PanelPicker Voting Closes Friday evening
The Forrest Four-Cast: September 1, 2016
UPDATE: The PanelPicker voting deadline has now been extended to 11:59 pm Central Time on Monday, September 5.
September 2 marks the last day for the SXSW PanelPicker, which is the mechanism that helps select about 70% of the content for March 2017 in Austin. When the public portion of this unique interface closes at 11:59 pm CST on Friday evening, your opportunity to help shape conference programming for next spring has come to a close.
So, whether you have five minutes or five hours, please make an effort to visit the PanelPicker before the fat lady sings on September 2. The more time you have, the more you can engage with the interface (by browsing, by voting, by watching, and by commenting). But, even if your bandwidth is a bit limited, it is easy to find some pretty cool speaking proposals by using the search button at the top right corner of the page to zero in on your favorite concepts and buzz words.
Know that many different sets of people are pouring over this interface at this time of the year. Also reviewing these proposals is the SXSW Advisory Board, as well as a couple of dozen SXSW staffers. Remember that each proposal in the PanelPicker receives a composite numerical score. This score comes from three different factors — public voting accounts for 30%, staff input accounts for another 30% and the Advisory Board input makes up the final 40%. In our experience, this composite scoring system helps make sure that each speaking idea gets sufficient attention (not just the ones entered by people with large social media followings).
Accepted sessions will be announced via the SXSW website on the week of October 17. Before then, stay tuned to the SXSW website on the afternoon of Tuesday, September 6 (when we announce another round of Keynotes and Featured Speakers). And be sure to purchase your 2017 SXSW badge before end of day on Friday, September 9 to save $495 as compared to the walkup price. In a world of deadlines, SXSW has plenty of them!
