You might think the conference side of SXSW is all business.
Good news - there's plenty of weirdness to be found wherever you look during the festival. It’s a new decade, and SXSW is a great place to find conversations about innovations, new ways of thinking, and just plain weird stuff that’s coming for us in 2020 and beyond. Across media, tech, and science, we’ve culled some odd and interesting panels you might want to shortlist for the fest this year.
Contributed by Kelly McComas
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Thurs Mar 19 | 11 AM | TBD
Humans have been fascinated with the future for centuries - and we’ve come up with some pretty wacky theories about what’s next along the way. This session will take you on a tour of the history of imagined musical futures, which we expect will be a retro sci-fi extravaganza. Speaker Adam Neely will then make his own projections about what’s on the horizon of music. It’s probably gonna be weird.
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Photo via Medium
Fri Mar 13 | 12:30 PM | Fairmont
Not much is weirder or more out-there than conversations about what’s out there: deep space, dark matter, space junk, and tons of other strange stuff we humans are just beginning to understand. Come to this panel and join experts from UT Austin in a talk about mapping the reaches of galaxies far, far away.
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Fri Mar 13 | 12:45 PM | Fairmont
SXSW is exciting because at any given time, you can probably find yourself in a room with a very intelligent person talking about some really off-the-wall ideas. Case in point: this session, where speaker Brianne McGuire will present “the potential benefits of being exposed to graphic, sexual media alongside typical lifestyle content”. Our interest is piqued.
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Photo via Plant Based News
Fri Mar 13 | 2:45 PM | Fairmont
It may be on its way to normal, but “plant-based everything” is still a developing trend, and it’s one we think 2020 will be remembered for. As everyone from Trader Joe’s to KFC begins to hop on board the meatless train, we think this panel will be a fascinating look into the “comeback” of vegetables (as if vegetables were ever cool?)
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Photo via Scoopwhoop
Fri Mar 13 | 3:30 PM | JW Marriott
Are you tired of the all-work-all-the-time-or-you’ll-never-achieve-world-domination narrative? Are you just...tired? If you’re looking for ammunition to convince your boss the office needs a nap room, head to Michelle Berry’s talk about the power of sleep and good eats and take some notes. We’d like to know if attendees sleeping in the back row of this event will be seen as disrespectful or enlightened.
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HONORABLE WEIRD + COOL MENTIONS:
Fri Mar 13 | 3:30 PM | Fairmont
Fri Mar 13 | 11 AM | Hilton Downtown
Fri Mar 13 | 11 AM | JW Marriott
Fri Mar 13 | 12:30 PM | Fairmont
Fri Mar 13 | 2 PM | Fairmont
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Did we miss something odd?
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