I have lived in Texas the majority of my life and have heard about SXSW from numerous people and, of course, once I was on social media started seeing posts about it. It never really seemed like something for me, and I never thought I would have the chance to attend. So, to say I am happy I went this year would be an understatement. When it came to the night of getting our badges, I had absolutely NO idea what to expect.

Now, it is pretty clear that the Interactive portion of SXSW is about technology, but the thing I kept saying to myself was, “wow, I never though about it there.” Pretty much every panel I attended included new technology being added to our crazy worlds.

By attending numerous panels, walking through ‘houses” and partaking in the trade show, it was clear that technology will soon take over pretty much every aspect of our lives.

The one panel that stood out to me was covering cybersecurity with the way we travel and airlines. It is pretty clear that there is a lot of technology when it comes to the airline world, but now it is starting to make its way into the airports.

Some airports are even trying out facial recognition when it comes to checking in. Although, all of these advances are great and help make things easier, there is the need to make sure everything is safe. As we continue to become more advanced, hacked are also growing with the technology.

Another panel I attended mentioned technology uses in the kitchen. Having AI help you in the kitchen may not be that unordinary or too far away. Bots may be in the kitchen that tell us what we need to make a smoothie, what we can make with the ingredients we have, or even tell you what you need to pick up from the store. There was even talk about some of these items making its way into the professional kitchens.

The trade show allowed for many companies and organizations to show off their new technologies. Anheuser-Busch brought their new escape room that will allow for potential employees to see what it is like to work for their company. An interesting thing I saw at the trade show was how many cities were there. There were cities from a wide variety of states show casing just how technological their cities are becoming.

Attending SXSW was something that was just amazing. There were so many topics that I was excited to hear about, but also so many topics that I had no idea I needed to know about. There were also many panels that were just interesting and contained great information or just good food. This is something that I believe everyone should experience and is something that I will for sure attend again.

So, back to my intro where I said I though SXSW was something that “wasn’t for me,” well I was for sure wrong and I think it is something for pretty much anyone.

Until next time, SXSW!