SXSW PanelPicker Trends: Less Trump!
The Forrest Four-Cast: August 20, 2018
You only have about 10 more days to vote and comment on your favorite speaking proposals in the 2019 SXSW PanelPicker (as this interface closes at the end of the day on Thursday, August 30). Log into your account to engage in this process. Or if you don’t already have an account, creating one is free and easy via this page.
Between now and the August 30 voting deadline, we continue to explore some of the trends and themes in this year’s PanelPicker. This exploration is done 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 edition of this series, we look at one of the words that has actually decreased in frequency between 2019 and 2018. This word is Trump. A year ago, the SXSW PanelPicker included 42 instances of the president’s name. For this year’s interface, the number decreased by 33% to 28. The digital creatives who participate in SXSW appear ready to move on with regards to this particular trend.
Explore many 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.
