A large group of Luminary team members standing in front of Sydney Harbour Bridge at SXSW 2023

SXSW - The vibe. The talks. The people.

South By Southwest (SXSW) is back for its second year in Sydney from 14-20 October! SXSW is the premier conference in Australia and we are excited to be sending a solid contingent of the Luminary team to the event.

Marty Drill

27 August 2024

2 minute read

We loved SXSW Sydney last year and are thrilled to be heading back again this year! One of our team summarised why they wanted to go as “The vibe. The talks. The people”. Just about anyone who has been to South By (South by Southwest – abbreviated to SXSW and colloquially known as ‘South By’) would agree with those words.  

We learnt so much last year and we are keen to go again!

Group picture of Emm, Grace and Kelvin standing in front of a stage at SXSW 2023

Background about SXSW

Originally conceived as a music festival, the first South By Southwest was held in Austin, Texas, in March 1987. Over the years, the event has developed into a “conglomeration of film, interactive media, music festivals and conferences”, and these days attracts around 300,000 attendees. Last year was its first year in Sydney and attracted over 285,000 people! It’s huge! 

Helping our team make digital bright

Luminary means “a person who inspires or influences others, especially one prominent in a particular sphere”. So sending 35 Luminary team members from across Australia and Indonesia to SXSW fits with our development plan for our team members. The intention is that they can then share the knowledge that they gain from SXSW with you and our clients. 

It's about giving our team the chance to learn, grow, and be inspired. We want to keep pushing the boundaries of digital and deliver the best possible experiences for our clients.

Group photo of Luminary team standing in front of Sydney opera house

Fun facts about SXSW Sydney

  • SXSW is more than tech and innovation, with film and health panels taking place over the week in 2023, featuring Nicole Kidman and Naomi Watts
  • Quantitative Futurist, Amy Webb, headlined the 2023 SXSW lineup discussing AI
  • It's expected that 2024 will bring similar numbers to its inaugural year - 287,014 attendees from 41 countries
  • Black Mirror creator, Charlie Brooker held a 'standing room only' discussion on the third day of the 2023 conference

The line up is huge!

  • Global Head of Business Marketing at TikTok Sofia Hernandez 
  • Bunnings MD Mike Schneider
  • Amplified Intelligence’s Dr. Karen Nelson-Field, 
  • Trend curator Rohit Bhargava,
  • Australian tennis star and startup investor Nick Kyrgios, 
  • MIT Technology Review CEO Elizabeth Bramson-Boudreau
  • Google DeepMind AI researcher Clare Bycroft, 
  • Twitch CEO Dan Clancy, 
  • Thought leaders from Meta, Google, Reddit, Linktree and many others,
  • As well as speakers from Atlassian, IBM, The Iconic, The AI Leadership Institute, Balarinji, and many more.

Check out the program to date at sxswsydney.com


Photo of Emm and Marcus at SXSW presentation 2023

Will we be seeing you there?

We’re obviously keen to share our learnings with our wider network but we’d also love to see lots of you there, too! If you’re thinking about going, feel free to reach out to our team, we’re more than happy to share our experiences with you. 

 Want to connect with some of the world’s leading thinkers, innovators and creators in tech? Join us at SXSW. <Register now> https://sxswsydney.com/attend/


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