SOUTH BY SOUTHWEST TRANSFORMING SOUTH BY SOUTHWEST 2021 INTO A VIRTUAL EXPERIENCE OPEN TO THE WORLD When the COVID-19 pandemic first hit, South by Southwest (SXSW) organizers knew the beloved festival of music, technology, and film would have to wait, and the event was ultimately cancelled for the first time since its launch in 1987. The panels, the concerts, the premieres, the brand pop-ups — all of it called off. As the creative minds behind “South By” looked ahead, the team vowed to go full- steam on a radical pivot by making SXSW 2021 completely virtual—a behemoth multimedia spectacle for tens of thousands of attendees reimagined for remote viewing. There was only one question: How to do it? “We had to pave a path,” says Scott Wilcox, who drives strategy and business develo

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