As we barrel headlong into March (how did that happen?), a handful of Burning Man Project staff are preparing to make their annual sojourn to Austin, Texas — home of delicious BBQ, endless live music, and those incredible fried avocado tacos we spend the rest of the year dreaming about.
Austin is also home to the ever-growing SXSW music, film and technology conference (hence the annual trek) and a long-standing vibrant community of incredible Burners who produce the annual Burning Man-inspired event known as Flipside. In fact, Flipside is the longest running Burning Man regional event — going strong since 1998.
We’ve been participating in SXSW Interactive in one form or another for the past dozen-or-so years. But why, you ask?
Burning Man is a highly-connected year-round global community and growing nonprofit organization, in many ways knit together by technology. We’ve developed sophisticated systems to handle not only the creation of a fully-functioning city of 70,000 in the remote desert, but also to manage and facilitate the rapid growth of our global community across 6 continents. We work year-round on tools to handle ticketing, communications, fundraising, community management, thousands of project submissions, and more, all of which require technical expertise and problem solving.
SXSW has become a gathering place for some of the world’s greatest minds in technology and creativity, and we’ve learned a great deal from our participation. With our 25+ years of experience facilitating collaboration and innovation, we also have a lot to offer the conversation. We’ve hosted and participated in numerous SXSW workshops and panels over the years.
We look forward to exploring what new approaches, ideas and connections arise out of SXSW this year. Here are the deets for 2016 SXSW Burning Man activities. If you’re in Austin this week, please join us!
Community Meetup / Burning Man SXSW Flipside Mixer
We’re thrilled to be co-hosting a gathering this year with the local Austin Burner community. If you’ve never been to the Sekrit Theater, it’s a gem of a venue and well worth the trek away from the downtown madness. No cost to attend. All are welcome. See you there!
Sunday, March 13th
5:00PM – 8:00PM
Sekrit Theater
1146 Perry Rd.
Panel: Burning Man: From Free Play to Innovation Science
Burning Man Global Initiatives lead Jenn Sander has put together a stellar panel of experts from IDEO, Oxford University and the National Institute of Play who will explore the relationship between playfulness, creativity, and innovation in what promises to be a thought-provoking and fun conversation.
Monday, March 14
5:00PM – 6:00PM
Westin Austin Downtown
Paramount 1
301 E 5th ST
SXSW Burning Man Meetup
Ever been to a Burning Man event? Want to go? Curious about why there’s a growing Burning Man movement spreading around the globe? All SXSW participants are invited to join us for this lively hour of conversation, creativity and connection.
Tuesday, March 15
12:30PM – 1:30PM
JW Marriott
Room 207
110 E 2nd St