Should you go to SXSW Sydney?

This weekend I spent time all over SXSW Sydney! SXSW is a week-long festival centred on professional development and networking that started in Austin, Texas and has now landed in Sydney with a plan for a 10-year run. SXSW is described as "An essential destination for global professionals, featuring sessions, music, comedy, film screenings, exhibitions, professional development, gaming and a variety of networking opportunities."

What I got up to:

I kicked off the week at the opening night of the screen festival with 'The Royal Hotel'. The Royal Hotel follows two American women backpacking Australia as they take up a job in an outback pub for some extra cash. Their unnerving experience is a twist on the classic outback horror genre through the lens of the female gaze.

I also had the pleasure of attending the World Premiere of 'Hot Potato: The Story of The Wiggles'! The documentary follows the ups and downs of Wiggles history and brought back so many childhood memories! You can catch Hot Potato from October 24 on Prime Video.

I explored the SXSW Sydney festival including the Tech and Innovation Expo, gaming showcases and Primeville. I relied on my basketball past to top the AWS basketball shootout, demoed a couple of indie games and learned about the powerful AI tools coming to Canva.

I topped off the weekend by checking out the IEM ESL CS2 Masters. The Grand Final was one of the best esports competitions I have ever witnessed, three maps and double overtime. If you missed it you can watch all the highlights on the ESL Counter-Strike YouTube channel.

Who goes to SXSW Sydney?

Just like the by-line says I think SXSW Sydney is best suited for those who are currently working in the gaming industry. It's an opportunity for professionals to connect in a central location to compare and share projects and developments. One of the things that really solidifies this idea is the tiered access to events. 

Here's the cost breakdown:

• Platinum badge all-access badge to all SXSW events - $1,895.00
• Gaming badge primary access to all gaming-related events at SXSW - $1,295.00
• Games wristband secondary access to curated gaming events at SXSW - $195

Of the approx. 144 events on the gaming schedule only 84 could be accessed with the base tier gaming wristband and 6 were free public events. Generally speaking to attendees at SXSW badges were paid for or gifted to them by their respective companies or brand partnerships.

The only downside that I found to this system was that all of the Badge-only items were conferences and talks which unfortunately meant that access to information and education at SXSW was paywalled. If you were a fledging developer, university student or similar, accessing the conferences and speakers would most likely be out of reach financially.

In the future, I'd like to see SXSW open up these opportunities by perhaps having conference sessions recorded and available online at a later date to their lower-tier customers.

What is Primary and Secondary access?

Well you see... Platinum badges have first access to all events all over SXSW Sydney, Gaming badges have primary access to gaming events but secondary access to events in other tracks, badges for the other tracks had secondary access to gaming festivals but primary access to their own track events and gaming wristbands had secondary access to gaming festivals and no access to gaming events or to other tracks.

Confused yet? 

Yeah so were attendees. Even on the fifth day of the festival attendees were lined up in the wrong lines, expecting primary access where their passes didn't entitle them to it and so on. As a side note, I also think a psychological study should be conducted on the class system that seemed to blossom when people were clearly labelled by their lanyards of various colours. But that's a story on human behaviour for another day.

So with all these different labels and access tiers, the SXSW Sydney app must be a super helpful guide? Well yes and no. The SXSW Sydney app had a fully laid out schedule, map and the ability to add events to your own personal schedule however its one glaringly obvious hole was that there was no indication of what credential you required to access the event. Unfortunately, all gaming events were labelled under the gaming filter but not all tiers of passes necessarily had access. I was able to track down a spreadsheet for the gaming events at SXSW which labelled who had access and when and had to use that to cross-reference events on the app. This is an easy update that I hope SXSW Sydney implements in the years to come.

Location, Location, Location

Coming off the back of another successful PAX AUS at Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, having the games showcase delegated to a conference room on the third floor of the Mecure Hotel felt a little strange. However, I think this is another perfect example of why SXSW Sydney is the destination for Game Developers and Industry Professionals and not just game lovers.

Taking a turn around the small floor you can quickly pick up on the networking vibe. Devs are sitting down with each other's games, talking about development timelines along the walls and trading contact details. Using the business floor of a hotel also means convenient access to accommodation and Fortress Sydney, which also hosted talks and showcases, just up the road. All in all this compact Games space was giving school camp for game devs vibes.

So should you go to SXSW Sydney?

Personally, I see the gaming portion of SXSW Sydney as being worthwhile for professionals in the gaming industry but not for gamers in general. I think it would be amazing for the gaming scene in Australia if SXSW fell before PAX in the calendar year to create a pipeline from professional networking at SXSW leading to public-facing marketing and exposure at PAX.

All in all, I hope we continue to see the development and expansion of these events around Australia to further support the growing games industry.

Speaking of expanding events, make sure to check out The Games Expo which is back in Melbourne for its second year on March 23 - 24!

Thank you SXSW Sydney for inviting me along to the Screen Festival events and to GamesHub for wristband access to the gaming experience this week.