SxSW Interactive

The 19th annual SxSW Interactive festival took place March 9-13, 2012 in Austin, Texas. Focused on the emerging technology, SxSW, known as the incubator of new ideas, brought together tech influencers from all around the world. Our Co-Founder and Business Development Director Firat Isbecer was at SxSW to network with greatest minds of the technology sector and view newest trends and innovations.

Here are some highlights from SxSW:

Skyrocketing Location Based Applications

We don't only want to access internet wherever we go, we also want our devices to know where we are, announce it to our friends and give us suggestions on what's around us.

At SxSW, one of the most important sessions on Location Based services was “Enabling New Experiences and Creating Serendipity Through Check-ins,” an interview of Dennis Crowley, CEO of Foursquare, by Mashable CEO Pete Cashmore that focused on providing value to both merchants and customers.

Another great session was “Where Are We Going? The Future of Location” by Gowalla CEO Josh Williams where he talked about how essential LBS are and how to integrate them to apps correctly.

For Location Based Services to be successful, it is extremely important to provide a good user experience and to interpret the data carefully.


Cloud Computing

Cloud computing had a huge impact on technology over the past years. The power of the cloud enables any company, big or small, anywhere in the world, to have access to virtually unlimited computing power for cheap.

Did you know that Instagram has only two founders? During SxSW, they actually confessed that they have a secret 3rd partner, called Cloud!

Other noteworthy names on cloud discussion were, of course, Google and Salesforce.com


Al Gore & Sean Parker Discussion on Democracy and Social Media Influence

Former Vice President, Al Gore's discussion Napster co-founder and former Facebook president, Sean Parker about “Occupy Democracy” on the Internet. They both agreed that Social Media is the least expensive way to reach millions and influence them.