{"id":2638,"date":"2013-06-19T17:49:45","date_gmt":"2013-06-19T21:49:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.insidepr.ca\/?p=2638"},"modified":"2013-06-19T17:49:45","modified_gmt":"2013-06-19T21:49:45","slug":"inside-pr-3-36-inside-sxswi-an-interview-with-hugh-forrest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.insidepr.ca\/index.php\/2013\/06\/19\/inside-pr-3-36-inside-sxswi-an-interview-with-hugh-forrest\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside PR 3.36: Inside SXSWi &#8211; an interview with Hugh Forrest"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_5256\"><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-2638-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"http:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/prworks\/IPR_336_FINAL.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/prworks\/IPR_336_FINAL.mp3\">http:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/prworks\/IPR_336_FINAL.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_subscribe_links\">Subscribe: <a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/ca\/podcast\/inside-pr\/id137886027?mt=2&amp;ls=1#episodeGuid=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.insidepr.ca%2F%3Fp%3D2638\" class=\"powerpress_link_subscribe powerpress_link_subscribe_itunes\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Subscribe on Apple Podcasts\" rel=\"nofollow\">Apple Podcasts<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insidepr.ca\/index.php\/feed\/podcast\/\" class=\"powerpress_link_subscribe powerpress_link_subscribe_rss\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Subscribe via RSS\" rel=\"nofollow\">RSS<\/a><\/p><p>[display_podcast]<\/p>\n<p>This is the second of the two shows, Gini, Joe and I recorded at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.prsa.org\/Network\/Communities\/CounselorsAcademy\" target=\"_blank\">PRSA Counselors Academy Conference<\/a> in Austin &#8211; our annual must-attend agency leader event.<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;ve just watched <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Hugh_W_Forrest\" target=\"_blank\">Hugh Forrest<\/a>, director of <a href=\"http:\/\/sxsw.com\/interactive\" target=\"_blank\">South by Southwest Interactive Festival<\/a> \u2013 or as he likes to call himself, the community manager &#8211; present a keynote on SXSWi and how it\u2019s grown to become a major social media and tech event.<\/p>\n<p>Hugh was there from the start as the first employee of SXSW. He was hired by the organizers in the mid-90s when they heard you could migrate a database to a computer and asked him if that was possible. When he said yes, they asked if it could be housed on his computer &#8211; he had an early Mac &#8211; and a career was born.<\/p>\n<p>The lesson? You need to have the right technology at the right time.<\/p>\n<p>In an interview after his talk,\u00a0Hugh tells us about how the acronym P.E.A.C.E. describes their approach to the growth of SXSWi:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Patience over profits. <\/strong>It took SXSWi five to 10 years to incubate and grow to where it is today.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Early buzz is good buzz.<\/strong>\u00a0SXSWi is involved in a 10 or 11 month planning process that starts in July and they try to get people talking about the next year&#8217;s festival not long after the current one is done.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Acknowledge your mistakes.<\/strong>\u00a0If there are issues (and there usually are), be honest and explain to the community that you understand there were problems and you&#8217;ll do what you can to do a better job next time. Whenever you\u2019re innovating, he says, expect to make mistakes.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Customer service leads to customer advocates.<\/strong>\u00a0WOM endorsement and publicity has always been important to SXSWi. They try to create customer ambassadors by communicating often, listening to criticism and establishing a two-way conversation with the goal of turning \u2018haters\u2019 or people who\u2019ve had a bad experience into advocates. And that&#8217;s what they&#8217;ve done.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Encourage massive creativity.<\/strong> SXSWi is not a technology event, it\u2019s all about creativity.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>He mentions they\u2019re starting a festival offshoot called <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sxswv2v.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">SXSW V2V<\/a>, August 11 to 14, in Las Vegas focused on startups and entrepreneurs. It\u2019s going to be a smaller and more intimate event than Austin and they\u2019re excited about the possibilities of extending the brand.<\/p>\n<p>Gini, Joe and I discuss Hugh&#8217;s points and our take on community building, something Gini spoke about in her <a href=\"http:\/\/socialcapitalconference.ca\/\" target=\"_blank\">Social Capital<\/a> keynote. Have a listen and let us know what you think.<\/p>\n<p>Have you ever been to SXSW? What do you think about the event? Are you planning to attend in 2014? We\u2019d love to hear your thoughts.<\/p>\n<p>********************************************<\/p>\n<p>Send us an email or an audio comment to\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:insideprcomments@gmail.com\">insideprcomments@gmail.com<\/a>, join the\u00a0<a title=\"Inside PR Community on Google+\" href=\"https:\/\/plus.google.com\/u\/0\/communities\/107220947721041165633\" target=\"_blank\">Inside PR Google+ Community<\/a>, join the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/group.php?gid=101489863251163\" target=\"_blank\">Inside PR Facebook<\/a>\u00a0group, leave us a comment here, message us\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/inside_pr\">@inside_pr<\/a>\u00a0on Twitter, or connect with\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/ginidietrich\" target=\"_blank\">Gini Dietrich<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/thornley\" target=\"_blank\">Joseph Thornley<\/a>, and\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/martinwaxman\">Martin Waxman<\/a>\u00a0on Twitter. Our theme music was created by\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.fortheloveofrecords.com\/\">Damon de Szegheo<\/a>;\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.rogerdey.com\/\">Roger Dey<\/a>\u00a0is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/kristinesimpson\" target=\"_blank\">Kristine Simpson<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a title=\"Ashlea LeCompte on Twitter\" href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/ashlealecompte\">Ashlea LeCompte<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[display_podcast] This is the second of the two shows, Gini, Joe and I recorded at PRSA Counselors Academy Conference in Austin &#8211; our annual must-attend agency leader event. We&#8217;ve just watched Hugh Forrest, director of &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[323,387,734,950,149,27,727,44,952,524,735,517,733,736],"class_list":["post-2638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pr","tag-counselors-academy","tag-gini-dietrich","tag-hugh-forrest","tag-inside-pr","tag-joe-thornley","tag-martin-waxman","tag-prsa-counselors-academy","tag-public-relations","tag-social-media","tag-south-by-southwest","tag-south-by-southwest-v2v","tag-sxsw","tag-sxswi","tag-tech"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insidepr.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insidepr.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insidepr.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insidepr.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insidepr.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.insidepr.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2638\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insidepr.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insidepr.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insidepr.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}