The real world meets the virtual: New ideas from SXSW 2012

A Warc report from the 2012 SXSW Interactive conference. Key marketing themes emerging from the conference presentations included gamification, big data, community-based technology, crowd-sourcing, and 'ambient location'.

The real world meets the virtual: New ideas from SXSW 2012

Hamish McKenzie

Homeless hot-spots, start-ups aplenty, and plenty of queues – this was South By Southwest Interactive, the 2012 edition, and true to form it wasn't short of headlines, controversy, or gossip.

The Austin, Texas, mega-conference continued its explosive growth this year, registering just under 25,000 paid attendees, an increase of 27% from last year.

Marketing in general was a common theme at the conference. Big digital players such as Google and Foursquare talked about their platforms, future plans, and how to better link with advertisers; and...

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