Photo: Innovation Bridge Europe
On the international stage: The Bavarian media industry at SXSW
The last taco has been eaten, the last howdy said: the conference part of South by Southwest (SXSW), the leading international digital and creative conference, ends today in Austin, Texas. While the film and music festival begins there, the Bavarian delegation is flying home with countless impressions, inspirations and a need for discussion. XPLR: MEDIA in Bavaria has given Bavarian players from the media industry public visibility through two events.
For the second time, the location initiative XPLR: MEDIA in Bavaria brought the Bavarian media industry to South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin. From March 8 to 13, experts discussed the most important developments in tech, media, and culture across 24 program tracks. Anyone familiar with SXSW knows that many of the most relevant discussions take place away from the stages in the Convention Center. One such location is the Innovation Bridge Europe (IBE) House, which has been a focal point in the city center for many European partners and travelers for two years. Here, XPLR: MEDIA in Bavaria hosted a breakfast on the intersection of AI and media on Saturday.
XPLR: MEDIA invited to the AI MEDIA Breakfast
Although AI was a topic at almost all SXSW panels, the question of how exactly AI is now affecting media companies and media professionals in their work was hardly discussed. Accordingly, there was great interest in the Fireside Chat moderated by Jim Sengl, AI expert from MedienNetzwerk Bayern, at the XPLR: MEDIA Breakfast. He spoke with three startup founders, all supported by Media Lab Bayern, who answered questions from Sengl and the audience after a short pitch. Sara Egetemeyr from PENEMUE, Isabella Hoesch from Codum, and Daniel Scholz from Footprint Intelligence talked about their work with AI and their business models, some of which are based on AI. Questions and subsequent discussions showed that many international media are currently looking for automated solutions – and Bavarian projects can offer them.
Anyone who wanted to dive even deeper into the effects of artificial intelligence on the media industry in addition to the use cases could also obtain the "AI Study: Opportunities, Risks and Prospects for the media" from XPLR: MEDIA in Bavaria.
Networking lunch for media professionals
On Monday, a media topic once again drew people to the IBE House. Medien.Bayern Managing Director Lina Timm moderated the panel "The Truth Might Hurt: Media Literacy, Factchecking & Beyond" with Teresa Dapp from dpa, Alex Mahadevan from the Poynter Institute, and Dr. Sharon Strover from the University of Texas at Austin. Afterwards, XPLR: MEDIA in Bavaria hosted a networking lunch for the audience together with dpa. The startups PENEMUE, summ.ai and Codum, which were (formerly) supported by Media Lab Bayern, once again took the opportunity to present their work to the audience at small stands.
Bavarian players and projects in the official program
Almost at the same time as the networking lunch, Daniel Scholz from the Bavarian start-up Footprint Intelligence took the stage at SXSW with Evan Shapiro, a thought leader in the entertainment industry, to demonstrate how his platform helps media companies achieve their climate goals. Bavarian representatives also made an impact in the XR segment: The virtual reality projects 'Dreaming of Lebanon' and 'Emperor', funded by the FilmFernsehFonds Bayern (FFF), presented themselves in the two-day XR exhibition at SXSW – and were fully booked throughout, such was the rush.
The Bavarian delegation will now have to process what they have learned from the panels and deepen the contacts they have made. Until it's 'Howdy, Austin!' again in a year's time at the latest.