SXSW may feel like it’s a full year away, but planning is well underway. Each year, DC area startups, organizations, educators, and other digital minded people flock to Austin, Texas to present on various topics; now is your chance to help support them. The SXSW PanelPicker is now live! Below is a list of some area hopefuls attempting to get their panel on the schedule. If you would like your panel added, shoot us a tweet .
Women Entrepreneurs: We had the power all along!
Women entrepreneurs don’t get our fair share of capital, and it can be hard to hack it in the male-dominated tech world. Yada. Yada. Yada.
But we’re acorns: we have everything we need inside ourselves to create, disrupt, innovate and transform whole industries. Why? We think differently.
Our only obstacle? Ourselves. In this truly interactive session, serial entrepreneur and social media expert Melinda Wittstock and holistic counselor and author Trish Whynot explore fears and old wounds that hold us back, and why transforming ourselves from the ‘inside out’ manifests in outward success when we leverage our authenticity, empathy and heart. We dare to bare our innermost fears, painful fail-forward learning, and how personal (often subconscious) issues stand in the way of successful leadership, fundraising, product development, and sales. Learn how to turn your ‘amazonian awesomeness’ into inspiring leadership, innovative win-wins and integrity-driven value creation and profit!
Speakers
- Melinda Wittstock Verifeed
- Trish Whynot Trish Whynot D.C.Ed.
Four Panels from the CEA
Our team member Bronwyn works with the CEA, who has four panels up for voting.
Disruptive Innovators Under Attack
Talent and Tech: Navigating the New Music Economy
Putting Policymakers to Work For You
IoT Decoded: Sensors, Small Data & Social Change
The Share Economy is Failing. Abort or Retry?
The Share Economy is a continuum of evil: from the purely generous (like CouchSurfing.org) to the prima fascia evil (cough cough MonkeyParking). But even those apps that seem harmless, if not good (think: RelayRides) disrupt more than the industry they ostensibly target. They disrupt the way we view public space and public goods. They disrupt the very idea of “private property,” and, for that matter, of “sharing.” This session will ask: are there parts of our economy that we should wall off from monetized sharing? What happens when people can go into the business of sharing – especially if that business relies on the use of (if not the sharing of) public space? Should the share economy be folded into the regular economy and thus abide by all its regulations, should it sit alongside the regular economy with its own set of regulations, or should it simply be shut down like a Napster for this decade?
Speakers
- Gadi Ben-Yehuda IBM Center for the Business of Government
How Potato Salad Killed/Saved Crowdfunding
It started out humbly, simply and innocently like so many other crowdfunding projects. Zack’s goal was to raise $10.00 to make some potato salad on the popular online funding platform, Kickstarter. What happened next was the stuff of crowdfunding dreams. Zack not only surpassed his original goal, but within weeks, raised $60,000 from pledges by more than 6,000 people.
Reactions from many across social media ranged from disgust—as to why people would choose to fund something so frivolous, to delight—as people fell in love with the fanciful nature of the project. No matter which side you were on, we all agreed that this story marked a shift in the landscape of crowdfunding.
Join our panel of leaders from top crowd funding platforms and projects as they dissect the future of crowdfunding for nonprofits, for profits and individuals; explore why projects like this one are good/bad for fundraisers; and what this shift in crowdfunding means for your next project.
Speakers
- Gary Wohlfeill CrowdRise
- Kohl Crecelius Krochet Kids Int’l.
- Kendel Ratley Kickstarter
- Emily Yu The Case Foundation
Are You a Builder or a Backer?
You want to make your mark on the world and be part of the next big thing, but there’s more than one path to take – are you a builder or a backer? Hear the unfiltered truths and first-hand experiences from leaders in the industry who have served on both sides of the coin and ultimately found their true passions. Nextdoor co-founder Sarah Leary turned down opportunities to enter VC in favor of startup life, and since then she’s been through it all – starting from scratch, multiple acquisitions, and even a pivot. Early stage investor Aileen Lee has been backing companies like One Kings Lane and Dollar Shave Club before you ever heard of them, but returned to VC life after a two-year tour of duty as founding CEO of a VC-backed digital media company. Learn what it really takes to be an entrepreneur versus a venture capitalist, and discover the surprising similarities and the stark contrasts between the two roles, including what it takes to build a successful company from the inside-out.
Speakers
- Sarah Leary Nextdoor
- Aileen Lee Cowboy Ventures
- Leena Rao Google Ventures
Say It Well or Don’t Say It At All
“Content marketing” is the most overused phrase of 2014 — yet few brands are doing it well. Marketers repeatedly hear the anthem of “more content!” and too rarely the more reasoned rhetoric of useful, informative, entertaining and engaging content. This panel brings together four unique perspectives — including an award-winning author, a digital strategy queen, a seasoned PR exec and an agency creative on the secret sauce for quality content that actually succeeds.
Today, “content marketing” is experiencing the same pitfalls we witnessed in the television industry. Well-written dramas and researched documentaries were replaced with “reality” entertainment everywhere you looked; 24-hour news replaced, well, actual news; and the world seemed, for at least a while, to care about not what was on TV but how much of it there was.
In response to the over-saturation of insignificant content, savvy consumers tuned it out and turned it off.
So how do we stay ahead of the game?
Speakers
- Stephanie Lynch Delucchi Plus
- Kimberly Carroll
- Eve Blossom WE’VE
- Thomas Frank Delucchi Plus
Connected Health: Being Social Helps Your Heart
The mobile technology world is evolving quickly, creating unprecedented opportunities to transform the healthcare industry through hyper-connected, highly personalized care, when and where people need it most. It has disrupted traditional healthcare in a number of ways, including online search (access to health information), health tracking (apps and wearables) and treatment (technologies that allow doctors to diagnose ailments remotely and support self-care). One of the areas where mobile health is having the most impact is in developing countries where infrastructure, resources and medical knowledge can vary greatly by country and region. By 2016, there will be a projected 10 billion mobile devices in use worldwide. The opportunities for dramatic breakthroughs in mobile health technology are great, but the road to get there is not without challenges. Nancy Brown will discuss these barriers and how, once overcome, better health can be achieved through going mobile.
Speaker
- Nancy Brown American Heart Association
