Vibe Coding: From Idea to MVP at Warp Speed

Richard Bennett

CEO

Richard is a senior technology executive with over 25 years’ experience inEMEA and US leadership, managing Advisory & Professional Services,Customer Success Consulting and Pre-Sales Engineering for global vendors and integrators. He regularly helps organisations build teams who can better execute “business technology” solutions by broadening their capabilities and commercial competencies within their go-to-market.Coupled with the delivery of international industry keynotes, analyst advisory & press engagements, Richard has concurrently delivered several non-executive roles for innovation start-ups the world over, advising on business strategy, technology imperatives & as a Fellow of the Customer Experience Foundation, authored keynotes such as “Innovation at the Speed of Business”

Matthew Steiner

Founder and CEO

Matthew Steiner is a Cloud Technologist, helping organisations achieve competitive advantage, by building and managing applications and services in Multi-Cloud environments.  Recognised as a ‘ThoughtLeader’ in the Cloud space, Matthew keeps clients appraised of the Hybrid and Multi-Cloud cloud space, helping them ensure their Cloud strategies align and match their business requirements. A regular at Industry andCommunity events, Matthew is a well-known, and accomplished keynote speaker, always seeking to simplify the complex for his audience, in the ever-changing Cloud landscape.   More recently Matthew founded flyercopilot.com, an agile startup building apps for travellers.

Rio Grande Ballroom 1

You Are STILL the Brand: What AI Can’t Do for You

Sprints for Social Impact: Turn Time Pressure into Purpose

Look What You Made Me Do: Revenge as Creative Catalyst

Artistic Disruption for Business Innovation

It Writes Itself: AI Variety Show & Creative Workshop

Forget decks and buzzwords—this is a build-first session. In this interactive workshop, founders will use Vibe Coding, a fast, intuition-driven method for turning ideas into real products. Using LEGO® to spark rapid collaboration and system-level thinking, participants will physically map app components before we Vibe Code them into working software. Along the way, we’ll explore what it actually takes to build an enterprise-ready app—covering usability, security, reliability, and scalability—so speed doesn’t come at the expense of quality. Expect hands-on collaboration, high energy, and an open-source prototype you can keep building after SXSW. No coding expertise required—just ideas, creativity, and collaboration.

VIBE CODING: FROM IDEA TO MVP AT WARP SPEED


Marketing Without a Map: Building in the Age of Chaos

Erik Huberman

Founder & CEO

Erik Huberman is a trailblazing entrepreneur and marketing expert, celebrated for redefining
how brands grow and succeed in an ever-evolving marketplace. Since founding Hawke Media
in 2014, Erik has transformed it into the fastest-growing marketing consultancy in the United
States. Under his leadership, Hawke Media has helped scale over 5,000 brands worldwide,
including industry giants like Red Bull, Verizon, Casamigos, Funko, and Crocs.
Before launching Hawke Media, Erik showcased his entrepreneurial acumen by founding,
scaling, and successfully selling two e-commerce companies—all by the age of 26. Today, his
innovative thinking continues to disrupt industries, most notably through Hawke.AI, a proprietary
marketing intelligence platform developed over eight years. This groundbreaking tool empowers
brands with actionable, data-driven insights, revolutionizing performance optimization across all
major channels.

Brazos I-III

Division Defiance: Building Cross-Racial Solidarity

In Search of Hope: Teaching Climate Emotions Through Story

Beyond Borders: Diverse Alliances for Immigrant Wellbeing

Future-Proof Your Strategy: An AI Test and Learn Lab

Pitch Camp! How To Win Creative Pitches by Being More Human

Marketing playbooks are dead. In this hands-on session, Erik Huberman—founder of Hawke Media—dives into what actually drives brand growth when algorithms shift daily, consumer trust is eroding, and AI-generated content floods the feed. You’ll learn how to test faster, adapt smarter, and build a resilient marketing engine in an era of uncertainty. No fluff. Just a strategy that works when nothing else makes sense.

MARKETING WITHOUT A MAP: BUILDING IN THE AGE OF CHAOS

Brand & Marketing track sponsored by Youtube


Black Founders & Investors Meet Up

Gabriel Rucker

CEO

Gabriel Rucker is a dynamic entrepreneur and innovator dedicated to empowering professionals and fostering impactful connections. As the CEO of Titen AI, he leads the development of a groundbreaking relationship management platform designed to help decision makers and enterprises increase their engagement and networks by 10X.

He also serves as the Managing Director of Founder Institute in Austin, Texas, mentoring and guiding emerging founders as they launch and scale their ventures. With extensive experience consulting for over 20 businesses and 70 startups, as well as previously working with global giants like Amazon, he is a passionate advocate for innovation and diversity. Gabriel is committed to helping entrepreneurs and investors build meaningful relationships and create transformative opportunities.

Chukwudi Kanu

Venture Scout

Chukwudi N. Kanu is a Nigerian-American entrepreneur, community builder, and angel investor.

Chukwudi is the cofounder & CEO of Humblebrag, the AI superconnector that connects the dots between who you know and what you need. He is also a scout for Sentiero Ventures, a $10M fund that invests in pre-seed and seed AI-native startups.

Chukwudi has been recognized for his work by Austin Inno, Austin Black Business Journal, United Nations, LinkedIn, EY, UBS, Dell, Business Insider, and the United States Senate.

This meetup will foster connections, dialogue, and collaboration within the Black entrepreneurial and startup ecosystem. Explore pathways to success, share insights on overcoming challenges, and discuss opportunities for growth and impact. Whether you're launching a startup, seeking funding, or aiming to scale, this meetup is designed to cultivate a supportive community and inspire action towards greater diversity and inclusion in entrepreneurship.


Music Nostalgia: The Secret Weapon in Modern Advertising

Sam Sklover

VP, Brand Partnerships

Always making sure people are listening to the classics, Sam is a veteran of many parts of the music business. He’s taken those skills to new heights at Primary Wave, garnering Primary Wave’s artists Clio Award wins, national television campaigns, official government holidays, board games, and much more. Connecting blue-chip brands with iconic artists is a passion, and you can find Sam doing “research” on nights and weekends at record stores and shows all over the country.

Jumee Park

SVP, Creative Synch and Licensing

Jumee Park currently serves as the SVP of Creative Synch and Licensing at iconic, a position held since August 2024. Prior to this role, Jumee was the SVP of Film/TV Music at Downtown Music Publishing from August 2008 to August 2024, managing synch services for its active songwriters and vast cataolg of copyrights. Jumee's extensive experience also includes roles at Domino Recording Company, Agoraphone Music Direction, ASCAP, Sesame Workshop, iCast, and American Public Television. Educational qualifications include an MBA in Marketing from NYU Stern School of Business and a BA in English from Oberlin College.

Eric Shaw

VP, Creative Marketing

Eric Shaw is Vice President of the Commercial Music Group at Sony/ATV Music Publishing (and formerly EMI Music Publishing), where for over ten years he has been responsible for pitching songs and negotiating licensing opportunities for Sony/ATV’s over 4 million copyrights in everything from broadcast advertising to video games to singing plush toys (and many other media in between).  Previously, Eric has been a music supervisor on dozens of TV commercials, a working drummer in too many bands, an invited guest speaker to numerous conferences and events, and a snooty record store manager.

Amanda Levine

Vp, Music & Ip Licensing

She's uniquely qualified as someone who has spent her entire career negotiating music sync licensing and brand partnerships for global brand clients. Much of this work has incorporated artist nostalgia within the creative ideation process and campaign executions, so she's specifically qualified to touch on the impact of nostalgia in marketing.

Capitol Ballroom E

Global Stage @ Downright Austin Backyard

Tour Support 2.0: How Mental Health is Reshaping Live Music

From Streams to Strategy: The Label Services Evolution

Rock’s Biggest Promoter on the Future of Festivals

The Playbook: Viral Hits to Loyal Fandoms

Brands are increasingly turning to beloved songs and artists from the past to craft compelling narratives that resonate across generations. We’ll examine the symbiotic relationship between marketers, musicians, and music companies, showcasing how this approach revitalizes classic tracks while providing new revenue streams and exposure for artists and alternately, how advertisers creatively leverage nostalgia to boost sales and reinforce brand identity and cultural relevance. We'll discuss past campaigns and illuminate why this remains such an effective and enduring storytelling strategy.

MUSIC NOSTALGIA: THE SECRET WEAPON IN MODERN ADVERTISING


How to Design a Successful Work Culture

Solange Charas

Professor of Professional Practice and CEO

Solange Charas, Ph.D. is a public company board director, governance expert, and Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia University who likes to say that culture isn’t a vibe—it’s an operating system. Her work focuses on how HR performance, leadership systems, and everyday people decisions quietly (and sometimes expensively) determine whether strategy actually turns into results.

Over a 35+ year career as a senior executive, advisor, and board leader, Solange has worked inside boardrooms, executive teams, and M&A deals when growth stalled, change got messy, and performance gaps couldn’t be explained by strategy alone. As Founder and CEO of HCMoneyball, she has advised hundreds of organizations and supported more than 80 transactions, helping leaders connect the dots between role clarity, access, trust, engagement—and hard business outcomes like speed, productivity, retention, and ROI.

Known for her candid and engaging speaking style, Solange translates complex ideas about HR, culture, and AI into practical insights leaders can actually use. She’s currently writing a new book on Managing Human Capital in Professional Services Firms, exploring how analytics, AI, and accountability are reshaping value creation in knowledge-driven organizations.

She is co-author of Humanizing Human Capital: Invest in Your People for Optimal Business Returns, a Distinguished Principal Research Fellow at The Conference Board, and a member of the ISO Human Capital Committee shaping global standards for workforce measurement and disclosure. When she’s not thinking about enterprise value, she’s a devoted dog mom—convinced that some of the best leadership lessons happen on long walks.

Marcia Stepanek

Founder and CEO

Marcia is an award-winning journalist and one of the nation's leading experts on the influence of media technology in society. She teaches emerging media, communications and change management at Columbia University and is the founder and CEO of BrandStories, Inc., an NYC-based strategic communications studio and collaborative that helps social sector organizations harness the power of visual media and digital networks to navigate transformative change. Marcia also is Co-Founder and Executive Producer of New Rules Media, a media company and newsletter covering global and national challenges in our rapidly changing world. Her journalism honors include a George Polk Award and National Press Club Award for Washington Correspondence. She was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize.

Jayson Council

Head of Culture

Jayson Council is a transformative leader with over 20 years of experience in the private and public sectors, dedicated to reshaping landscapes through representation and repair. As the Founding Head of Culture at Gersh, he promotes sustainable impact and launched the Spike Fellows Program with Spike Lee to elevate overlooked voices in entertainment. He founded Gersh Gives, shifting philanthropy to community-driven practices and empowering grassroots organizations. A sought-after thought leader, Jayson has participated in panels for Adweek and SCAD Film Festival. His roles at Posse Foundation and Philips Education Partners reflect his commitment to social equity.

Ethan McCarty

Founder and CEO

Ethan is the founder and CEO of Integral, an award-winning employee experience agency serving leaders of Communications, HR, Marketing, and Technology at global and local organizations. Formerly the global head of Employee and Innovation Communications for Bloomberg LP and Global Director of Social Strategy for IBM as well as the Global Editor in Chief of IBM’s intranet, Ethan has more than 20 years experience leading digital communications, engagement, and marketing initiatives at scale. Ethan has led large, globally and culturally diverse teams by innovating and humanizing the practice and advising senior leaders from the CEO to first-line managers among his clients on how to do the same. A prolific writer and creator, Ethan contributes regularly to Forbes.

Salon B

Innovating in Science & Tech When Budgets are Tight

How To Meaningfully Connect in a World That Has Gone to Sh*t

It's a Whole Thing: Gen Z Work Relationships in the Age of AI

Better Leadership Starts with Understanding the Stressed Brain

Work culture gaps remain unbridgeable at many companies, yet failing to shrink them in today's multi-generational work world is like ignoring the oil light on your dashboard. You're not avoiding a breakdown—you're scheduling it for later. Join this remarkable line-up of today's top work culture experts to hear what keeps driving the divides—and how these designers are helping firms shift traditional career models, link people strategy to business value and use AI and new narratives to improve how people experience work, not as a demographic challenge, but as a design and strategy imperative.

Workplace track sponsored by University of Cincinnati


Can Media Survive AI? The Fight for Public Trust

Mark Cuban

Entrepreneur & Investor

Mark Cuban is a technology and media entrepreneur who co-founded Broadcast.com (acquired by Yahoo! for $5.7B in 1999), co-founded Cost Plus Drugs, and has invested in dozens of startups. He previously owned the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks and starred as an investor on Shark Tank. Cuban offers an uncommon lens on the future of AI and media from the front lines of streaming innovation to engaging deeply with narrative trust online. His role as a founder, investor, and technologist makes him a powerful voice on how AI will reshape belief, identity, and truth.

Upasna Gautam

Partner, Strategy & Innovation

Upasna Gautam is a leader in the future of technology, product innovation, and AI literacy. With 18+ years of experience across global consumer brands, Fortune 500 companies, and major media, she most recently served as a senior product lead at CNN, where she architected the core platform powering the world’s largest breaking news organization. She is Chairwoman of the Board at the News Product Alliance and an advisor and angel investor in early-stage software startups. Her popular video series Big Brain Energy is followed by tens of thousands on Instagram and LinkedIn, bridges the gap between AI and critical thinking to help the next generation of builders think deeper and move smarter.

Salon AB

Two Futurists and an AI: Seeing Trouble Ahead

How We Could Lose Control: Avoiding the Paths to Runaway AI

U.S. vs. The World: the Future We’re (Currently) Losing

The Clock Is Ticking for Space – Replacing the ISS

Orchestrate or Obsolete: Leading the AI-Powered Near Future

AI is reshaping how information is created, distributed, and trusted. But it’s not just a threat - it’s an opportunity to reimagine what media can be. We will explore how AI is transforming business models, content incentives, and consumer expectations. From the rise of creators to the reinvention of trust, we’ll unpack what’s breaking, what’s possible, and how to build what’s next.

CAN MEDIA SURVIVE AI? THE FIGHT FOR PUBLIC TRUST


Water is the New Sports Arena: The Future of Stadium Racing

Joe Musso

CBS Sports Host

Joe Musso joined CBS Sports in 2019 as a host for CBS Sports HQ. He anchors the network's nightly recap show as well as the SportsLine pregame show. Musso also serves as host pre- and post-round golf coverage on CBS Sports HQ as well as lead anchor for the streaming network on NFL Sundays.

Russell Coutts

Co-Founder and CEO

Sir Russell Coutts is the CEO and co-founder of SailGP, the global championship redefining sailing. Launched in 2018 with Oracle founder Larry Ellison, SailGP is redefining the sport with cutting-edge technology, sustainability leadership, and thrilling international competition. A visionary leader, Coutts brings decades of elite sailing experience to the role, including five America’s Cup victories and an Olympic gold medal. He also founded the Russell Coutts Sailing Foundation to inspire and support youth through sailing and character development.

Waller Ballroom D

Media That Matters: Nuclear Weapons & the Next Generation

Rethinking Higher Education to Build an AI-First Workforce

The Big Blur: Rethinking the Transition from School to Work

Building AI Pathways for HBCU Talent & Community Impact

The Fandom Force: How to Create a Fan-First Social Approach

SailGP is transforming water into the world’s most thrilling sports arena. Founded by Larry Ellison and Sir Russell Coutts, this high-speed, data-driven, climate-positive sailing league is built for the digital age. With 60mph races in iconic cities, real-time data, and immersive broadcasting, SailGP delivers scroll-stopping content for Gen Z. It’s not just a sport—it’s a purpose-driven movement redefining how fans experience live competition and putting them at the heart of the action.

WATER IS THE NEW SPORTS ARENA: THE FUTURE OF STADIUM RACING


Now is Japan's Time: Leading the Future with Deep Tech

Kuniaki Higashi

Director/Vice-President,  Co-Founder

Kuniaki Higashi established Metro Weather Co., Ltd. in 2015, while continuing to carry out research and teaching activities as an assistant professor at the Research Institute for Sustainable Humanosphere of Kyoto University until 2019. In addition to using his knowledge of measurement, control and communications, etc. to develop new radar observation technology, Jun-ichi Furumoto has also been involved in research directly connected to solving social issues and has developed a high-performance coherent Doppler lidar which fully exploits recent developments in state-of-the-art measurements technologies and devices. He is also involved in many initiatives which aim to bring about social application of the results of research in order to contribute to society.
He is a doctor (informatics) and engineer at Kyoto University.

Terry Ouyang

Head Of International Business Development & Technology Integration

With over 15 years of experience spanning R&D, marketing, and global business development, I operate at the intersection of deep technology and market strategy.

I currently lead international expansion in climate tech, building partnerships and translating passive radiative cooling innovation into scalable commercial adoption.

Working across strategy and execution, I align technical validation with business models to enable sustainable, long-term growth.

Committed to accelerating the transition toward a more resilient and sustainable built environment.

Saki Sasagawa

Director of Business Development

Toshiaki Shimakawa

Principal / IVS CEO

Principal of Headline Asia
CEO of IVS
Graduated from the University of Osaka with a masters degree in Frontier Biosciences where he pursued his research in molecular biology/neurology at RIKEN.
Joined Headline Asia in 2017, and in addition to his venture investment activities there, he has contributed in organizing the IVS, an exclusive conference attended by approximately 700 executives from various IT companies. He has also launched 17 Media Japan (now 17 LIVE), the largest live-streaming app provider in Japan as one of the founding members, and achieved No. 1 sales in the Japanese live-streaming industry in two years. In 2020, he was appointed CEO of IVS. 12,000 people attended “IVS 2024 KYOTO”, which evolved from an invitation-only conference to an open conference.

Salon E

The Creative Economy is Thriving: Why Founders Keep Building for Creators

The Lucky 10%: CPGs Flipping Off the Startup Failure Rate

The Art of Scaling Your Startup Without Venture Capital

Who Owns What: The State of Startups & Top Trends to Watch

Build the Future: Entrepreneurship Within Reach

Japan has a long history of developing fermentation technologies, which have served as the foundation for the growth of its biotechnology industry. Additionally, Japanese anime and games have garnered a large global fan base, generating excitement around new business opportunities utilizing these IPs. In this session, four speakers will share real-time insights from diverse perspectives on the forefront of Japan’s deep tech and IP businesses, as well as the emerging global ventures centered around them!

NOW IS JAPAN'S TIME: LEADING THE FUTURE WITH DEEP TECH


Breaking Cultural Codes That Keep Latino Leaders Silent

Denise Soler Cox

Founder

Denise Soler Cox’s debut book with Simon and Schuster (August 2026) exposes nine cultural taboos quietly sabotaging Latina success, drawing from nearly a decade of private conversations with Latinas who shared truths they’d never spoken aloud.

After going from stay-at-home mom to award-winning filmmaker, Top 100 podcaster, and sought-after international speaker, Cox has spoken on over 400 stages and worked with Fortune 500 brands including Amazon, Microsoft, LinkedIn, and Salesforce, giving her a front-row seat to how cultural dissonance silences brilliant minds in corporate America.

Her podcast “The Self-ish Latina” was recognized as a Featured Host by Apple Podcast North America with listeners in 32 countries. She’s delivered two TEDx talks and appeared on NBC Nightly News, with her work featured in Forbes, CNN, and PBS.

Cox is a Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative alum and 2023 MPI President’s Award recipient.

But her real authority? Being the first, or only, Latina in enough rooms to understand exactly what cultural codes keep leaders silent.

Room 410

Technology Convergence: Winning the Exponential Upswing

Leading the AI Future: How to Think Exponentially in a Chaotic Decade

CTRL + ALT + CREATE: How AI Is Reshaping the Creative Process

How Anyone Can Help Create Social Change: A Conversation with the authors of Somebody Should Do Something

What if the biggest barrier to innovation isn’t lack of talent, but cultural dissonance silencing brilliant minds? After nearly 10 years of Latinas sharing their secrets with me, I’ve discovered how collective mindset conditioning clashes with individual-focused business culture. Latinas taught that visibility, ambition, and self-promotion are taboo unconsciously sabotage their potential. One executive never pitched her game-changing strategy - not from imposter syndrome, but because visibility felt like betraying her cultural values. This session reveals how to break these codes while honoring our culture.

BREAKING CULTURAL CODES THAT KEEP LATINO LEADERS SILENT


Tackling the “snakes” undermining digital rights

Luisa Ortiz Pérez

Executive Director and Co-Founder

Luisa is the Executive Director and Co-founder of Vita-Activa.Org a helpline to aid women journalists and activists facing online violence and gender based harassment. As part of Vita Activa, she leads the Media Resilience Network (MDRnet.org) a Press Forward funded program that supports journalists and communicators who cover and belong to underserved communities in the US. She worked for NPR, WNYC and the BBC, and was an executive manager for Yahoo! Hispanic Americas and Televisa Interactive Media. She holds a PhD in Ideology and Discourse Analysis from the University of Essex and is a certified Psychological First Aid Provider from Johns Hopkins University. In addition, she is a former John S. Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University 2002-2023.

Alejandro Mayoral Baños

Executive Director

Alejandro leads Access Now's mission to extend and defend digital rights. He is a dedicated activist and academic passionate about bridging the gap between Indigenous Peoples and digital technologies. As a Mixtec/mestizo (Indigenous to Mexico) immigrant in Canada and a proud member of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, Alejandro is driven by a commitment to inclusivity and equity through technology. He founded the Indigenous Friends Association (IFA) in Canada and Magtayaní in Mexico, giving him experience fostering environments where Indigenous perspectives and digital innovation converge. Alejandro's work has spanned Canada, Mexico, Peru, Guatemala, Chile, Bolivia, and the UN, and he was made an Ashoka Fellow in 2023, in recognition of his work.

Room 412

Agents vs Managers: When are you ready to be signed and by who?

The Price of Influence: Why Undefined Value Kills Trust

10 Truths About Technology That Are Shaping Your Life

Come Play at Grief Camp: Healing with Story & Community

In the US and globally, civil society is facing existential challenges due to significant funding shortfalls resulting from cuts by the US and other traditional donors. For many nonprofits, this has meant imposing program cuts and layoffs, jeopardizing their ability to deliver on their missions sustainably.
We plan to discuss the following challenges (or “snakes” according to Indigenous prophecy) undermining digital rights and how to overcome them: the shrinking of resources, the increasing power of Big Tech, data colonialism, the rise of war crimes, and energy-demanding technologies.

TACKLING THE ?SNAKES? UNDERMINING DIGITAL RIGHTS


African American
Education
Politics
Social Issue

Maya Annik Bedward

Maya is an Afro-Caribbean-Canadian film director whose work blends history, resistance, and pop culture through bold, genre-bending storytelling. Her films have screened at TIFF, Hot Docs, BlackStar, and the New Orleans Film Festival. Her credits include the short films "The Haircut" (2018) and "Why We Fight" (2021), as well as the TV series "LIDO TV" (2022) and "BLK: An Origin Story" (2022). She is a founding member of the Black Screen Office, championing stories that center Black creativity and power.

Alamo Lamar 3

I Got Bombed at Harvey's

Biography
Crime
Documentary
Drama
Thriller

I Got Bombed at Harvey's (aka 1,000 Pounds of Dynamite)

From the flickering screens of Hollywood horror, to the haunted cane fields of colonial Haiti, "Black Zombie" unearths the buried origins of the zombie, reclaiming it as a symbol of survival and spiritual resistance.

Black Zombie

English, French, Haitian Creole with English Subtitles

Jennifer Holness
Michael Paszt
Andrew Thomas Hunt
James Fler

Maya Annik Bedward
Hannah Donegan
Kate Fraser

Avrïl Jacobson
Jay Cheel
Peter Denes
Lawrence Jackman

Dave Arcus
Mélissa Laveaux
Lister Haussman

Yves-Grégory Francois, Anderson Mojica, Erol Josué, Mambo Labelle Déese Botanica, Slash, Tom Savini, Tananarive Due, Zandashé Brown

Associate Producer: Gregorio Rodriguez, Jay Cheel, Production Manager: Huguens Santil, Camera Haiti Unit: Ricardo Tranquillin, Sound Haiti Unit: Antonio Dieubon Lefevre, 1st Assistant Director: Jeissy Trompiz, Production Coordinator: Laura “Roca” Morales, Mackenson César


Matt Bettinelli-Olpin

Radio Silence is a directing/producing duo (Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett) known for movies that blend horror, action & comedy. Most recently, they directed Abigail and previously, they revived the Scream franchise with Scream (2022) & Scream VI (2023). Other feature films include Ready or Not, Southbound, Devil’s Due & the cult hit V/H/S.

Moments after surviving an all-out attack from the Le Domas family, Grace discovers she’s reached the next level of the nightmarish game — and this time with her estranged sister Faith at her side. Grace has one chance to survive, keep her sister alive, and claim the High Seat of the Council that controls the world. Four rival families are hunting her for the throne, and whoever wins rules it all.

Ready or Not 2: Here I Come

After surviving the Le Domas attack, Grace faces the next level of the deadly game -- now with her estranged sister Faith. With four rival families hunting them, Grace must survive, protect her sister, and claim the High Seat that rules it all.

Tripp Vinson
James Vanderbilt
William Sherak
Bradley J. Fischer

Samara Weaving, Kathryn Newton, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Shawn Hatosy, Néstor Carbonell, David Cronenberg, Elijah Wood

Casting: John Buchan, CSA and Jason Knight, CSA


Kyra Sedgwick

Kyra Sedgwick is an Emmy Award® and a Golden Globe® award-winning actress, producer, and director whose film and television work has captured and defined the zeitgeist. As a partner at Big Swing Productions, Sedgwick is committed to championing inclusive and thought-provoking stories that amplify bold voices and her work as a director has earned her a DGA Award nomination.

Kevin Bacon

Kevin Bacon has built a varied and critically acclaimed body of work by producing, directing and starring in a myriad of projects across film, television and stage. Notable projects include “Footloose,” “Tremors,” “A Few Good Men,” "Mystic River," “Diner,” and most recently “Leave the World Behind,” “and “MaXXXine.”

Alamo Lamar 6

Dead Eyes

Dir: Richard E. Williams. DOP: Julian Panetta

Mischa Heywood as Lilly - Dir. Richard E. Williams

#Skyking

Health/Disability/Illness
Politics
Social Issues

The Rise of the Red Hot Chili Peppers: Our Brother, Hillel

The Smiths have gathered once again on their quaint family farm to make the latest in a string of low-budget horror movies. No, the movies aren't particularly "successful." Some might even call them "bad." But at least the family is together, and that's what matters to Jack and Ellen. Their adult children, on the other hand - Trent and Ula - are working up the courage to leave this particular family tradition behind.
Simmering family dysfunction turns to pure chaos when a real dead body shows up on set. Can they come together to keep the movie on track, or will this be the Smith family's final act?

Family Movie

A filmmaking family’s low-budget horror movie turns into a real-life slasher when a dead body shows up on set. Chaos ensues as the Smiths fight to keep the production on track. After all - the show must go on!

Kevin Bacon
Kyra Sedgwick
Sosie Bacon
Travis Bacon
Vince Jolivette
Casey Durant
Greg Lauritano
Russell Wayne Groves
Benjamin Fuqua
John Lang

Kevin Bacon, Kyra Sedgwick, Sosie Bacon, Travis Bacon, Liza Koshy, John Carroll Lynch, Jackie Earle Haley, Andrea Savage, Austin Amelio, Scoot McNairy


Matty Wishnow

Matty Wishnow is a serial entrepreneur, the author of "Listening for Growth" & now a documentary film director. Previously he was the founder of Insound—the internet's first record store—as well as Clearhead, one of Austin's best places to work & fastest growing companies in 2015 & '16. Matty spends his time between Austin, TX & Waitsfield, VT.

Alamo Lamar 5

Seahorse

African American
Health/Disability/Illness
Social Issues
Women

Sixty years & a million records ago, Robert Christgau invented Rock music criticism. Anyone who has ever read or written a Pop music review has been influenced by Christgau, who canonized legends from The Ramones to Public Enemy & infuriated icons from Lou Reed to Billy Joel. Now in his eighties, Bob is still at it—amazingly with the same vigor, wit, concision and craft that has defined his expansive career. But in a world where albums are irrelevant, where print is dead & where algorithms have eclipsed critics we are forced to ask: What happens next—for Bob, but also for all music criticism? Is this the end of something? Is Robert Christgau the last critic?

The Last Critic

Robert Christgau, The Dean of American Rock Critics, whose work has inspired & infuriated readers for sixty years, is still at it in his eighties—grading records, interrogating commas & listening to absolutely everything (except Metal & Prog).

Robert Christgau, Carola Dibbell, Thurston Moore, Boots Riley, Randy Newman, Colson Whitehead, Ann Powers, Joe Levy, Amanda Petrusich, Greil Marcus

Producer/Editor: Paul Lovelace, Producer/Director of Photography: Ben Wu


Archival Materials Courtesy of Andri Snær Magnason

Sara Dosa

Sara Dosa is an Oscar®-nominated nonfiction filmmaker whose work centers on the human relationship with more-than-human nature. The films she has directed, “Fire of Love” (2022), “The Seer & The Unseen” (2019) and “The Last Season” (2015), have won numerous awards, including a Peabody and the Directors’ Guild of America Award, and were nominated for over 40 awards, including an Academy Award, BAFTA, Emmy and an Independent Spirit Award. Dosa’s work has been shown at festivals worldwide, including Sundance, SXSW, New Directors/New Films, CPH:DOX and Visions du Réel, and has screened in partnership with museums such as the MOMA, BAMPFA and the Louvre. In 2018, Dosa was named to the inaugural class of DOCNYC’s “40 under 40” and inducted into the Academy of Motion Pictures’ documentary branch. She graduated from Wesleyan University with a double major in sociology and anthropology and has a joint master’s in anthropology and international development studies from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Dosa lives and works in California.

Satellite Venue: AFS Cinema

The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist

Courtesy of Focus Features © 2025 Focus Features, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Your Attention Please

Health/Disability/Illness
Politics
Technology
Social Issue

Cookie Queens

African American
Latino
Texas
Women
Children
Disability
Native American/Indigenous
Youth/Teen

Courtesy of Beautiful Stories and AJNA Films

Renowned Icelandic poet and author Andri Snær Magnason is chasing something elusive. As the glacial ice of his homeland melts, he constructs a cinematic time capsule to hold onto this moment and send it to the future, before everything he loves slips away. Using his own collected archives, his grandparents’ photographs, and films, as well as traditional songs and folktales, Andri interlaces his family’s story with that of the land around him. From Academy Award®-nominated director Sara Dosa, "Time and Water" is a universal reflection on the power of home and what it means to be alive amid profound epochal change.

Time and Water

English, Icelandic with English Subtitles

Facing the death of his country’s glaciers and the loss of his beloved grandparents, Icelandic writer Andri Snær Magnason turns his archives into a time capsule to hold what is slipping away — family, memory, time and water.

Carolyn Bernstein
Tim Horsburgh
Jessica Harrop
Caitlin Mae Burke
Kristín Ólafsdóttir
Nina Fialkow
Moudhy Al-Rashid
Sam Forhman

Shane Boris
Elijah Stevens
Jameka Autry
Sara Dosa

Erin Casper
Jocelyne Chaput
Mark Harrison


Documentary Short Program 1

Rollins Theatre at the Long Center

Cornbread Mafia

Addiction/Recovery
Legal
Senior/Aging
Social Issue

Action
Biography
Comedy
Crime
Documentary

African American
Books/Literary
Celebrity

Phoenix Jones: The Rise and Fall of a Real Life Superhero

Authentic storytelling that captivates, surprises, and excites!

Documentary Short Program 1

Divorce Resort

Married in a country where divorce is prohibited, a 72-year-old lovelorn man finds a legal loophole requiring a seven-day stay on the island of Guam. As he wanders through this tropical limbo, he reckons with his loss and newfound freedom.

I Got My Brother

Two brothers reflect on their candid and often humorous memories of surviving the foster care system and prison, realizing along the way that their path to healing has always been each other.

Yiyíistsʼą́ą́ʼ (Listen)

The Navajo language is spoken less often across generations. However, its resilience continues through a small Navajo radio station, the director's family members, and the people of the Navajo Nation.

In the Morning Sun

A Filipino mother finds comfort in her Alexa—weather updates, love songs, and the time back home become a magical link to the Philippines, gently reflecting the quiet struggles of immigration and the comforts that sustain us.

A Wolf in the Suburbs

Welcome to Mississauga where lawns are clipped, neighbors are watchful and no blade of grass dares misbehave. Except at Wolf Ruck’s place. His lawn grows wild, and so does the trouble.

How To Catch A Butterfly

Filmmaker Kiriko Mechanicus writes letters to a young mass shooter to find the root of their mutual obsession for one another.

In the Morning Sun

In a quiet Toronto apartment, an immigrant mother finds comfort in her Alexa—weather updates, love songs, and the time back home become a lifeline to the Philippines, reminding her of the family she left behind. In the Morning Sun is a gentle portrait of aging, migration, and memory. Inspired by the filmmaker’s desire to preserve the warmth of his parents, the film reflects on the quiet sacrifices of immigration and the rituals that keep love alive across distance. As his nieces and nephews begin to face their own life choices, their reflections echo the journey his mother once made, revealing the duality of her experience—the little girl she was, and the woman she became to survive.

Lydia Poblete, Almario Poblete, Ruth Castro, Adyson Castro, Juby bansil, Edric Bansil

Additional Cinematography: Martika Ramirez Escobar, Sound Recordist: Cesar Centeno, Grip & Gaffer: Harold Espiritu, Colourist: Clinton Homuth, Music Supervisor: Tiffany Su, VFX: Miguel Fernandes, Score Mix Engineer: Alex Gluch, SFX Editor: Cait Macintosh

Yiyíistsʼą́ą́ʼ (Listen)

There are fewer fluent speakers of Díne Bizaad (the Navajo Language) on the Navajo Nation. Despite this, there is hope for the future, thanks to a local radio station that broadcasts in Navajo to thousands of listeners all the time. Notably, the director embarks on a journey that highlights the resilience of the language, encountering revitalization efforts being done on the Navajo Nation and imbuing hope for future generations to protect their language.

Drew Bouchard
Said Cisnernos
Malakye Tsosie

Harrison Dehiya, Carol Tabaha, Herman Jim, Sharon J. Nelson, Vena Watson, Laura Tsosie, Wilceta Carroll, Kennedi James

Assistant Camera: Ellie Hoffey, Assistant Camera: Xavier Jordan

How To Catch A Butterfly

In 2021, 21-year-old Robert Aaron Long kills 8 Asian women in massage parlors in Atlanta, Georgia as a way to suppress his uncontrollable sexual desire. Dutch-Japanese filmmaker Kiriko Mechanicus writes letters to the young murderer to find out what his killings have to do with her sexual life. What do our racial fetishes tell us about our hidden human desires?

I Got My Brother

Directed by Victor Gabriel for Academy Award winning Breakwater Studios in partnership with the Schultz Family Foundation "I Got My Brother" is a darkly comedic exploration of the foster care to prison pipeline through the eyes of formerly incarcerated Jarrett Harper and his younger brother Baylon.

Through a conversation-style interview, the brothers reminisce about their time spent in a Los Angeles foster home where they were routinely abused and neglected. Though the candid memories are rooted in unimaginable trauma, they are laced with wry humor and an unbreakable brotherly bond that is put to the test when 17-year-old Jarret is sentenced to life in prison for murdering their abuser.

Divorce Resort

Butch Meily has been separated from his wife for 8 years. They live in the Philippines, where divorce remains illegal. Mired in legal and emotional limbo, an unlikely loophole presents a way out.

The U.S. territory of Guam offers a “7 Day Residency Divorce.” One spouse could spend a week on Guam, establish residence, and get an internationally recognized divorce. Their lawyer offered to book the hotel.

Our story finds the 72-year-old Butch alone on an island to end his marriage. He's convinced the divorce will change his life; happiness at the stroke of a pen. But vacation can be uncomfortably meditative. As each day brings Butch closer to signing, he's forced to confront his loss.


Austin Eastciders Giddy Up Tasting

Giddy Up & Go at SXSW with Austin Eastciders! We'll be slinging samples of our newest 11% ABV Giddy Up Electric Punch lineup: Tropical Blast & Blue Raspberry. We lassoed that party magic with none of the mixing - just crack it up and let the good times ride.

https://austineastciders.com/


A Flavor-Filled Experience

You’re invited to a flavor-filled experience, where nature meets delicious. Come sip, sample, and explore everything from bold flavor innovations to functional hydration and premium teas. No artificial stuff. Just pure, crafted taste, and a few fun freebies you don't want to miss!


Einstein Energy Super Snack Bars - Think You're A Snack Genius?

Think You’re a Snack Genius?
Einstein Energy Super Smart Snack Bars bring brainpower to SXSW with The Einstein Game Show—fast, buzzer-style trivia hosted by an Albert Einstein look-alike. Win exclusive merch and bars, snap iconic photos, and fuel up with smarter snack breaks guided by brand ambassadors. Live screens, social moments, and QR-powered rewards keep the energy high—plus a special birthday celebration for Albert on March 14.

EINSTEIN ENERGY SUPER SNACK BARS - THINK YOU'RE A SNACK GENIUS?

Einstein Energy Inc.

Einstein Energy is built for ambitious thinkers. More than a snack bar, it’s a smarter snack break. Decadent flavor meets brain-boosting power with Lion’s Mane, Citicoline, L-Theanine, and green tea caffeine to support clarity, focus, and sustained energy. Available in Double Chocolate and Chocolate Peanut Butter. Einstein Energy is the only snack bar officially licensed by the Albert Einstein Estate—fueling curiosity, one breakthrough at a time.

1 Blackfield Dr. #275, Tiburon, CA 94920 (or just Tiburon, California)


Aguasol Tasting

Come sip Aguasol! We’ll be offering complimentary samples of our smooth, additive-free tequila, plus Aguasol cocktails for purchase at the bar. Pure sunshine, spring water, and agave—no shortcuts. Refresh, recharge, and keep the SXSW energy going.
www.aguasol.com


Congress Avenue Block Party

The Congress Avenue Block Party (formerly known as the Registrant Lounge) is the go-to space for all SXSW attendees to maximize their SX experience, offering daily complimentary drinks, food, and sponsor swag. Open throughout the conferences & festivals, this convenient and relaxing meeting point near the hub of SXSW action is an ideal spot to unwind and connect with other attendees. New for 2026, the Block Party is free and open to the public!

TooFar Media

World Premiere of Xiphactinus – An Immersive Storyworld Experience!

TooFar Media is an award-winning Arts Technology company, based in Silicon Valley, that creates Immersive Storyworlds, which combine Book, Music, Art, Animation and Film, to reimagine how stories are told and experienced.

Step inside TooFar Media’s Immersive Portal Experience @ Creative Industries Expo, and at TooFar Media’s PopUp @ Congress Ave Block Party, and discover the world premiere of Xiphactinus!

Plus, download the FREE TooFar Media app!


My/Mochi, the original and world's largest mochi ice cream brand, is inviting SXSW-goers to Taste the Joy! Our delightfully delicious ice cream wrapped in pillowy sweet rice dough comes in more than 20 flavors like Cookie Dough, Strawberry and Mango. So stop by our Joyfully Chill Ice Cream Shoppe at the Congress Ave Block Party Mar 12-18 to experience the joy for yourself!

MY/MOCHI JOYFULLY CHILL ICE CREAM SHOPPE

My/Mochi

Treat Yourself to a Taste of Joy at the My/Mochi Joyfully Chill Ice Cream Shoppe!

My/Mochi is the original and world's largest mochi ice cream brand - and we are inviting SXSW-goers to Taste the Joy! Our delightfully delicious ice cream wrapped in pillowy sweet rice dough comes in more than 20 flavors like Cookie Dough, Strawberry and Mango (and all are gluten free, nut free and 90 calories or less!). So stop by our Joyfully Chill Ice Cream Shoppe at the Congress Ave Block Party Mar 12-18 to experience the joy for yourself!


La French Touch Rendez-Vous

“La French Touch Rendez-vous”, the must-attend event to discover French innovation and creativity returns at SXSW. La French Touch is pleased to present :

- Hear from high-profile guests discussing cutting-edge themes
- AI, creator economy, fashion, and artistic start-ups demos
- By night : networking event and live concerts

Drinks and snacks served all day long!

For more information please visit: https://evenements.bpifrance.fr/e/french-touch-rendez-vous-2026


Reinventing Customer Experience for What's Next

Accenture

Your Data Isn't Ready - Your Business Can Be with Agentic AI

When Innovation Meets Competition: The New Era of Global Sports

Crafting a Culture of Experimentation & Innovation

Featuring: Ami Palan, Americas Lead, Accenture Song
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Customer expectations are evolving faster than ever, demanding new ways of thinking about experience, growth, and connection. In this session, we’ll explore how technology, data, and creativity are coming together to help organizations reimagine the customer experience and unlock meaningful, measurable impact.
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REINVENTING CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE FOR WHAT'S NEXT

Accenture is a leading solutions and services company that helps the world’s leading enterprises reinvent by building their digital core and unleashing the power of technology to create value at speed. Our purpose is to deliver on the promise of technology and human ingenuity.


Luchina Fisher

Luchina Fisher is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker and educator who has directed several award-winning documentaries, including the short film "The Dads" (Netflix), which won the 2024 Daytime Emmy Award, and her directorial debut "Mama Gloria" (PBS), which was nominated for a 2022 GLAAD Media Award. She teaches film at Yale and Fairfield University.

Inspired by the Emmy-Award winning short documentary of the same name (Netflix, 2023), "The Dads" chronicles fathers of trans and nonbinary children as they are forced to choose between country and family when a new right-wing administration and conservative Supreme Court take hold in the United States. Filmed over the course of a year spanning retreats in rural Maine and Minnesota, protests, family milestones, a pivotal U.S. Supreme Court decision, and the collapse of gender-affirming care for youth, "The Dads" captures this national reckoning with remarkable intimacy through verite footage and interviews with the film’s main protagonists. This is fatherhood as an act of radical resistance.

The Dads

As anti-trans legislation and hostility escalate in the United States, a group of dads, building a nascent movement to support their trans and gender expansive kids, are forced to make an impossible choice: stay and fight or flee the country.

Dwyane Wade
Jon Marcus
Joseph Deitch
Carolina Garcia Jayaram
Eva Bloomfield

Ukachi Arinzeh
Timothy Jude Appleby
Amy Bench
Cary Cronenwett
Graham Donohoe
Natassja Ebert
Stephen Lewis
Sean Lonergan
Clare Major
Eric Miclette
Ellie Walton

Eli Cohn
Gisela Fullà Silvestre
Ben Kruse
Samuel Berliner-Sachs

Stephen Chukumba, Wayne Maines, Ed Diaz, Christoph Heinzer, Jose Trujillo, Frank Gonzales, AC Goldberg


Plantman & Blondie: A Dress Up Gang Film

Robb Boardman

Robb Boardman is a writer-director based in Los Angeles. He co-created, co-wrote, and directed the series, "The Dress Up Gang", at TBS. The show initially had its premiere at Sundance in 2019. He has since gone on to direct a sketch pilot for Hulu and his work has appeared on HBO. Robb also directs the viral CholoFit web series with frequent collaborator and comedian Frankie Quinones. He is a graduate of UC Berkeley’s Film & Media program.

An offbeat comedy about friendship, purpose, and trying to grow something real in a city built to keep people apart.
Cory is a lonely, doomscrolling thirty-something whose most consistent relationship is with his Instagram algorithm. His apartment? An emotionally vacant, sterile, void. His fridge? Mostly Celsius. And his idea of connection is dodging calls from the one person who still tries: Fox, a soft-hearted, ex-con with terrible advice rooted in institutional paranoia and his love of films.
Everything shifts when Cory has a run-in, literally, with Plantman, a rogue horticultural crusader armed with a mysterious dossier of negligent plant owners.

PLANTMAN & BLONDIE: A DRESS UP GANG FILM

A lonely man escapes working from home when he meets Plantman...a mysterious man saving the neglected house plants of Los Angeles.

Mark Ankner
Robb Boardman
Cory Loykasek
Donny Divanian
Frankie Quinones
Jay Patumanoan
Adam Karm
Ben Wagner

Cory Loykasek, Donny Divanian, Frankie Quinones, Kate Berlant, Blake Anderson, Kirk Fox, Brent Weinbach, Jamar Neighbors, Christian Duguay, Kevin Camia

Co-Producer: Maria Carrasco, Co-Producer: Parker Mays


Lauren Noll

Lauren Noll is an L.A. based actor-director from the mountains of East Tennessee. Her feature
directorial debut, SAME SAME BUT DIFFERENT, is a female-driven ensemble comedy
highlighting three women navigating the tensions of their cross-cultural relationships and the
pressures of modern life, friendship, and womanhood. It will premiere at SXSW 2026.

Hailing from a rich background in theatre, she earned her graduate degree in Acting at Harvard’s
American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) and the Moscow Art Theatre (MXAT) before her focus
pivoted toward film. Lauren first stepped behind the camera with the short drama HONOR, an
intimate, autobiographically inspired story about coming of age, coming out, and facing
expulsion from Brigham Young University. The film earned multiple awards and launched her
new path as a filmmaker. She followed this short debut with GEN V, which began an ongoing
creative partnership with actor-writer Dalia Rooni and secured the pair a development deal with
Adi Shankar’s Bootleg Universe. The duo went on to make CLEAN SLATE, a recipient of the
Collaborative Film Challenge Grand Jury Prize and a grant from Blackmagic Design, before
embarking to make their first feature film SAME SAME BUT DIFFERENT together.

Most recently, Lauren co-wrote and starred in the Oscar Qualified short film, THE HEART OF
TEXAS, which screened at more than 75 festivals worldwide and earned Lauren a dozen acting
awards on the festival circuit for her performance as Janie May, a down-on-her-luck country
singer caught between a last shot at her dream and the crushing responsibility she bears for
another dreamer she collides with on her path. Across all of her work, Lauren is drawn to
intimate, character-driven stories about ordinary people searching for grace and meaning in
chaotic worlds. Her love for actors and their craft is undeniably infused into her directing style.
She approaches each project with honesty, humor, and deep compassion, crafting stories that
reveal the beauty and hilarity of being human.

Alamo Lamar 8

Dead Deer High

Education
Social Issues
The Arts/Theater
Youth/Teen

When Rana’s visa application is denied, she faces the reality of returning home to Iran. That is, until Adam – her wealthy boss’s son and her summer fling – proposes a green card wedding. Wrestling with the implications of his offer, Rana enlists help from a questionable shaman, Adam’s pure-hearted mom, and most importantly her two Iranian best friends Nadia and Setareh, who arrive on Cape Cod for a wedding weekend full of opinions, chaos, and drama with their own American boyfriends. Just as total disaster approaches, the three women come together in a transformative moment of acceptance, growth, and coming of age – evolving this weekend into one that will change them all forever.

Same Same But Different

An Iranian immigrant agrees to marry her boss’s son to stay in the U.S., but their simple green card wedding on Cape Cod gets complicated when her two Iranian best friends arrive with their own American boyfriends and cross-cultural baggage in tow.

Dalia Rooni
Lauren Noll
Zein Khleif
Medalion Rahimi
Emily Reach White

Medalion Rahimi, Logan Miller, Layla Mohammadi, Dalia Rooni, Richie Moriarty, Michael Baszler, Danielle Pinnock, Lauren Noll, Nicholas Coombe, with Kevin Nealon, and Joey Lauren Adams

Line Producer: Alecia Orsini Lebedi: Costume Designer: Dimanne Mota, Post Producer: Sam Zarrin: Art Director: Layla Calo-Baird, Language and Cultural Consultant: Arash Azizi: Associate Producers: Frances Komoda, Connor Rosenberg, Casting Director: Jamie Ember, Colorist: Keyhan Bayegan, Re-recording Mixer: Abby Austria, VFX Supervisor: Andrea Abtahi, 1st AD: Tishna Lodi, Script Supervisor: Alisa Traskunov, Gaffer/ Key Grip: Melanie Nesteruk


Ayden Mayeri

Ayden Mayeri is an Actor and Director from Northern California. She can be seen starring in films like Paul Feig’s Jackpot opposite John Cena and Awkwafina,  Greg Mottola's Confess Fletch opposite John Hamm, and Hannah Pearl Utt's Cora Bora as well as TV shows like I Love That For You, Mr. Throwback, and New Girl. At Tribeca 2025 she starred in the AT&T Untold Stories feature, Honeyjoon.

Alamo Lamar 4

My NDA

African American
Legal
LGBTQ
Politics
Social Issues
Women
Social Issue

The Life We Leave

Business/Entrepreneurial
Environment
Social Issue

In the summer of 2000, four pre-teen friends formed a band called X-Cetra and burned a homemade album onto a few CD-Rs. The following year, consumed by adolescent concerns of boys and drug store shoplifting, their labor of love was quickly forgotten.... Until 20 years later, when someone uploaded it online. At first, it garnered a small base of outsider-art fans, but soon it was discovered by record labels, sampled by mainstream artists, and eventually the subject of a Rolling Stone article. With their teen dreams of pop stardom coming true decades later, X-Cetra reunites to see if they can rekindle the unselfconscious girlhood they’d captured in the album those many years ago.

Summer 2000: The X-Cetra Story

Four friends reunite when the album they made as pre-teens becomes a cult hit on the internet and scores a record deal twenty years later. Together, they revisit their friendship and early 2000s girlhood.

Ayden Mayeri & Barry Rothbart & Rachael Fung

Grief Party inc. & Handsome Boy Productions & Extra A Productions

Ayden Mayeri
Barry Rothbart
Rachael Fung

Ayden Mayeri, Jessica Hall, Janet Kariuki, Mary Washburn, Robin O'brien


Berlin House: Party, Pitches & Perspectives - Day 3 at German Haus

Speakeasy

German DeepTech and AI Innovation Unleashed: Day 1 at German Haus

Future in Focus: Meet Germany’s Top AI Startups

Innovation for Everyone: Day 2 at German Haus

MediaTech Morning: Breakfast, Networking & Beyond Screens – MediaTech as the New Infrastructure

BERLIN HOUSE brings the energy of Berlin to Austin for a full day of bold ideas, creative tech and global connections. Join inspiring conversations, discover standout startup pitches, and experience how Berlin’s innovators shape the future. Meet creators, founders and partners from across the world - then close out the night with an authentic Berlin rave featuring  Anja Schneider, JOPLYN, Martin Eyerer and more.
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https://why.berlin/event/south-by-southwest-sxsw-2026/
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BERLIN HOUSE: PARTY, PITCHES & PERSPECTIVES - DAY 3 AT GERMAN HAUS

German Haus

The GERMAN HAUS is the main venue of the joint German presentation at SXSW and it features a
variety of curated networking events, roundtables, presentations, and music performances, creating a unique environment for professional exchange, international networking, and the discovery of new creative partnerships.

GERMAN HAUS AT SXSW 2026
March 12 – 16, 2026
SPEAKEASY, 412 Congress Avenue, Austin, TX 78701

Speakeasy, 412 Congress Avenue, Austin, TX 78701

AI that Ships: A Tech Lunch on Moving from Policy to Pilot


Humanoid Robots Are Clocking In: Meet Who’s Putting Them To Work

Peter Stone

Sony AI and The University of Texas at Austin

Chief Scientist and Professor of Computer Science

Dr. Peter Stone currently serves as Chief Scientist of Sony AI and holds the position of Deputy President. In addition to his role in the private sector, Dr. Stone is the Truchard Foundation Chair in Computer Science and Associate Chair of the Computer Science Department at the University of Texas at Austin, and also serves as the Director of Texas Robotics. Previously, Dr. Stone co-founded Cogitai, Inc., a startup company focused on continual learning, in 2015. His research interests in AI include planning, machine learning, multiagent systems, and robotics. Dr. Stone’s long-term research goal is to create complete, robust, autonomous agents that can learn to interact with other intelligent agents in a wide range of complex, dynamic environments.

Jeff Cardenas

Co-founder and CEO

Jeff is co-founder and CEO of Apptronik. He is a serial entrepreneur on a mission to bring the groundbreaking advancements in humanoid robotics into the real world.  Under Jeff’s leadership, Apptronik has built some of the most advanced robots in the world, spanning from exoskeletons to humanoids, and unique robotic arms. He believes that it is not man vs. machine, but man AND machine that will take humanity into the next stage of evolution.

A native of Texas, Jeff holds a BS in Business and a MS in Technology Commercialization from the University of Texas at Austin.

Jonathan Hurst

Co-Founder And Chief Robot Officer

Jonathan W. Hurst is Chief Robot Officer and co-founder of Agility Robotics, and Professor and co-founder of the Oregon State University Robotics Institute. He holds a B.S. in mechanical engineering and an M.S. and Ph.D. in robotics, all from Carnegie Mellon University.

Hurst’s career-long research focuses on enabling robotic legged locomotion and physical interaction. Agility Robotics is bringing this new robotic mobility to market, solving problems for customers, working towards a day when robots can go where people go, generate greater productivity across the economy, and improve quality of life for all.

At Agility, Hurst has applied this expertise to Digit, the first humanoid to be commercially deployed, doing work in logistics warehouses.

Andrea Thomaz

Co-Founder & CEO

Dr. Andrea Thomaz is the CEO and Co-Founder of Diligent Robotics and a renowned social robotics expert. She founded Diligent Robotics to pursue her vision of creating socially intelligent robot assistants that collaborate with humans by doing their chores, so humans can have more time for the work they care most about. Under Andrea’s leadership, the company has created “Moxi,” a humanoid robot that’s deployed in 25+ hospitals across the U.S. to streamline hospital operations and combat nurse burnout. Moxi has already successfully completed 1M+ tasks in the real world.

Andrea earned her Ph.D. from MIT and B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from UT Austin and is a Robotics Professor at UT Austin and the PI of the Socially Intelligent Machines Lab.

Salon D

Designing the Future of Human Performance

The Companies Building and Automating Space's Superhighway

What AI Agents Are Doing While You're Not Watching

The New Lab Partner: AI and Future Scientific Discovery

The Masters: A Digital Experience Unlike Any Other

You’ve seen the viral humanoid demos—now meet the people actually shipping them. From hospitals to warehouses, humanoid robots are already on shift. They ride elevators, open doors, and work alongside people in busy environments. But making that leap from prototype to real-world, reliable performance? It’s hard. This panel brings together renowned founders and researchers who’ve built and deployed some of the first real humanoids at scale. Join us for a behind-the-scenes conversation about what's working, what’s not, and what it really takes to get robots out of the lab and into the world.

HUMANOID ROBOTS ARE CLOCKING IN: MEET WHO?S PUTTING THEM TO WORK


The New Arena: How Sports, Fans & Culture Are Evolving

Cam Jordan

NFL 8x Pro Bowl | Humanitarian | Media Voice

Cam Jordan is not only one of the most dominant defensive ends in the NFL, he’s also one of the League’s most thoughtful leaders and charismatic voices. An 8x Pro Bowler, 3x All-Pro and 3x Walter Payton Man of the Year nominee, Jordan has built a legacy both on and off the field as a disruptor, advocate, and entertainer. Drafted by the New Orleans Saints in 2011, Cam has become the heart of the franchise, known for his relentless motor, high football IQ, and magnetic media presence. Beyond his stats, what truly sets him apart is his impact in the community. As the founder of the Cam Jordan Foundation, he champions educational initiatives and uses his platform to speak out on issues of social justice and equity.

Ian Trombetta

Senior Vice President - Global Social, Creator, & Content Marketing

Ian Trombetta serves as Senior Vice President of Social and Influencer Marketing for the NFL. In this role, Ian oversees the integration of social strategies and content development across all social platforms for the League, player and club handles. He is also responsible for developing entirely new Influencer Marketing and Club Marketing Departments with a mission of creating new and dynamic initiatives which leverage the platform of the NFL to reach audiences within the Leagues walls and beyond. Over the past 18 months, the NFL has subsequently seen increases across all key segments including Gen Z, Latin X, African American, Females and Total Fan Avidity.

Alexis Ramos

Co-President

Alexis Ramos is Co-President of 16th Sports,  a division of Sixteenth, one of the leading global Athlete Creator talent partnership companies. Together with Ray Brown, Alexis co-leads 16th Sports under the Whalar Group umbrella, creating a new stadium for Athletes to collaborate with brands beyond social media reach and build IP worthy of long-term partnerships. A visionary leader and influential Hispanic woman in the sports industry, Alexis is known for her strategic insight and transformative leadership. As one of the few Hispanic women to represent a 1st-round pick in the NFL draft, her career spans nearly a decade in the sports industry.

Kat Marquez

Lead, North America Sports League Partnerships

As part of TikTok's North American sports team, Kat Marquez helps more than 300 teams and properties optimize their presence on the platform, managing partners including the WWE, the app's most followed sports league. In May 2021, she launched the programmed hashtag #WNBAisBack, which amassed 16 million video views in three days.

Waller Ballroom D

Media That Matters: Nuclear Weapons & the Next Generation

Rethinking Higher Education to Build an AI-First Workforce

The Big Blur: Rethinking the Transition from School to Work

Building AI Pathways for HBCU Talent & Community Impact

The Fandom Force: How to Create a Fan-First Social Approach

Sports fandom is evolving from passive viewership to active, always-on participation. Fans, Athletes, and Creators are reshaping how culture is made, shared, and celebrated. This session explores how brands can authentically tap into the new dynamics of fandom, from game days to off-seasons. Learn how Athletes are the new storytellers, how fan communities are driving cultural moments, and how marketers can show up with relevance and purpose in this new era of sports and engagement.

NEW ARENA: HOW SPORTS, FANS & CULTURE ARE EVOLVING


Build the Future: Entrepreneurship Within Reach

Jailan Griffiths

Vice President, Global Head of Purpose

Jailan Griffiths is Vice President and Global Head of Purpose at Nasdaq. In this role, Jailan is responsible for the company’s philanthropic, community outreach, corporate sustainability, and employee volunteerism programs. Jailan also serves as President of the Nasdaq Foundation and leads its mission to reimagine investor engagement to equip economically disadvantaged communities with financial knowledge and to increase capital markets participation for minority and female entrepreneurs. She is the Board Chair of the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center in San Francisco. Prior to joining Nasdaq in 2016, Jailan worked at Dow Jones, serving as head of marketing for The Wall Street Journal, and head of marketing for Dow Jones Enterprise products.

Charles Hudson

Managing Partner

Charles Hudson is the Managing Partner and Founder of Precursor Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm based in San Francisco. Precursor focuses on investing in the first institutional round of investment for the most promising software and hardware companies, investing in people over product at the earliest stage of their entrepreneurial journey. Under his leadership, Precursor has raised five funds and has $250+ million under management. He has invested in over 450 companies and supported more than 1,000 founders, including the teams behind Bobbie Baby, Carrot, Incredible Health, Juniper Square, Modern Health, Pair Eyewear, Rad AI, and The Athletic.

Haven Ley

Chief Strategy Officer

Haven Ley leads the strategic programmatic direction for Pivotal Ventures, an investment and incubation company founded by Melinda French Gates. Since helping to launch Pivotal Ventures in 2015, Haven has overseen the design of large scale, collaborative initiatives to advance social progress in the U.S., from accelerating women's power and influence to strengthening American families. Prior to Pivotal Ventures, Haven served as Senior Advisor to the Co-Chair in the Executive Office of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. During her time at the foundation, she also held the role as Senior Program Officer with Agricultural Development, developing and managing the team’s portfolio supporting women smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

Tiffany Dufu

President

Tiffany Dufu is President of the Tory Burch Foundation, which increases women’s economic power by supporting entrepreneurs to build businesses that last. She’s the author of the bestselling book Drop the Ball: Achieving More by Doing Less. According to foreword contributor Gloria Steinem, Drop the Ball is “important, path-breaking, intimate and brave.” Her writing has appeared in The Oprah Magazine, ESSENCE, and the New York Times. Named to Entrepreneur's 100 Powerful Women and Fast Company’s League of Extraordinary Women, Tiffany has raised over $25 million toward the cause of women and girls. She’s the founder of The Cru, a peer coaching tech company that was acquired by Luminary in 2023.

Salon E

The Creative Economy is Thriving: Why Founders Keep Building for Creators

The Lucky 10%: CPGs Flipping Off the Startup Failure Rate

The Art of Scaling Your Startup Without Venture Capital

Who Owns What: The State of Startups & Top Trends to Watch

Now is Japan's Time: Leading the Future with Deep Tech

Entrepreneurship is one of the last viable paths to economic mobility in America—offering ownership, stability, and long-term wealth. But that path is narrowing fast. Early-stage funding to women and underrepresented founders has dropped nearly 50% since 2020 (Crunchbase, 2023), while systems like childcare, capital access, and mentorship remain fragile. This session brings together cross-sector leaders to ask: What must we build now to keep entrepreneurship within reach for the next generation?

BUILD THE FUTURE: ENTREPRENEURSHIP WITHIN REACH


Time Travel & Archives: Reclaiming Memory Through XR

Idris Brewster

Executive Director

Stephanie Dinkins

Artist

Stephanie Dinkins is a transdisciplinary artist exploring the intersections of emerging technologies, race, and social justice. Through immersive installations, AI-driven storytelling, and community engagement, she challenges dominant narratives and builds new frameworks for technological equity. Dinkins centers the voices of Black and brown communities in imagining more inclusive futures. Her work embodies what scholar Ruha Benjamin describes as “a contested field of action” —where imagination becomes a tool for collective transformation. Dinkins is the Kusama Endowed Chair in Art at Stony Brook University and a Schmidt Futures AI2050 Senior Fellow. She exhibits internationally.

Yasmin Elayat

Director

Yasmin Elayat is an Emmy-award winning director. Previously, Yasmin was Co-Founder at Scatter, pioneers of Volumetric Filmmaking and creators of Depthkit, acquired by Evercoast. Yasmin was also Senior Staff Editor, Immersive Graphics at The New York Times. Yasmin sits on the Peabody Awards Interactive Board of Jurors.

Yasmin directed the Emmy award-winning Zero Days VR (Sundance 2017), and co-directed the Emmy nominated Changing Same (Sundance 2021) which won “Best Immersive Narrative” at Tribeca Film Festival. Other titles include Blackout (2017), and 18DaysInEgypt (2011). Yasmin is directing the upcoming When Brooklyn Was Queer.Yasmin’s work has won multiple awards and exhibited at various festivals including Sundance, Tribeca, SIGGRAPH, Cannes, and the World Economic Forum.

Tamara Shogaolu

Founder

Tamara Shogaolu is an Emmy Award–winning filmmaker, artist, and creative technologist. Her work blends immersive technologies, sculpture, and animation to explore memory, identity, and erasure. Founder of Ado Ato Pictures, she has been recognized by Sundance, Tribeca, Netflix, and the Peabody Awards, and her projects have been showcased at MoMA, SXSW, IDFA, and MIT. Her storytelling bridges physical and digital realms to reimagine how histories are constructed and remembered.

Salon D

Who’s Funding the Future—and Who’s Getting Left Out

Thrive or Survive: Why Creativity is the Key to an AI-Future

The Story of Stories—The Million Year History of Storytelling

Skills You’ll Need To Succeed in the Post-AI Age

Through the Noise: The State of Science Storytelling

The panel brings together artists using immersive tools — from AR and AI to dance and gaming — to explore how we can reimagine archives, reclaim erased histories, and create portals into the past and future. Each of us approaches this through different mediums, but with a shared urgency around memory, embodiment, and speculative technology. The idea is to explore how immersive practices can act as a kind of time travel: allowing us to move through historical absence and presence, remix narratives, and build alternate realities where marginalized voices take center stage.

TIME TRAVEL & ARCHIVES: RECLAIMING MEMORY THROUGH XR


Featured Session: 10 Breakthrough Technologies of 2026

Niall Firth

Executive Editor, Newsroom

Niall Firth is Executive Editor, Newsroom at MIT Technology Review where he oversees the reporting team and the brand's online journalism.

Hilton Grand Ballroom (Salon HJK)

Featured Session: Moonshots that Move the Needle

SXSW Community Service Awards Recognition: The Bell

Featured Session: Strategy in the Times of Chaos: Imagining Futures of Education

Featured Session: How to Support Resilient Youth in an AI World

Each year, MIT Technology Review reporters and editors assemble a list of the top breakthrough technologies that will change the world. We ask ourselves: What will really matter in the long run? And while we can’t see the future, we expect these technologies to affect our world in a big way, for decades to come. Niall Firth will share the publication’s list of ten breakthrough technologies with the SXSW audience, explaining each one and how it will impact the way we live and work.

FEATURED SESSION: 10 BREAKTHROUGH TECHNOLOGIES OF 2026


SXSW Pitch-Entertainment, Media, Sports & Creator Content

Billy	 Parks

Venture Partner

Alexis Alston

GP

Eric Osiakwan

Managing Partner

Fielding Jamieson

Co-founder & Managing Partner

Andrew Kahn

Managing partner

Andrew Kahn is Managing Partner of the newly launched Yamaha Music Innovation Fund, an early-stage consumer fund backed by Yamaha Corporation that focuses on investing in technology that will change how culture gets created and consumed.

Prior to Yamaha, Andrew led Crush Ventures, a venture firm founded by leading music talent management firm, Crush Music, who manages generational talent like Miley Cyrus, Green Day, Sia, Lorde and Fall Out Boy.

Andrew was on the founding team of Greenfly, a media SaaS business that provides critical infrastructure for how rights cleared content moves in closed influencer networks, and served as a business development executive at Live Nation where he pioneered Ticketmaster’s distributed commerce platform.

He received his MBA from UCLA Anderson School of Management.

Salon FGH

SXSW Pitch-Healthcare, AssistiveTech & BioTech

SXSW Pitch-Sustainability, AgTech & Food

SXSW Pitch-Smart Cities, Transportation, Manufacturing & Logistics

SXSW Pitch-Smart Data, Security, and FinTech

The SXSW Pitch provides a platform for early-stage technology startups to present their groundbreaking products and services to a panel of distinguished industry experts, influential media professionals, and leading venture capitalists and angel investors.

On Saturday, March 14, five innovative companies will take the stage in Salon FGH at the JW Marriott, showcasing their ideas, innovations, and entrepreneurial vision before a live audience and judging panel. Come be inspired by the next generation of tech innovators shaping the future.

Entertainment, Media, Sports & Creator ContentTechnologies and applications that are re-inventing the experience of leisure, information, sports, and entertainment. Industries these technologies address may include gaming, music, film, television, video, arts, mixed-reality events, news and publishing, e-sports, sports analytics, streaming, computer-directed reporting, podcasting and audio content, social media, virtual production, user-generated content platforms, digital fashion and avatars, children’s technology, digital storytelling, and more.

Winner of the Entertainment, Media, Sports & Creator Content Technologies will be announced at the Award Ceremony, Saturday, March 14th at 6:30pm.

SXSW PITCH-ENTERTAINMENT, MEDIA, SPORTS & CREATOR CONTENT


SAAS Professionals Meet Up

Ashley Lenz

Product & User Operations Manager

Charlie Block

Growth Sales Manager

As the founding Account Executive at Coefficient, a Series A startup based in the Bay Area, Charlie Block plays a vital role in driving the company's growth and success. He works closely with the senior leadership team to identify new business opportunities, forge strategic partnerships and alliances, and drive business growth.

Coefficient is revolutionizing the way businesses operate by transforming spreadsheets into a powerful operating system. With its self-service automation, it provides teams with the ability to boost productivity and efficiency without any coding or SQL knowledge required. The platform enables users to automate repetitive tasks, freeing up valuable time to focus on more strategic initiatives while providing real-time access to data directly from spreadsheets

Brazos

More Analog, Less Noise Please: City Builders Meet Up

Understanding Crypto: Conversations for the Curious Meet Up

Join us for networking and collaboration at our SAAS Professionals Meet Up! Whether you’re in business developement, a developer, marketer, entrepreneur, product manager, or account manager this event is designed to bring together passionate individuals from the software as a service (SAAS) community.


Orchestrate or Obsolete: Leading the AI-Powered Near Future

Neil Redding

Near Futurist, Founder + CEO

By skillfully connecting the possible with the practical, Neil Redding is a Near Futurist and Innovation Architect with 30+ years of experience in unlocking the transformative power of emerging technologies. A sought-after keynote speaker for venues like SXSW, Dubai Future Forum, and Universo TOTVS, and at corporate events for Meta, Microsoft, Edelman, and more, Neil inspires audiences with the reality-shifting capabilities of AI and spatial computing for our physical, digital and natural ecosystems, and for realizing pragmatic interpersonal and business value. Through his boutique consultancy Redding Futures and previous roles, Neil has worked with world-class brands including Visa, Nike, Apple, and Verizon to distill these continually emerging possibilities, applying ecosystem-centered design to unlock sustainable growth, resilience, and transformative business opportunity.

Salon AB

Two Futurists and an AI: Seeing Trouble Ahead

How We Could Lose Control: Avoiding the Paths to Runaway AI

U.S. vs. The World: the Future We’re (Currently) Losing

The Clock Is Ticking for Space – Replacing the ISS

Can Media Survive AI? The Fight for Public Trust

The problem isn’t AI — it’s our leadership model. We’re still leading like humans are the only ones in the room… as the room quietly fills with AI agents.

In the very near future, every decision will be co-authored by humans, AI agents, and live ecosystem signals — and the leaders who master this orchestration will rewrite how business works.

Near Futurist Neil Redding shows how leadership must evolve in the Agentic Era, from command and control to the orchestration of human–AI symbiosis. You’ll leave with a clear mental model for leading in systems where humans and AI participate together, plus daily leadership rituals for thriving as business capabilities evolve in real time.

ORCHESTRATE OR OBSOLETE: LEADING THE AI-POWERED NEAR FUTURE


Featured Session: The Internet After Search

Matthew Prince

Co-founder & CEO

Matthew Prince is the co-founder and CEO of Cloudflare, a company with the mission to help build a better Internet. Today Cloudflare runs one of the world’s largest networks, spanning more than 330 cities in over 125 countries. Prince is a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and the winner of the 2011 Tech Fellow Award. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, where he was a George F. Baker Scholar and received the Dubilier Prize for Entrepreneurship. He earned his J.D. from the University of Chicago and his B.A. in English Literature and Computer Science from Trinity College. He is also the co-creator of Project Honey Pot, the world’s largest community of webmasters tracking online fraud and abuse.

Salon 1-4

Featured Session: Multiplayer Futures: Co-Creating a Vision of SXSW 2030 (live!)

Featured Session: A Conversation with The All-American Rejects

Featured Session: Enough with the Bullsh*T: BuzzFeed Founder Shares His Plan to Make the Internet Fun Again

Featured Session: Why Work Feels So Unfair and How Hard Conversations Help

SXSW Community Service Awards Recognition: Vision Maker Media

The economic model that has funded the Internet for three decades is breaking. AI systems now provide answers directly instead of sending users to websites, and AI agents are beginning to handle transactions without people ever visiting a site. Content creators are losing traffic and revenue, and nobody has figured out what replaces it.

As CEO and co-founder of Cloudflare, Matthew Prince has a unique view of how the web is changing and what comes next, handling 20% of all Internet traffic. This session will examine the post-search Internet and the profound shift in power. We’ll dive into how AI agents are changing commerce, who truly controls information access, and the looming question of who gets paid for content. The choices we make now regarding compensation, ownership, and digital access will determine the web's future trajectory.

FEATURED SESSION: THE INTERNET AFTER SEARCH


Mentor Session: Christina Cheng (Concordance)

Christina Cheng

Principal

Early stage investor focused on defensetech, AI infrastructure, vertical AI, advanced manufacturing, cybersecurity, quantum and healthcare.

Room 400-402

Mentor Session: Ali Tager (National Cryptocurrency Association)

Mentor Session: Aniesia Williams (dreambloc)

Mentor Session: Avantika Bagri (Centana Growth Partners)

Mentor Session: Brittan Heller (Stanford Law School)

Meeting with this mentor is highly recommended if you're interested in Entrepreneurship, Storytelling, Funding.

MENTOR SESSION: CHRISTINA CHENG (CONCORDANCE)


Mentor Session: Kevin Smith (Just Add Product & Central Texas Angel Network (CTAN))

Kevin Smith

Just Add Product/Central Texas Angel Network (CTAN)

President & Angel Investor

I'm an Angel Investor (Central Texas Angel Network) and Fractional Chief Product Officer (CPO) with a background in AI (Stanford) and 25+ years of experience building B2B and B2C companies & driving innovation through tech. I was previously Head of Enterprise Partnerships at Google, helping launch Google Workspaces and sparking a $625M acquisition.  I've provided leadership to a range of startups and growth-oriented companies (including Trilogy and Spredfast), helping companies scale from 15-25 employees, 40-600, and 2,500-20,000.

Meeting with this mentor is highly recommended if you're interested in Funding, Product Management/Development, Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning.

MENTOR SESSION: KEVIN SMITH (JUST ADD PRODUCT & CENTRAL TEXAS ANGEL NETWORK (CTAN))


Mentor Session: Trevor Russo (Xebec, Inc.)

Trevor Russo

Co-Founder & COO

"I have spent the past five years as the Co-Founder & COO of Xebec, a remote work laptop accessories brand based in Austin, TX and home of the original Tri-Screen. After growing up in Austin, I graduated from the University of Texas with a degree in Finance. I then spent five years in NYC as a Consultant at Protiviti and Deloitte, focusing on strategy & operations for financial institutions.
While traveling frequently for work, my co-founder and I recognized the need for a better portable monitor solution. This led us to develop Xebec’s flagship product, the Tri-Screen, which we launched in 2019. We bootstrapped the business with a focus on profitable growth and have since expanded our product lineup from one to fifteen offerings.
As the COO, I run the business’ operations including internal operations, fulfillment, reverse logistics, finance & accounting, and customer experience. In my free time I love getting out on the lake as much as possible, traveling, enjoying live music, and exploring everything Austin has to offer with friends and family."

Meeting with this mentor is highly recommended if you're interested in Business Development, Entrepreneurship.

MENTOR SESSION: TREVOR RUSSO (XEBEC, INC.)


Mentor Session: Jennifer Bowder (Ultra Records)

Jennifer Bowder

Head of Synch

Jennifer is the head of global creative sync at Ultra Records. With over 16 years experience in sync licensing, Jennifer has worked for independent rosters, production music libraries, indie publishers and labels. She also has experience in PR/marketing and has specialized in bespoke production and event organization. Notable work includes overseeing original production for Call of Duty, AMC, Hulu, Apple, and Netflix, and sync deals with Apple, Peloton, HBO, Royal Carribbean, Grand Theft Auto, Dove, and Marvel. Jennifer lives in Los Angeles with her dog and enjoys volunteering and fostering rescue dogs.

Tannehill

Global Stage @ Downright Austin Backyard

Mentor Session: Arnaecia Alridge (Methix)

Mentor Session: Isabella Uknis (Universal Music Publishing Group)

Mentor Session: Lauren Apolito (The Harry Fox Agency/Rumblefish )

Mentor Session: Max Christensen (Crunchy Frog/Crunchy Tunes)

Mentor Session: Noel Morrison (SiriusXM/Pandora)

Meeting with this mentor is highly recommended if you're interested in Sync/Licensing, Women in Music.

MENTOR SESSION: JENNIFER BOWDER (ULTRA RECORDS)


Mentor Session: Charlie Davis (BMG)

Charlie Davis

SVP, Creative Sync (Sync Services & Partnerships)

Charlie Davis is a musician, DJ, music supervisor and one-time game show contestant. A native of Long Beach California (The LBC), Charlie has worked in the NYC music industry since 2006 with Downtown Music Publishing, EMI, Warner/Chappell, Spirit Music and began his role at BMG in 2017 where he helps put songs in commercials. Charlie has a degree in History from UC Berkeley and a degree in Music Business from NYU, and once played in a new wave wedding cover band called The Combovers. In recent years, Charlie has worked on campaigns with Apple, Google, Samsung, Youtube, Royal Caribbean, Ford, Gatorade, Bud Light and Acura, and helps run Hang The DJ, a recurring DJ night for the NYC synch licensing community. He currently resides in Brooklyn, NY.

Meeting with this mentor is highly recommended if you're interested in A&R, Audio/Production (Recording/Mixing/Mastering), Publishing, Songwriting, Sync/Licensing.


Mentor Session: Rev. Moose (Marauder)

Rev Moose

Managing Partner/Co-Founder

Rev. Moose is a highly accomplished music industry leader with experience in artist development, marketing, advocacy, non-profit management, and international program development. Through Marauder, he helps companies, organizations, and government entities develop strategies and in-person events that drive systemic change and foster growth within the independent music sector. Moose is the founding and emeritus executive director of the National Independent Venue Association (NIVA) and National Independent Venue Foundation (NIVF). In 2018, he brought Independent Venue Week, the esteemed series that spotlights locally owned and operated performance spaces, to the U.S. market. Before founding Marauder in 2015, he expanded The Syndicate’s international reach and developed CMJ’s initiatives working with foreign music export bodies. He has earned recognition from the Clio Awards (Clio Music Impact 2021), the Association of Performing Arts Professionals (Outstanding Advocacy on Behalf of the Performing Arts 2021), and A2IM (Humanitarian 2021 & 2022; Independent Champion 2025).

Meeting with this mentor is highly recommended if you're interested in Marketing/PR, Nonprofits, Startups.


Mentor Session: Cassandra Shankman (SOUNDS BY CASSANDRA)

Cassandra Shankman

Founder/Composer/DJ

DJ Cassandra, is a DJ, composer, pianist, and educator. She’s brought her unique sound to global events for Formula 1, Gucci, Teen Vogue, Reddit, Google, just to name a few.

She was a ACL 2024 official artist (both weekends), and has opened / closed for Willie Nelson, Chromeo, Teddy Swims, Classixx, Portugal The Man, Trixie Mattel, Orville Peck, Doechii/MissMilan, Daughtry, Matoma, LP Giobbi, RUN DMC, Charley Crockett, and many more. As a pianist, she’s played and recorded with musicians from DEVO’s frontman Mark Mothersbaugh to jazz trombonist Wycliffe Gordon at Lincoln Center.

As a composer she has been recognized for orchestration and composition work in award-winning films featuring directors such as Terrence Malick. She also composes music for Biomedical Music Solutions, Inc., music to help patients with neurological conditions learn how or regain the ability to walk.

She was elected as one of the youngest executive committee members on the Texas Chapter of The Recording Academy board. As a proponent for music education, she co-founded the web-app Picardy focused on helping anyone develop music theory skills. She was also a music performance coach for TV shows like “Walker Texas Ranger.”

Meeting with this mentor is highly recommended if you're interested in Women in Music, Startups, Marketing/PR.

MENTOR SESSION: CASSANDRA SHANKMAN (SOUNDS BY CASSANDRA)


Funding/Artist Support Mentor Session: Sean Weiner (UFO)

Sean Weiner

Co-Director / Co-Founder

Sean Weiner is an Emmy-nominated producer, editor, and nonprofit arts leader based in the Hudson Valley of New York. He is a producer and editor on Adam Meeks’ debut feature Union County, starring Will Poulter and Noah Centineo. Sean has previously produced and edited award-winning films selected by Berlinale, Guanajuato, Sundance, SXSW, and acquired by Criterion, Fox Searchlight, HBOMax, NYT Op-Docs, and POV. He is a co-founder and co-director of filmmaker support nonprofit. UFO. Previously, Sean was the Director of Programs and the founding Director of Creative Culture at the Jacob Burns Film Center. He is also an assistant professor in Film & Media Studies at Purchase College.

Executive Room

Publicity and Marketing Mentor Session: Jenny Bloom (Bloomerang PR)

Publicity and Marketing Mentor Session: Lisa Trifone (Bright Iris Film Co.)

Publicity and Marketing Mentor Session: Maddy Bilder (26 Keys Productions)

Programming Mentor Session: Boram Park (Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival)

Programming Mentor Session: Haojie Huang (Kaohsiung Film Festival)

Meeting with this mentor is highly recommended if you're interested in Funding/Artist Support, Development, Narrative Filmmakers, Doc Filmmakers.

FUNDING/ARTIST SUPPORT MENTOR SESSION: SEAN WEINER (UFO)

Film & TV track sponsored by Crunchyroll


Funding/Artist Support Mentor Session: Britta Erich
(Creative Europe Desk Hamburg)

Britta Erich

Senior Consultant, Events, Press

Britta Erich of Creative Europe Desk Hamburg has been involved in film and TV all her life. After university, she worked for many years as an Assistant Director and Unit Production Manager, mostly for German tv productions abroad, followed by many more years as a producer of creative documentaries at a Hamburg based company where amongst other tasks she was in charge of international co-financing.

In 2008 she started to work at Creative Europe MEDIA Desk Hamburg, promoting the MEDIA program which is the EU’s support for the audiovisual industry in Europe and beyond. She’s a senior consultant to the applicants, organizes pan European events on film festivals and takes care of the press.

There is a whole bunch of Creative Europe MEDIA Desks all over Europe, and we're very much connected so if you need leads on European countries other than Germany, you can still talk to me, I can most likely refer you to someone - this is how the MEDIA family works!

In addition to her film work she's also a certified Systemic Coach with expertise in career change and empowerment.

Meeting with this mentor is highly recommended if you're interested in Doc Filmmakers, Funding/Artist Support, Producers/Production.

FUNDING/ARTIST SUPPORT MENTOR SESSION: BRITTA ERICH
(CREATIVE EUROPE DESK HAMBURG)


Funding/Artist Support Mentor Session: DJ Jiang (Giant Leap Media Ventures)

DJ Jiang

Managing Partner

DJ Jiang is a film producer and co-founder of Giant Leap Media Ventures, the film investment fund dedicated to financing and producing prestige, audience-driven features with top-tier talent. His credits include We Bury the Dead, starring Daisy Ridley, premiered at SXSW; Our Hero, Balthazar, which debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival; and the NEON co-financed The Wrong Girls. Blending expertise in film financing, development, and packaging, Jiang is committed to championing bold, diverse voices and delivering stories that resonate with audiences worldwide.

Liberty

Agents & Managers Mentor Session: Olivia Mascheroni (Verve Talent & Literary Agency)

Legal Mentor Session: Fabio de Sa Cesnik (CQS FV Law Firm)

Publicity and Marketing Mentor Session: RJ Millard (Obscured Pictures)

Publicity and Marketing Mentor Session: Traci Hanlon (Cinergy Entertainment)

Programming Mentor Session: CC Hutten (TED Conferences)

Meeting with this mentor is highly recommended if you're interested in Producers/Production, Funding/Artist Support.

FUNDING/ARTIST SUPPORT MENTOR SESSION: DJ JIANG (GIANT LEAP MEDIA VENTURES)


Round Table: Producing: Ashleigh Snead, Kelly Williams, and Liz Cardenas

Liz Cardenas

Founder

Liz Cardenas is a producer, writer/director and actor based in Texas. A SXSW alum, she’s a 2022 Film Independent Spirit Award Winner for 7 DAYS, which she produced for Duplass Brothers Productions, and a 2019 Nominee for the A24 film NEVER GOIN’ BACK, which she produced with Sailor Bear. She was also nominated for the Producer Award at the 2023 Indie Spirits.

Under her Ten to the Six Pictures, she has a feature premiering at SXSW, a feature in post-production, a Sundance-supported feature in pre-production and several features in various stages of pre-production and development, including two she’s set to direct and one she’s written.

A former journalist, Liz serves on the Board of Directors of the non-profit organization, Breaking Through The Lens (BTTL), which advocates for gender equality in the film industry; she’s a Gotham Cannes Producers Network, Rotterdam Lab and Film Independent Fellow; she’s supported by Richard Linklater’s Austin Film Society; she’s a Producers United, PGA, SAG-AFTRA and Latina Squad member; and she was included in the 2019 LATINXT, a curated list of emerging Latinx creators from an initiative by Zoe Saldana, Robert Rodriguez, and Lin-Manuel Miranda.

Some notable credits include David Lowery's A GHOST STORY starring Rooney Mara and Casey Affleck; Alex Lehmann's ACIDIMAN starring Thomas Haden Church and Dianna Agron; Tribeca Award-winning feature film MATERNA; 2019 Outfest Best US Narrative Feature JULES OF LIGHT & DARK; and the Oscar-qualifying short film, BURROS, executive produced by Eva Longoria.

Liz splits her time between LA and Dallas, where she grew up with her Hispanic father who immigrated to the US from Mexico City and Irish-American mother from the East Coast.

Kelly Williams

Producer

KELLY WILLIAMS is a creative producer and co-founder of Ten Acre Films.

His latest projects include: ALL THAT WE LOVE (Tribeca 2024) starring Margaret Cho and directed by Yen Tan, WHAT HAPPENS LATER starring Meg Ryan and David Duchovny, THE SENIOR directed by Rod Lurie, MARK, MARY & SOME OTHER PEOPLE (Tribeca 2021), NO FUTURE (Tribeca 2021),  I USED TO GO HERE (SXSW 2020) and the short film RULES FOR WEREWOLVES (Toronto IFF 2020).

He has produced ten films that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival including the features LIGHT FROM LIGHT, SORRY TO BOTHER YOU (Independent Spirit Award winner), THE LONG DUMB ROAD, HELLION, BEAVER TRILOGY PART IV, and PIT STOP (Independent Spirit Awards nominee). Sundance short film premieres include HELLION, BLACK METAL, THE SEND-OFF and DON’T BE A HERO. In addition, he produced multiple films that premiered at SXSW including 6 YEARS, 1985 and the award winning A BAD IDEA GONE WRONG & THE SUPLEX DUPLEX COMPLEX.

A 2019 Independent Spirit Award Producer to Watch nominee, Williams is also a Sundance Institute Creative Producing Fellow and a Sundance Institute Catalyst Fellow. He is a past advisor for the Sundance Co//ab, an instructor for The Gotham workshops, a lecturer at the University of Tennessee and a lecturer at the University of Texas at Austin.  Prior to producing, he worked as a film programmer for various film festivals and was awarded the 2007 International Film Festival Summit Excellence Award.

Ashleigh Snead

Producer

ASHLEIGH SNEAD is an Independent Spirit Award nominated producer. Her films include NEONS’s 2025 wide theatrical release SHELBY OAKS with Executive Producer Mike Flanagan, AI sci-fi THE ARTIFICE GIRL (SXSW ‘23), Shudder's punk rock horror THE RANGER (SXSW ‘18), and Netflix Original THE BLOCK ISLAND SOUND. Upcoming films include the latest romantic drama from Director Joe Swanberg starring Dakota Fanning and Jake Johnson, and a new nightmare from Director Adam Egypt Mortimer starring Kid Cudi, Jessica Rothe and Selma Blair.  She holds a MBA in film producing & entrepreneurship from NYU and is a member of the DGA. Recently she co-launched the Alaska Filming Initiative to work with legislators in re-introducing a film incentive to the state, which she accidentally moved to from NYC.

Representative

Round Table: Programming: Landon Zakheim, Monica Garcia Massague, and R.J. LaForce

Round Table: Sales, Acquisitions, and Distribution: Amy Beecroft, Joe Yanick, and Shaked Berenson

Round Table: Acting: Alexandra Barreto, Alyssa Rodriguez, and Rider Strong

Round Table: Development: Carolina Tamez and Henry Kittredge

Round Table: Narrative Filmmaking: Adam Hoelzel, Jessica M. Thompson, and Paul Gandersman

An extension of our popular Mentor Sessions, our Round Table Sessions not only allow attendees to learn from the industry experts that sit at each of the three tables in this session but they also allow attendees to learn from the questions and experiences of their peers as well. This Round Table Session will bring together industry experts and SXSW attendees for an enlightening discussion on Producing.

ROUND TABLE: PRODUCING: ASHLEIGH SNEAD, KELLY WILLIAMS, AND LIZ CARDENAS


Mentor Session: Einar Helde (AIMS)

Einar Helde

Co-Founder/CCO

Einar Helde is a production music executive with over 20 years of experience — he’s done everything from music supervision to supplying tracks for global hit shows and film. Today, he’s the Co-Founder of AIMS, an AI tech company redefining how the music industry searches and discovers music.
Einar also co-founded the neighboring rights agency NRG, owns APL Publishing, and serves as a founding board member of the International Production Music Group. With a background in business and commercial law and more than a decade of sub-publishing experience, Einar brings a rare mix of creative and strategic insight — making him a go-to advisor for music companies navigating the rise of AI.

Tannehill

Global Stage @ Downright Austin Backyard

Mentor Session: Arnaecia Alridge (Methix)

Mentor Session: Isabella Uknis (Universal Music Publishing Group)

Mentor Session: Lauren Apolito (The Harry Fox Agency/Rumblefish )

Mentor Session: Max Christensen (Crunchy Frog/Crunchy Tunes)

Mentor Session: Noel Morrison (SiriusXM/Pandora)

Meeting with this mentor is highly recommended if you're interested in Sync/Licensing, Emerging Technologies, Music Tech.