PN London and a team of experts has been analyzing some of the key themes emerging from this year's SXSW. For more information, please email Philip Honour on philip.honour@porternovelli.co.uk

1. DECONSTRUCTED

2. INTRODUCTION
As SXSW Interactive comes to a close for
another year, an inspired panel of creators,
marketers and entrepreneurs stepped off the
plane and into Porter Novelli’s office ‘Bankside 2’,
to share their opinions on the good, the bad and
the over-hyped at SXSW 2017.
It was a slimmed down conference this
year – buzz at SXSW suggests the festival’s
international attendance may be down due to
Trump. Even so, there were 72,000 people,
2,800 sessions, 350 parties, 1.7 million tweets
and a confluence of perspectives that is
difficult to replicate.
The diversity was apparent in the sessions our
panel had gone to – each coming back and
shining a different light on the same day job
challenges and how to overcome them.
As one put it, “#sxsw2017 is good for seeing
things in a broader context - productive
disorientation”, and another declared, “I
always go to the maddest talks I can find”.
So what was SXSW talking about this year?
We centered the panel’s discussion around the
three biggest and most controversial topics at
SXSW 2017:
‘The AI Revolution’ (#1), ‘Smart Clothing’ (#2)
and ‘New Health Tech’ (#3). For those who
couldn’t listen live, this report replays the best
bits, including the frank perspectives of the
experts (mind the expletives!), to give you a
tangible and pragmatic view of SXSW 2017.
Here is the panel that has helped us to
deconstruct SXSW Interactive 2017…

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LAURA JORDAN BAMBACH
CHIEF CREATIVE OFFICER,
MR PRESIDENT
JOSH DICKINS
CULTURAL FUTURES TEAM
AT FLAMINGO LONDON
GEMMA MILNE
CO-FOUNDER OF
SCIENCE: DISRUPT
NILS LEONARD
FOUNDER OF HALO
MATTHEW DRINKWATER
HEAD OF LCF’S FASHION
INNOVATION AGENCY
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4. THE AI REVOLUTION
01
Everyone seemed to be touting the power and promise of
Artificial Intelligence at SXSW this year (or alternatively,
like Bruce Sterling – a futurist and science fiction writer,
wondering if it will put us all out of work). The whole panel
expressed irritation towards this dystopian vision of AI,
“Robots are going to steal our jobs, we’re not going to
have poets any more, that’s just bollocks”.
Porter Novelli’s host, Richard Zackheim, quoted billionaire
Mark Cuban who said, “the world’s first trillionaires are
going to come from somebody who masters AI”. Gemma
Milne responded “While the marketing industry is still
talking about AI as a future trend, a lot of other industries
have already done it”. Disney for example spoke about
how “Artificial intelligence is going to allow us to get
closer to our characters” in their session Using AI &
Machine Learning to Extend the Disney Magic.
On our panel, Laura Jordan Bambach, warned about
the ethical issues of AI “they are run by private military
corporations and coded by a very small group of society
– young, white, very well-off, Western men”. She had
been to a talk by Kate Crawford a former colleague,
now advisor to The White House and founder of AI
Now. “There is a big military operation underway at the
moment running AI for border control for the States and
once that’s in progress what happens at border control
when a border control person can say to you ‘It’s not me
it’s the AI, AI didn’t let you in’. Does this incredible power
with no accountability equate to fascism?”.

5. PORTER NOVELLI
WANTED TO KNOW
WHAT THE GENERAL
PUBLIC THOUGHT.
WE ASKED AN ETHEREAL
QUESTION
“WHAT’S GOING TO
COME FIRST – A PERSON
ON MARS, OR AI
REPLACING YOUR JOB?”
Source: Toluna survey of 1000 UK adults, 22/03/2017
1,001
RESPONDENTS
A PERSON
ON MARS
AI
REPLACES
YOUR OWN
JOB
45%
55%
01

6. IT’S NOT ARTIFICIAL
INTELLIGENCE, IT’S
AUGMENTED INTELLIGENCE
01
That’s how IBM spoke about AI at South By “We call it augmented
intelligence because it’s not that the system should replace the
human in their decisions, but that the system should support the
human in making the decisions” Niklaus Waser, the head of IBM’s
new HQ in Germany.
There was a lot of discussion about emotional intelligence at SXSW
this year, and actually can Bots replace a human being? “No bloody
way can they do that, because emotional intelligence isn’t just
learning what you’re saying, and then saying ‘oh, I feel for you’,
that’s actually a very abusive relationship” said Josh Dickens from
Flamingo.
“Bots are successful when they serve a very specific purpose,
that is making something quicker, easier and more efficient than
a human being can do it”. This view, Dickens said, is Dharmesh
Shah’s (Co-founder and CTO of HubSpot) who proclaimed in
his presentation, “Chatbots are the most important technology
development since the advent of the Internet”.
On the flip side, Gemma argued, “I think you’ve also got to
remember, what is a Bot? It’s just a glorified flow chart. You know
those ones in girl magazines, ‘Should you go on a date with him?’
That’s what a Bot is, genuinely. When it really works is when it
starts learning from what you’re saying, which they’re not doing”.

7. 02
WEARABLES HAVE
BEEN DESCRIBED AS
IN THEIR AWKWARD
TEENAGE YEARS.
DO YOU THINK THAT’S
A FAIR ASSESSMENT OF
WHERE WE’RE AT WITH
THAT TECHNOLOGY?
SMART CLOTHING
“Yes, I think it is”, said Matthew Drinkwater. “But the
opportunity is really huge. For us seeing a platform
for the body being created, and just moving the
dialogue away from the wrist, is something which
is genuinely exciting for us” (talking about Project
Jacquard).
“I think it begins to show the direction that future
retailers will go, as we begin to scale up the supply
chain of conductive yarn and it is used by a much
wider audience. I think you’ll see more applications
of it”.
“But the truth is, the cult and sex of fashion is lost
in wearables” says Nils Leonard. “The romantic in
me hopes smart clothing will start to live the brand
more, I want it to be naughty and cool and weird”.
A talk called the ‘Crossover of Future in ArtxTech by
Women in Design’ by six women: Anouk, Behnaz,
Tiffany Frenda, Noa Aviv, Wendy Fok and Dara
Dotz, had inspired Laura Jordan Bambach. Their
delicate and dangerous interactive garments were
all about protection of personal space from the male
gaze and body “I saw some amazing wearable stuff,
which wasn’t Jacquard. There was one woman who
had made this shawl and if a guy comes and stands
near her boobs, it comes out like porcupines in
waves. That to me is kinda cool”.

8. 02
Meanwhile, Bolt Threads, a
biotechnology company, debuts
$314 necktie made entirely from
‘spider silk’
However, we must be clear ‘No
spiders were involved in making
this spider silk’. Bolt Threads
instead use genetically modified
yeast, water, and sugar that
make it molecularly the same
as natural spider silk. It also has
the potential to be both more
sustainable and more versatile
than existing textiles.

9. HYPE OR
REALITY
“VINCI”
ANDROID TOUCHSCREEN
WIRELESS HEADPHONES
“XPERIA TOUCH”
SONY’S PROJECTOR THAT
TURNS ANY SURFACE INTO A
TOUCHSCREEN
“MAPLY”
APP ALLOWS YOU TO
DISCOVER USER-GENERATED
LOCAL EVENTS
‘SMART TAMPON’
DETECTS ENDOMETRIOSIS
“THIS WAY”
AI-DRIVEN RECRUITMENT APP
THAT MATCHES CVS TO JOBS
“EXOSKELETON”
A ROBOT FOR WAREHOUSE
WORKERS TO INCREASE
ENDURANCE
HYPE HYPEREALITY
REALITY HYPE
REALITY REALITY REALITY
We asked our panel about the
most inventive ideas coming
out of SXSW 2017 to give their
verdict, Hype (just a fad) or
Reality (it’s here to stay)
“TELEBEAUTY”
AN APP FOR VIDEO CALLS THAT
DIGITALLY APPLIES MAKEUP
“VAPETRONICS”
THE WORLD’S FIRST MOBILE
CASE TO STORE/CHARGE
YOUR VAPE PEN

10. 03
NEW HEALTH TECH
This year, the health theme was certainly in the spotlight,
with a number of the official “Health Track” sessions
having been moved to the main stage.
To a sold-out crowd of 1,300, Joe Biden, former Vice
President of the United States, delivered an impassioned
plea to “the techies” in the audience to find a cure for
cancer. “You are the future,” Biden said in his first major
speech on cancer since leaving the White House. “Many
of you are developing technologies and innovations
for purposes large and small that have nothing to do
with cancer. But you can make a gigantic impact. Your
ingenuity can have a profound impact on cancer.” Bidden
told a packed audience how his son Beau’s death from
brain cancer kept him from running for president in 2016,
but spurred him into intense action.
“I think unless we change the way we reward talent, it’s
not going to happen” said Gemma Milne. “I think the tech
industry could encourage people to go and check their
breasts, but I don’t think the next Mark Zuckerberg is
going to spend his time trying to cure cancer. Unless he’s
in Computational Biology or Material Physics and I think
that’s more likely where it’s going to come from”.
Laura Jordan Bambach brought the conversation back
to Biotech. “Over at SXSW Create, the maker and kids
venue, I came across a new kind of maker group focused
on biology rather than the usual engineering. From
“Extract the DNA of a Strawberry” kits to “Make Your
Own Microscope”, BioHive had plenty to offer the throngs
of primary school kids that were there, and those of us
grown ups who still love playing science”
Democratising biotechnology is something Gemma
Milne had come across before “You should check out
London biohackspace (LBHS) where you can do things
like changing the colour of the plant, to brew your own
insulin! It’s a great way to learn and be inspired.”

11. ABOUT PORTER NOVELLI
Porter Novelli is a global public relations agency built on
a rich heritage of marketing for social good. We’ve been
motivating people to change deeply ingrained behaviours
rooted in cultural and social norms for more than 40
years. Porter Novelli is a different kind of agency—and
we recognise, respect and champion companies with the
spirit, drive and tenacity to do things differently. We like
taking on big challenges, and even bigger challengers, and
we seek out clients who feel the same way—clients who
have the conviction to tell their own story, and the courage
to innovate from who they have been into who they know
they can be.
For additional information, please visit www.porternovelli.
com. Porter Novelli is a part of the Omnicom Public
Relations Group.
About Omnicom Public Relations Group
Omnicom Public Relations Group is a global collective of
three of the top global public relations agencies worldwide
and specialist agencies in areas including public affairs,
marketing to women, fashion, global health strategy and
corporate social responsibility. It encompasses more
than 6,000 public relations professionals in more than
330 offices worldwide who provide their expertise to
companies, government agencies, NGOs and nonprofits
across a wide range of industries.
Omnicom Public Relations Group is part of the DAS
Group of Companies, a division of Omnicom Group Inc.
that includes more than 200 companies in a wide range
of marketing disciplines including advertising, public
relations, healthcare, customer relationship management,
events, promotional marketing, branding and research.
Contact:
Philip Honour
Porter Novelli London
philip.honour@porternovelli.co.uk
+44 (0)7730 033 051
SOURCE Porter Novelli London