By Andrés Uribe, Expedition PR
SXSW is taking place this week and the entire Expedition PR team is super excited to be attending…spiritually and digitally. For all of those who also are unable to physically attend the festivities this year, we’ve assembled a list of five great ways to stay in the loop secondhand:
1. SXSW Video, Audio and Photos. When looking for news on SXSW happenings, the first and most obvious place to look is the SXSW website. Here you can find a wealth of information on happening from all three portions of the SXSW festival. While those who aren’t actually at the festival might not be so concerned with things such as scheduled workshops and lounge locations, the video, audio and photo sections on the other hand are worth taking a look. Here you will find a constantly updated stream of videos and audio recordings from and about SXSW happenings. Under the official Flickr page you will find a live photo stream from the event.
2. Live Coverage from Adweek. Get a glimpse of what’s hot at SXSWi this year with Adweek’s continual coverage of all tech related stories. Their dedicated SXSW live coverage page not only features insightful articles, but also has a wall of photos from the team for your enjoyment.
3. Now This News dedicated SXSW channel. Mobile video news app Now This News will be featuring a dedicated SXSW channel to coincide with the 2013 event. Now This News is a video news app for your smartphone that features short (three minute or less) news videos created by the Now This News editorial team. Videos are meant to be short, sweet, to the point, and catchy to induce sharing.
4. Pixable live stream. For those who are strictly interested in images from the festival, Pixable has you covered. Tap into their SXSW live stream for user generated pics directly from Austin. And for those who rather not filter through the barrage of photos to find a decent shot, try the SXSW – trending tab for only those SXSW related photos that received the most shares.
5. Hey Big Fish. And for those of you who had the idea of just visiting twitter for updates on the event, we’d like to offer you an even better idea. Hey Big Fish is a web application that helps you sort out SXSW Twitter noise from SXSW Twitter news. Hey Big Fish monitors influencers under an umbrella of various SXSWi topics, relevant SXSWi hashtags (besides #SXSWi), and the most influential SXSWi related content, all in real time. If, for example, you want to see who is influential within 3D printing at SXSWi on Monday afternoon and what the most influential content is that they put out, Hey Big Fish has you covered.
Now of course experiencing an event secondhand is never the same as actually being there. But with the proper use of these various live coverage portals, you’ll be able to stay up to date on the important takeaways from the festival. And who knows, if you’re diligent enough in your monitoring, you might even be able to trick your friends into thinking that you went to Austin for the week.
*Also, stay tuned to @seedandspark for live updates from SXSW!