Hill+Knowlton Strategies

SXSW 2013

Spring is in the air, which in Austin, can only mean one thing: South by Southwest Interactive is almost here. 

SXSW is an interactive conference that centers on new technologies and digital creativity, featuring speakers, panels, showcases, and networking opportunities galore. The event, at the crossroads of technology, creativity, and entrepreneurialism, was the first and continues to be the largest of its kind.

Take a look at our lineup of panelists, and if you’ll be at SXSW, come on over and join us in exploring how data is changing our world. If you can’t make it out to Austin, tune into our Twitter account @hksdigital for live-updates from the presentations on March 10, and throughout the conference. And of course, don’t forget to check back here for recaps and insights about the entire experience from our team. 

 

Presenters:

Gary Goldhammer
Moderator
Senior Digital Strategist
H+K Strategies

Ashley Brown
Director,
Digital Communications and Social Media
The Coca-Cola Company

Dustee Jenkins
Vice President Public Relations
Target

Jon Steinberg
President & COO
BuzzFeed

Data, Storytelling and Breaking Through the Noise
Sunday, March 10
9:30 – 10:30 AM

Every minute, three days worth of content is uploaded to YouTube. Every four seconds, a New York Times story is tweeted or shared. With information overload, how does your brand break through the noise? How do you earn trust in a fragmented 24/7 media world? Storytelling can reset legacy brands, launch unknown brands and reach consumers in ways that go beyond the noise. Unfortunately, most brands will suck at storytelling because they won’t do what good storytelling requires. Stories have conflict and villains, winners and losers. They have personality and flaws, great highs and severe lows. And today, stories are supported and, in some cases, driven by data. Whether your brand is B2C or B2B, data can help shape the story you want to tell.

Our panel will explore how data driven stories can have significant impact for connecting with the audiences you want to reach. You will learn how to ensure that your stories resonate beyond the marketing team and engage people on an emotional level.

Download our E-book on storytelling. 

 

 

Presenters:

Emily Ramshaw
Moderator 
Editor 
Texas Tribune

Liv Buli
Data Journalist
Next Big Sound

Kevin Helliker
Editor
The Wall Street Journal

James Grimaldi
Senior Writer
The Wall Street Journal

Laura Sturaitis
Executive Vice President
Media Services & Product
Strategy
Business Wire

Journalism by #’s: Data Will Change Nature of News
Sunday, March 10
11:00 AM – 12:00 PM

The advent of the Web marked the best and the worst of times for journalism: Hyper-local and citizen news, the decline of print and rise of pay walls, reporters learning new skills as well as learning how to be “brands.” The transformation has been unprecedented and the industry’s future has never been more promising, if not uncharted.

One thing, however, is clear: Content may be journalism’s king, but there’s no kingdom without data. We’ve gone from data supporting journalism to data driving and, in some cases, writing the actual stories themselves. Our panel will explore how data may alter the very definition of news, and whether a smart algorithm can ever replace smart, personal, emotional reporting.


 

 

Presenters:

Peter Zandan
Moderator
Vice Chair of Research
H+K Strategies

Lisa Kennedy
PhD, Chief Marketing
Officer for GE’s
Healthymagination Initiative  

Gary Wolf
Founder
Quantified Self

Sonny Vu
Founder & CEO
Misfit Wearables and
AgaMatrix

How Self-Tracking Geeks are Shaping Our Future
Sunday, March 10
12:30 – 1:30 PM

Imagine a world in which everything you say and do, and how your body responds, is tracked and analyzed.

Our panelists have imagined that world and worked to create it as entrepreneurs, executives, investors, organizers and fanatics. Aided by new technology, more people than ever are using data to truly know everything about their well-being – even down to their amino acid levels. If you are interested in learning the latest thinking in the Quantified Self movement, whether or not you collect data about yourself, do not miss this panel.

The trend goes beyond athletes recording training data and dieters logging calories. Innovators are making it easy for all of us to measure the seemingly immeasureable. The future of self-tracking may help us understand and conquer the most devastating diseases, or it may waste our time and take away privacy.

What seems like a geeky concept right now has the potential to change how we live.

 

Presenters:
 

Andrew Bleeker
Global Digital Practice Leader
H+K Strategies

Zac Moffatt
Co-Founder
Targeted Victory  

Tom Serres
Founder & CEO
Rally.org

Dan Wagner
Chief Analytics Officer
2012 Obama
Presidential Campaign
 


 

Big Data Democracy: The Rise of Analytics
Sunday, March 10
3:30 – 4:30 PM

You’ve all heard about the role of “big data” in this year’s race to the White House. From Nate Silver’s models to Obama’s project Narwhal, the 2012 Presidential election abandoned intuition in favor of analytics – deep insights into constituent behavior that enabled the most accurate targeting and modeling yet.

In this panel, top political and technological minds will discuss how mining and analyzing “big data” helps predict – extremely accurately – the behaviors of constituents and electorate. Who votes, who needs to vote, for which candidate, why? What makes people tick – and more importantly, what makes them act? Answers to these pivotal questions almost always lie in the data.

Our panel will focus on new trends in political data analysis. It will also look ahead, predicting how data will continue to influence the political landscape.
Related SXSW content: 

 

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