Release IT: a new platform for launching products and services at the SXSW 2019 festival
You can apply for the launch of your product at the SXSW technology festival until January 17, 2019. The annual SXSW festival will be held from March 8 to March 17, 2019 in Austin.
BM Scheuer | Flickr | CC BY-ND
This is an event for the demonstration and announcement of ready-made products and services. It provides for preliminary work with a mentor and a procedure for peer review of projects by judges. The finalists will also have the opportunity for direct dialogue with potential investors.
Apply for participation in the Release IT is necessary until January 17 .
The basic conditions are as follows:
Tech.Co | Flickr | CC BY-SA
The jury of the final part of SXSW Release IT consists of entrepreneurs, technology industry experts and investors. This year the jury members are:
Ed Schipul | Flickr | CC BY
Examples of past SXSW Release IT finalists:
The festival is held in Austin (Texas). Back in the 70s , major IT companies came to the city : IBM, AMD and Texas Instruments. They made a bet on graduates of a local university.
At that time, bar culture was developing throughout the state: new establishments were opened, where musicians experimented with vocals, instruments and texts. The atmosphere of freedom and creative Austin of those years even devoted a musical program "Austin City Limits".
At some point, the organizers of the New York Music Festival, New Music Seminar, turned to the editorial office of the local newspaper The Austin Chronicle with a proposal to hold their event in Austin. Although the project was not implemented, this idea formed the basis of SXSW.
South by Southwest beats Alfred Hitchcock film title North To Northwest (North by Northwest). The festival was originally conceived as a musical, but the topics were significantly expanded. Now they are discussing movies, media, new technologies and startups. In 1994, a CD-ROM was presented at the festival. Later - streaming video and VR.
Brian Dooley | Flickr | CC BY
SXSW Accelerator has been working for several years as part of the festival. Over 400 startups passed through it and in total attracted about $ 5 billion of investments. 16% of these startups were bought by companies such as Google, Huffington Post, Apple and Live Nation.
Since 2018, the SXSW Accelerator has been transformed into the SXSW Pitch event. This is a start-up pitch competition for SXSW. Here not only finished products are welcomed (as at Release IT), but also projects at the idea stage. Unfortunately, the selection on this year's SXSW Pitch is already closed .
These projects went to the SXSW Pitch event 2019 final.
SXSW was conceived as a regional event, and turned into a large-scale festival, where famous musicians, politicians, representatives of corporations and young IT companies gather.
SXSW Release IT is a good way to present your product or service in one of the largest IT events of the year. You can apply for participation in Release IT until January 17 . The final of the competition - the presentations of the finalists and the announcement of the winner - will be on March 8.
BM Scheuer | Flickr | CC BY-ND
How to participate
This is an event for the demonstration and announcement of ready-made products and services. It provides for preliminary work with a mentor and a procedure for peer review of projects by judges. The finalists will also have the opportunity for direct dialogue with potential investors.
Apply for participation in the Release IT is necessary until January 17 .
The basic conditions are as follows:
- start no earlier than January 1 and no later than March 17, 2019;
- you can submit only one product or service;
- cannot participate in the SXSW Pitch and EDU Launch;
- unfortunately, participation is paid ($ 30).
Tech.Co | Flickr | CC BY-SA
The jury of the final part of SXSW Release IT consists of entrepreneurs, technology industry experts and investors. This year the jury members are:
- Andy Stoll (Andy Stoll) - a serial entrepreneur and one of the leaders of the Kauffman Foundation (Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation);
- Jennifer Conley ( Jennifer Conley ) - co-founder of the Dallas Entrepreneurship Center (Dallas Entrepreneur Center);
- Nakolz Todd ( Todd Nuckols ) - Managing Director for butkampa Lighthouse Labs developer and advisor to a number of other projects.
Ed Schipul | Flickr | CC BY
Examples of past SXSW Release IT finalists:
- Inteliclinic - developer of custom -made gadgets (for example, sleep trackers );
- Potrero Medical - honey. diagnostics based on Big Data and AI systems;
- Abartys Health - a platform for doctors, patients and insurers;
- BabyNoggin - an application for screening the development of children;
- Partake - a service for ordering food and drinks at events;
- Swift Shift is an application for hiring nurses and carers;
- Botanalytics is an analytical chat bots tool.
What is SXSW
The festival is held in Austin (Texas). Back in the 70s , major IT companies came to the city : IBM, AMD and Texas Instruments. They made a bet on graduates of a local university.
At that time, bar culture was developing throughout the state: new establishments were opened, where musicians experimented with vocals, instruments and texts. The atmosphere of freedom and creative Austin of those years even devoted a musical program "Austin City Limits".
At some point, the organizers of the New York Music Festival, New Music Seminar, turned to the editorial office of the local newspaper The Austin Chronicle with a proposal to hold their event in Austin. Although the project was not implemented, this idea formed the basis of SXSW.
South by Southwest beats Alfred Hitchcock film title North To Northwest (North by Northwest). The festival was originally conceived as a musical, but the topics were significantly expanded. Now they are discussing movies, media, new technologies and startups. In 1994, a CD-ROM was presented at the festival. Later - streaming video and VR.
Brian Dooley | Flickr | CC BY
SXSW Accelerator has been working for several years as part of the festival. Over 400 startups passed through it and in total attracted about $ 5 billion of investments. 16% of these startups were bought by companies such as Google, Huffington Post, Apple and Live Nation.
Since 2018, the SXSW Accelerator has been transformed into the SXSW Pitch event. This is a start-up pitch competition for SXSW. Here not only finished products are welcomed (as at Release IT), but also projects at the idea stage. Unfortunately, the selection on this year's SXSW Pitch is already closed .
These projects went to the SXSW Pitch event 2019 final.
Eventually
SXSW was conceived as a regional event, and turned into a large-scale festival, where famous musicians, politicians, representatives of corporations and young IT companies gather.
SXSW Release IT is a good way to present your product or service in one of the largest IT events of the year. You can apply for participation in Release IT until January 17 . The final of the competition - the presentations of the finalists and the announcement of the winner - will be on March 8.
For two years in a row, I entered the SXSW Pitch event. This time I am looking at applications for SXSW Release IT. In total, this is more than 500 project questionnaires. I think that such experience can be useful for preparing for accelerators and other support programs. History of the SXSW of The: How the All the Started It TechStars the Startup Digest: the From the Launch to the Today How the The Early Success Stories Shaped the Modern State of the Tech Industry
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