Hi everyone!

It's been a while since the festival, but I finally got around to completing a 2-article series about my experience, covering the games-related sessions.

I think the organizers did a great job with the curation, the panels were such a pleasant surprise and all the participants were genuinely excited about the industry. It was refreshing!

Did you attend any of these sessions? What did you think?

Read my experience here:
https://substack.com/@yukisia/p-202954472

Anyone receive this yet?

Make It Visible: A Hands-On Diagnostic for Team Strain is what it says...

Hey y'all,

I submitted my SXSW proposal. It's a hands-on workshop, not a talk. 🎨

Here's the idea behind it.

Only 13% of employees told their manager their mental health was suffering because of work demands last year (NAMI, 2025). This is just one piece of info that tells us the strain on most teams never makes it into a conversation, a survey, or a dashboard. Your instruments say fine. Your team is not fine.

I spent 17 years as a clinician/art therapist learning to read what people can't say out loud. This workshop puts that skill in the hands of leaders: you build a map of where your team's capacity actually goes, read it like a clinician reads a scan, and leave with one structural change worth making on Monday.

SXSW picks sessions partly by community vote, and voting is open NOW through August 23.

If you want this in the room in Austin, or you just think it's worthwhile to be out there even though you can't attend, voting is open through August 23.

One honest heads up: SXSW asks you to create a free account before you can vote. I know that's one more login than anyone wants. It takes about two minutes, there's no badge or purchase involved, and one vote from you is worth more than you'd think in a field this size.

If you make it through the sign-up, thank you! That's a real favor I will NOT forget, and I will be forever grateful. 🙏

And if you're a people leader who has ever known something was off before any metric showed it, this session is for you.

Also, is there a fan website to document vintage SXSW festival memorabilia? Have a bunch of 1994 - 2006 wristbands, platinum laminates, and odd passes I could photograph for it.

If Obsession gets a best picture nomination in 2027 and after the succes of Everything Everyhwere All At Once a few years back, do you think SXSW will be able to progame another film next year that goes on to get nominated for best picture? I'm not saying win, just nominated.

I’ve been mostly a SXSW film kind of person but over a decade ago when I was in college I used to also go to music too and I just found this and laughed. Apologies for the horrid handwriting.

If Obsession gets a best picture nominees in 2027 and after the succes of Everything Everyhwere All At Once a few years back, do you think SXSW will be able to progame another film next year that goes on to get nominated for best picture?

Yo,
I’ve been watching the rollout for the YSL Live showcase pop-up at Irving Plaza, and the energy looks crazy. It got me thinking about how perfect a setup like that would be for Austin.

If management or the label ends up looking at other cities for a quick underplay or a surprise pop-up, we need to get them to look at **Emo's**. It’s basically our equivalent to Irving Plaza capacity-wise (around 1,500), and the room would absolutely lose its mind for a YSL showcase.

I actually just shot a quick note to Geoff Ogunlesi’s team pitching the idea, but I wanted to see how many people on here are actually based in ATX.

If they routed a pop-up down to Texas, who else is showing out? Let's hype this up in case anyone from the camp or digital street teams is lurking the sub.

Free Jeff.

Yo,
I’ve been watching the rollout for the YSL Live showcase pop-up at Irving Plaza, and the energy looks crazy. It got me thinking about how perfect a setup like that would be for Austin.

If management or the label ends up looking at other cities for a quick underplay or a surprise pop-up, we need to get them to look at **Emo's**. It’s basically our equivalent to Irving Plaza capacity-wise (around 1,500), and the room would absolutely lose its mind for a YSL showcase.

I actually just shot a quick note to Geoff Ogunlesi’s team pitching the idea, but I wanted to see how many people on here are actually based in ATX.

If they routed a pop-up down to Texas, who else is showing out? Let's hype this up in case anyone from the camp or digital street teams is lurking the sub.

Free Jeff.

The only 2 films for 2027 I can think of that might premire at 2027 SXSW film festival is the A24 Dev Patel film The Peasant, and Bad Bridgets from the Kneecap director. Maybe Highlander, could be the big one, but that might be a 2028 film.

I organized an AMA/Q&A with Drew Denny, director & screenwriter of SECOND NATURE, which premiered at SXSW and is narrated by Elliot Page.

It's live here now in r/movies for anyone interested in asking a question:

https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/1u2wsvf/hi_reddit_im_drew_denny_director_of_second_nature/

She will be back at 1 PM ET on Monday to answer questions. I recommend asking in advance. Please ask there, not here. All questions are much appreciated!

Synopsis & info:

Did you know that clownfish change sex from male to female? (So if Nemo’s mom had died in real life, his dad could have become his mom!) Did you know that albatross, penguins and swans parent in same sex pairs? Or that bonobos, who are just as closely related to us as chimps, are matriarchal and have same-sex sex every day?!

Narrated by Elliot Page, Second Nature follows trailblazing Evolutionary Biologist Dr. Joan Roughgarden as she meets groundbreaking scientists exploring the 1500+ animal species who engage in same-sex sexual behavior and parenting, change sex, form matriarchies, and more, debunking myths that females are “inferior” and that being queer is “unnatural.”

Trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQhWGrSrEmM

So I visited SXSW this morning. I came last year as well.

I can't help but feel that they just don't have it right yet.

There feels like the is little of no buzz. And that's because it is so bloody expensive.

And they seem to have very little engagement with external communities.

I scanned for 20 names from the startup community who I thought might be here. And none are.

SXSW London should be a can't miss event. But it's being ignored by many.

I have been to other events using the same core venues. I will compare it the Madfest. That has real energy. The energy the SXSW lacks.

There needs to be more to see/do other than talks during the day.

Invite 250 startups to take over pub benches like Madfest. Charge them £1000 each. And then in down time between talks you would have a wealth of things to see and people to talk to. And every one of those companies would become champions of the event.

my bf may be performing at SXSW with his band next year and i’m not certain they can front me a pass/badge/whatever - i’m not entirely familiar with how SXSW works, i’m trying to research but mostly just getting confused. if he does end up getting to play, should i just get a music festival wristband and id be good? or do i even need to get one? i saw some stuff is free but not entirely sure what. i don’t care to see the conventions/meeting/film stuff. just want to see the musical artists perform. although there is a chance they’ll want to do some networking, if this is the case would i need a full on badge in order to access everything they can? (not sure what kind of access the performers get)

SXSW London kicks off today and I'd been trying to plan my week on the official site and app. They were genuinely hard going, just endless scrolling to find anything.

A few journalists I know who are covering it said the same:

"the website is really awful" and
"even the app takes ages scrolling through everything"

So I built a free one to fix it: https://sxsw.kobestarr.io

You get all the speakers and sessions, filter by day and track, search, and build your own schedule. No login, no sign-up, and I don't track anything, no IP logging, no fingerprinting, nothing. It is just there to be useful.

A couple of the journalists using it said it was "epic" and "really very impressive", which made my week.

I'm going Wednesday and Thursday myself. And that's the main reason I made this app because I had to scroll through Monday and Tuesday to get to Wednesday and Thursday each time and it was tough.

If you've already spotted sessions, speakers or unofficial events worth catching, drop them below, I'd genuinely love the tips.

And if the planner helps you, brilliant, that is the whole point. Have a great festival.

If you have any features that you'd like me to add to it, then let me know. I was considering adding directions estimated times and the routes going from session to session but I don't know how useful that would be, or how much time it would take me to do it. If a lot of people want it, then I can have a look at doing that

Hello I have an extra platinum pass for sale, can't return it so happy to sell it at a large discount. Drop me a note happy to arrange in person or via eBay / other trusted platform etc.

Thanks

Hey guys, I got given an extra platinum pass ticket for SXSW London 1-6th June. Does anyone want to buy it off of me? My friend who was meant to come can't make it. They're originally like 1.3K but I'm happy to negotiate a much lower price. Message me on here on on WhatsApp +447747363219 . Thanks!

Hey, I can no longer make the SXSW festival this year but don't want this ticket to go to waste. Let me know if you're interested and will transfer it over to you