SXSW PanelPicker Trends: International
The Forrest Four-Cast: August 17, 2018
The 2019 SXSW PanelPicker interface remains open for only two more weeks. Get your voting and commenting finished before the polls close at the end of the day on Thursday, August 30. Log into your SXSW account to select the ideas that you like the most. Or create a new account so that you can be part of the process.
Between now and the August 30 deadline, visit this space to learn more about some of the top trends and themes in this year’s interface. We do this trend-casting by comparing the number of speaking proposals on the given topic in the 2019 interface versus the number of speaking proposals on this topic in the PanelPicker from a year ago.
For today’s installment of this series, let’s talk about the increased international focus at SXSW. In the 2019 interface, there are a total of 831 speaking proposals that come from outside the United States. This is about a 10% increase as compared to the 2018 PanelPicker (when 765 ideas came from the global creative community).
Some of the countries that were particularly proficient in terms of entering 2019 PanelPicker speaking proposals include Australia (50), Brazil (62), Canada (161), Denmark (14), France (14), Germany (69), India (7), Israel (10), Japan (21), Mexico (21), the Netherlands (41), Singapore (9), Sweden (12), Switzerland (9), and the United Kingdom (169).
Find other trends 2019 PanelPicker trends by entering your favorite keyword in the “Search” bar 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 the early-bird deadline of September 13 so that you can take part in all the discovery, brainstorming, creativity, deal-making, and cross-industry networking that is SXSW. After you buy your badge, then book your Austin lodging for the event. 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.
