South By Texas State

Collabotition was the main focus of the panel with the same name on Tuesday morning. The word is odd and of course a combination of two words, but what does it mean? According to the panel it means the collective showing of collaborating with competitors to develop new technologies and ideas together, rather than taking more time to do something on your own.

The panel included media experienced people from MTV, Microsoft, Third Act, 7 Robot and TVWeek. Most of the panelists have worked with competitors in one form or another and gave their advice and experience to the early morning crowd. The discussion was relaxed and included excellent points such as the issue of relevancy when it takes too long for one company to develop something online as opposed to getting projects done faster with collaboration. The topic went into the areas of possible collaboration from advertising and television shows to new online technologies that give more interaction to viewers and consumers.

The panel can be summed up by the words of panelist Niko Chauls of Microsoft, “Recognize your strengths and those of your competition, know what you’re not good at and collaborate with companies that are good in those areas. Companies would suffer these days without collaboration, we need to work together to get things done for less money and in less time.”