We may still be recovering from SXSW Interactive but we just couldn’t wait to tell you about our experience in Austin. If you’ve ever been to the giant tech conference, then you probably know that the entire experience can be overwhelming with so many inspiring sessions, fun parties packed with interesting people and unique marketing activations on every corner of the city. We’re looking to give you a short and sweet overview of our time at SXSW – from the sessions that we can’t get off our minds to the amazing .CO-ers we met while there.
On Friday evening we hosted a .CO-er Happy Hour. It was a chance for us to treat our community members to drinks, food and fun swag in an intimate setting. Over 70 .CO-ers, partners and friends gathered at The Backspace just off of 6th Street. Our partner, HostGator provided some awesome swag and a special web-hosting offer just for our COmmunity members. Five lucky .CO-ers scored something extra special in their goodie bags – GoPro’s to capture their time in Austin! Needless to say, it was a very fun way to kick off SXSW.
Great time @dotCO! Much GoPro! pic.twitter.com/rDjaI9ficD
— Glif (@glifapp) March 14, 2015
Thanks to @dotCO for the @GoPro in my gift bag! #SXSW #dotCOrocks pic.twitter.com/jnYqu7f3kY
— Kyle Taylor (@kyletaylored) March 13, 2015
On Saturday, a select number of .CO-ers that redeemed the SXSW 2015 offer via our Membership Program were interviewed by Tech.co. The video interviews included Glif.co, WorkingOn.co and Publicize.co, among others. There is nothing we love more than promoting the great ideas that are coming to life on .CO and these video interviews did just that! All of the .CO-ers coordinated video interviews for were so grateful for the help in getting their story told in the press. We can’t wait to share the videos with you!
Our fantastic partner, Springboard (SB.co) hosted a lovely dinner on Saturday night. Springboard is a highly-vetted expert network of innovators, investors and influencers who are dedicated to building high-growth technology-oriented companies led by women. It was inspiring to be in a room with so many brilliant minds including Springboard Chairman Kay Koplovitz who had recently published a book sharing her wisdom, Been There, Run That – a must-read for aspiring entrepreneurs.
Through out our time at SXSW, our team split up to attend various content sessions to share some of that knowledge with you. Here’s a little “Tweetcap” of some of our key takeaways:
3 ways to find a problem for a great idea 1. Solve for inconvenience 2. Solve for inefficiency 3. Solve your own problems #godotCO #SXSW
— .CO (@dotCO) March 15, 2015
Community: Speak to them like people. Talk to them (and they talk back). Be personal! – David Rubin, Pinterest #SXSW #godotCO
— .CO (@dotCO) March 15, 2015
“We’re taking videos and pictures and sharing in real-time rather than being present in the moment.” – @karliekloss #SXSW #godotCO
— .CO (@dotCO) March 14, 2015
Half of tech companies out of SV are started by immigrants or children of immigrants.- @davemcclure #StartupImmigration #godotCO #SXSW
— .CO (@dotCO) March 14, 2015
it’s a challenge to fit a product into another market, you can’t force fit – look @ product benefits, channels & cultures #globalmkts #SXSW
— .CO (@dotCO) March 14, 2015
“one of the best assets you can have is a customer that is willing to tell you what they think” – @hayleybay co-founder, Birchbox #SXSW
— .CO (@dotCO) March 14, 2015
“We are in the 3rd wave of the Internet, making Internet more integrated in life than ever before” – Steve Case #asksteve #godotCO #SXSW
— .CO (@dotCO) March 14, 2015
In addition to our team attending sessions, we gave 4 .CO-ers badges to the conference to soak up as much inspiration and knowledge as possible! PrettyGeeky.co, Feathr.co, DrawAttention.co and AudioTroupe.co hit up sessions and parties to learn and network. We were thrilled to be able to hook them up with such a high value perk that would help them get the most out of their time in Austin.
Sitting in on “Bootstrapping from the beach”. #advnturous @dotCO pic.twitter.com/FNlDxvmjrw
— Kyle Taylor (@kyletaylored) March 14, 2015
Awesome time at #sxsw so far! Thanks @dotCO for the prizes and the perks!
— Audio Troupe (@audiotroupe) March 14, 2015
We closed out the weekend at the Tech.co Startup Celebration where 20 of the hottest startups across the globe showcased. It was definitely one of the hottest parties (the massive line down 6th Street says it all). It was a super fun night – COngrats to our friends at Tech.co!
Overall, SXSW was quite the success. We got to meet so many .CO-ers face-to-face which is always a very special experience for us since our community is scattered all over the world. There’s nothing we love more than promoting and supporting all of the brilliant ideas that are coming to life on .CO. Through the Happy Hour, the badges we gave .CO-ers and the video interviews we coordinated, we hope our community members felt the .CO love!
