Deloitte at South by South West

Held in Austin, Texas every March, South by South West (SXSW) is a melting pot of thought leaders from the film, music and interactive industries. Five members from the Deloitte Online team were there.

This year, over 36,000 film, music and interactive industry professionals and enthusiasts descended on the festival for two weeks of talks, conferences and parties to celebrate new ideas in the online world. Now in its seventeenth year, SXSW Interactive has a reputation for identifying the next big thing online, with apps like Twitter and Foursquare launching or reaching their tipping point in previous years.

Five members from the Deloitte Online team – Jess, Damian, Jordan, Abhilash and Andrew – ventured to SXSW to discover the best of what the web has to offer. Below are their thoughts on what is up-and-coming in the interactive industry.

Battle of the Internet Browsers

Representatives from the major Internet browsers (sans Safari) discussed the new era of browser standards. The launch of Internet Explorer 9 signalled a change for Microsoft as for the first time they collaborated with other browsers to define the HTML 5 specification and ensure greater cross-browser compatibility. There are hopes that this will mean developers can start using the latest standards and technologies sooner.

Contextual Mobile Applications

Developing context around content and data has been seen as a next step for mobile applications. With mobiles becoming our primary connectivity device, services need to evolve and incorporate contextual discovery into their offerings. This context could relate to language, location, time of day and even accelerometer data. Adding context allows users to get a wealth of information on their mobile based on their physical location or personal activities. Gary Vaynerchuk, author of ‘Crush It’, said it best: "If content is king, context is God."

The value of data

Online businesses are beginning to realise the importance and value of their data. Foursquare’s new ‘Explore’ functionality - timed to be launched during the festival - allows for the mining of user check-in data to establish transparent, real-time tracking of popular venues. Twitter also implemented their native retweeting functionality for this purpose, as it provides a clear metric for establishing which content is being distributed on the network.

The birth of the gaming era

Seth Priebatsch, CEO of SCVNGR, explored the concept of a transition from the social era to the gaming era. Using fundamental gaming mechanics such as countdowns and reward systems, Seth discussed how these techniques have been used in the real world. One example discussed was how Princeton University changed its entire examination process by tweaking social mechanics.

Overall, SXSW Interactive focused on the increasing maturity and reach of technology. Discussions went well beyond feature sets and business decisions to examine the changes they can bring to user behaviours, attitudes and, increasingly, broader society. With a diverse array of attendees, SXSW showed a digital industry engaging with all the challenges that come with being a significant catalyst for change.