SXSW 2018 Recap: What We Couldn’t Have Expected

As we look back on SXSW 2018, it is hard to ignore some of the most innovative and unique happenings brought to our backyard this March. Activations, celebrities and creators alike flocked to Austin for a week full of events surrounding the industries of technology, music, film, media, marketing and advertising, journalism and much more. Our very own Founder and Managing Partner, James Trumbly, was lucky enough to attend many of these sessions and could not help but gush about the amazing times he had this year. Can you blame him? Below are some of HMG’s favorite picks for SXSW’s most interesting and even impromptu events.

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Blockchain Technology: The Next Internet?

As technology develops and its applications and features increasingly grow in the age of the internet, it is hard to imagine a new platform that could change it all. Currently, we live in a world built upon intermediaries for many of our industries. Originally created for the digital currency, Bitcoin and Bitcoin trader login option, blockchain was developed as a way to bypass this system and directly connect consumers to their value. Similar to the platform of GoogleDocs, imagine this technology as a shared server where instead of saving a document in Word then sending it to another individual via email or fax, the document is already shared and updated with the other party.

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F8: A Look Into The Future of Facebook

F8 is Facebook’s annual conference for developers and entrepreneurs that build around and for the site. This year the 2-day event took place on May 1 & 2 in San Jose, California with over 50 sessions and interactive demonstrations for attendees to learn about what’s coming up for Facebook in the future.  Day 1 opened with a keynote speech from none other than the creator and CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg. Naturally, he focused most largely on the company’s newest privacy feature, “clear history”, which will allow users to “clear your browsing history on Facebook — what you’ve clicked on, websites you’ve visited, and so on.” Although he did caution that this may degrade the Facebook experience for those that choose to wipe their data, the site will have to relearn their preferences and become familiar with each profile once this feature has been used.

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Apps On The Rise: Keeping Up in The 21st Century

With the rise of the iPhone, our society has quickly shifted in many respects. The ways we interact, the ways we find information, the ways we work and the ways we occupy our time have all been impacted by not only the advancement of mobile technology but the introduction of apps into our everyday routines. Now entire businesses revolve around the model of customer interaction via phone applications. Mobile traffic has given the opportunity for hundreds of thousands of companies to reach their audiences with more ease and efficiency, making transactions, and communication in general much more streamlined. By 2020, the predicted number of apps to exist will be 5 million (Perez, 2017), and the possibilities don’t stop there.

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Shopping Without a Basket: How E-Commerce Is Shaping The Consumer Experience

When is the last time you have walked into a store just to try on that shirt and redeem the coupon you received via email last month? The last time you’ve checked the reviews on that electronic you’ve been anticipating for a year, just to wait in line for 6 hours on the day it is released at Best Buy? Is it that we are becoming more impatient and comfortable with a screen controlling our purchases? Or could it be that buying online is the most efficient and economical option for today’s society?

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A World We Never Knew: Experiential Marketing at SXSW

Have you ever walked into a bar, enjoyed the activities and amenities, then come to find out that it was only a temporary pop up pub? Been looking for that perfect atmosphere for a cold one that you swore was on that corner next to your hotel? Companies are utilizing the flux of marketing, technology and media obsessed crowds during this upcoming week to promote their products by temporarily renting spaces in and around downtown and setting up shop.

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iPhone X—here’s what you need to know

It has been a decade since Apple released the first generation of iPhones that changed technology forever. This revolutionary product digitized many industries and built a world dedicated to instancy and connection. This September, Apple announced the release of the iPhone 8 and the iPhone X. Since the latest release, in many cases, consumers did not feel the iPhone 8 met their expectations for innovation and the iPhone 7 has been selling more than the iPhone 8. The iPhone X will be released on Friday, November 3, with the intent to give consumers the futuristic phone they’ve been craving. With competitors like Google and Samsung lingering, here are a few capabilities of the iPhone X that set Apple apart:

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Seven TED Talks on the Power of Collaboration

A great amount of research has gone into exploring the benefits of collaboration. In the talks listed below, seven experts explore where ideas can lead through collaboration and open-source solutions. They discuss how multibillion-dollar companies incorporate collaboration in the workplace today, where we could be as a society with increased daily collaboration and where human communication might go as technology advances. They also share personal experiences from using and contributing to open-source information, how it led to mass collaboration and their results.

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What to Expect in the Next Decade of Web Trends

The Internet is all about finding the next big thing. This is one industry that never stays stagnant, it is constantly moving forward and adapting. The online world we live in now, is referred to as Web 2.0. This era is overflowing with user-generated content. We are living in the time of social media, blogs, and constant consumer interaction. Web 2.0 isn’t going anywhere, but it is evolving. As Web 3.0, also known as the semantic web, emerges, we are seeing more machine-generated content.

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