Rachel Boucher

Five years ago South by Southwest waded into the crowdsourcing pool, allowing its attendee community to submit and vote on conference session topics and speaker proposals. PanelPicker, as it is called, started relatively small, but it now forms the backbone of SXSW’s content development structure and is managed year-round. We’ll explore various crowdsourcing models, what’s worked and what hasn’t worked, in the November issue of Event Marketer. Until then, a few insights from Shawn O’Keefe, SXSW Interactive producer, to get us started:

If this summer’s sampling activations are any indication, small is the new big.

The mass-market sampling sweeps through 30 states that were once the hallmark of a “summer tour” have become tiny, micro-targeted community stop­overs and one-off events designed to win hearts, minds and tastebuds one local at a time. Through local engagement, local artists, local culture and a dash of social media, many of today’s beverage and food brands are finding that the best connection is the micro-cultural one.

Venerable dating site Match.com has been making love connections among singles through a 100-percent online platform since 1995. But last June, the brand forged a new path in matchmaking with The Stir, a comprehensive live event program that, to date, has attracted 225,000 attendees.

(Photo: DISNEY JUNIOR/Lorenzo Bevilaqua) 

To gets kids rip-roaring with excitement for the season two premiere of its hit animated TV series “Doc McStuffins,” Disney Junior launched Doc’s Mobile Clinic, a multi-city interactive tour, which kicked off in Boston on Aug. 18 and wrapped Sept. 28 in Phoenix.

When the waves of raw emotion passed following the bombings at the Boston Marathon in April, the uncomfortable, yet practical realities of it all set in for many across the event industry whose work, naturally, occurs in the public domain and at high-profile events. How will this impact future events or sponsorships? There haven’t been […]