My Speaking Experience at SXSW Interactive

I was very pleased with how my How to Ensure a Diverse Tech Event presentation went. The How to Ensure a Diverse Tech Event slides and complementary information are all available online.

I had a tremendous amount of preparation help from a friend who does anti-racism education and training. I spent much of my very short time on the concepts of privilege, inclusion, representation, and structural barriers to participation. Most of the actual how-to steps are in the accompanying blog post.

The folks at SXSW were great at every step of the way. They communicated often and clearly from the moment I got notice that my panel was accepted. My liaison, Glenda Bautista, curated the Future15 diversity track. As I sat through all of the presentations, I was blown away by how great each one was individually and how well they all went together without duplicating any content. And it was super cool to meet Glenda, because we have a number of mutual friends and I hear great things about her.

It’s hard to gage reaction to a 15-minute presentation in the middle of a block of 15-minute presentations for which there is a lot of dense material in a short span and no time for questions and answers. Based on the tweets I saw, those that were in the room got a lot out of it, and there were some impressive and knowledgeable people in the room.

I was surprised to realize, a month after the fact, that I really enjoyed doing it. It’s not just that I enjoyed having been asked and having done it, but I enjoyed being up there. For the format and material I had, I felt well prepared. A longer format and taking questions is a whole ‘nother thing and I can certainly use some practice on my delivery, but this was a good start. Between this experience and presenting at the Minnesota Blogger Conference, the prospect of speaking in front of people on a topic I know doesn’t scare me so much anymore. I made a promise to myself to present on this topic again sometime this year, in whatever format or context I can find. I’m investigating one already and keeping an eye out for others.

And I got to see a film, since you get a Gold Badge as a speaker which allows you complete access to the simultaneously-occurring SXSW Film.

As for the conference overall, there was a lot of talk about whether SXSW has jumped the shark. It has changed quite a lot, even just in the last couple years. It’s a case of people talking about how they liked their favorite band before it was popular. I’d bet that folks who regularly attended SXSW Interactive in its pre-2000 days as SXSW Multimedia said the same thing about six years ago.

People – myself included – need to 1) decide for themselves if SXSW as it is now has what they want, and 2) make their best effort to improve and own the experience. It’s a huge event. You have a lot of choices. Five days is a long time for a conference. You need to know going in who you want to see and who you want to meet. If you’re choosy about panel content, do some homework before you show up. Also, the organizers are very open about accepting feedback and suggestions, so at least make an attempt to voice your concerns. For the newbie, I recommend a more fly by the seat of your pants style, but for the jaded old-timer, you’ve got to do some work if your natural style does not lend itself to flying by the seat of your pants.

I think many people who were dissatisfied are aware of all that and are adjusting their expectations and actions accordingly. Some folks get paid to publicly complain punditize analyze these events, so they hopped on that theme’s bandwagon and did all that talking about it.

That said, I’m not sure I’ll be going again. I’ve noticed in previous years that a lot of the topics that draw me to SXSW Interactive are the intersections of technology and civic life. Government, higher education, the sustainability movement, nonprofits, etc. I realized this year that a lot of those topic areas probably have smaller, cheaper, more niche (and local!) events from which I can get even better information. But the cool thing about SXSW is that I can get all of those different niches at once, together. Depending on what my next career is looking like six or nine months from now, the networking aspect of attending SXSW might be useful.

I did get my chances to connect with friends I don’t see often and to meet new people doing cool things. To that end, SXSW Interactive 2011 was a success for me.