Digby at SXSW 2012

by Hillary Prey, 05/20/12 | Posted in Digby Culture

This year marked my third SXSW Interactive Conference—and it was by far the best one yet. Over the last few years, SXSW Interactive has exploded into an almost 25,000 person festival featuring some of the hottest tech ideas, most innovative start-ups and loudest influencers out there today. With companies like Twitter and Facebook making headlines at SXSWi over the years, I was thrilled that Digby was part of the action this year, making a splash of our own.

Digby hosted a series of events, including a table at this year’s 2012 SXSW Startup Crawl. We got a team of Digby Marketers and Developers together and headed to the Omni hotel downtown where we drank beer, played games for unique Austin prizes and hung out with some of the most talented developers in Austin.

Then, on the Saturday of the SXSW Interactive Conference, the Digby team made its way to The Old School Bar & Grill in the heart of downtown Austin, East 6th Street—more lovingly (or infamously?) known to Austinites as The Dirty—where we sponsored a VIP Lounge Party with Metabridge for a number of Canadian start-ups, execs and VCs. The party saw 2,000 of some of the most interesting and influential minds network and enjoy drinks, appetizers, music and panels.

Digby Marketing additionally hit the streets during the party to interview SXSW goers about their favorite retailers and how they would feel about receiving VIP offers straight to their smartphones through the retailer’s own branded app. The rain didn’t slow us, or the SXSWi attendees, down as we interviewed everyone from active consumers and brand managers to The Amsterdam Fellows to talented, out-of-town musicians trying to get noticed at SXSW.

It was a great, successful week. And very fitting that we got to play host to a number of out-of-town start-ups in our hometown of Austin. Can’t wait to see the festival brings next year.