSW PanelPicker is now fully underway. Getting involved in this process is simple. Just log into your SXSW account (or create a new one if you don’t have one yet). Setting up an account is free and takes only about 2 minutes to complete.
Through Thursday, August 30 (when the voting and commenting process ends), this space investigates some of the most interesting trends and themes that the PanelPicker reveals. The methodology for examining these trends is comparing the entries on a given topic for the 2019 interface to the entries on that topic from the 2018 interface.
For August 16, let’s focus on the sharp rise in speaking proposals focused on cannabis. A year ago, the SXSW PanelPicker featured only 7 speaking proposals on this topic. For the 2019 interface, we see a 10-fold increase in that number, as the total number of cannabis-related speaking proposals has risen to 70.
Many (but not all) of these cannabis-related speaking proposals occur within the new “Cannabusiness” track for SXSW 2019. This track is scheduled to run from Thursday, March 14. See the full list of tracks for the 2019 event by visiting this page.
Find other trends PanelPicker trends by typing in your favorite keyword in the “Search” bar that is located on the left sidebar of the interface. Or, better yet, keep track of the running list ideas that are getting the most traction in this year’s interface by simply bookmarking this post from Medium.
Around 10–20% of the 5000+ speaking proposals in the PanelPicker will be accepted as sessions for March 2019 in Austin. These accepted sessions will be announced via the SXSW website in mid-October.
Register before prices increase after September 13 so that you can be part of all the discovery, brainstorming, creativity, deal-making, and cross-industry networking that is SXSW. After you register, you can book Austin lodging via SXSW Housing and Travel. Plenty of convenient downtown rooms still available throughout the March Magic timeframe.
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.
