Sessions at SXSW Interactive 2011 matching your filters

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• Cleantech: The Interactive Community & the Next Great Industry

  by Indira Vaidy

  Every major forecast from McKinsey to The Gates Foundation points to cleantech as the Next Great Industry. It seems obvious, yet how many of us in the interactive community have deep knowledge and involvement in this sector? Our prediction and hope is that that will change in the next 3-5 years. This session will discuss the current growth of the cleantech sector, its implications for the interactive community and vice versa, the optimal scenarios for impact, and the ways we can start thinking about this industry now. We’ll dive into the current role of data and developers, the importance of mapping & the Internet of Things, and look at case studies from GE & IBM to TerraPower. We’ll also follow up on some of the principles in the SXSW 2010 keynotes of Valerie Casey & Bruce Sterling such as systems thinking in the interactive community, high-impact development, and our role in social & environmental change. Quoting the “Environmental Leader” blog on cleantech: “As our colleague, Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen has explained, new industries founded on new technology platforms tend to be complex and expensive at first, as it takes the combined efforts of an organized group of highly skilled people to commercialize a breakthrough.” They’re talking about us, so let’s get involved.

  LEVEL: Intermediate

  • Cleantech
  • Environment
  • Sustainability

  At 12:30pm to 1:30pm, Monday 14th March

  In Room 6AB, Austin Convention Center

  Coverage sketch note

• Design Intersection - Cultural Sustainability, Activism, Social Entrepreneurship

  by Peter Hall and Beth Ferguson

  Our focus is the designers’ role in combining cultural sustainability and social entrepreneurship to find creative solutions to some of the world’s toughest problems. Innovative strategies, systems thinking, distributed production, open design and creative risk-taking are yielding meaningful outcomes regarding climate protection, clean mobility, renewable energy, waste reduction, and social equality.

  Effective utilization of social media, web based maps and the internet have made much of the world dependent on mobile communication devices, which need a constant supply of power to keep roaming. Balancing their impact, new tools such as the Kill-a-watt, energy monitor mobile apps and solar charging stations visually link users with their home/work energy consumption. Others, such as Green Map, livingprinciples.org or Treehugger, put an environmental and social perspective on local resources and developments, motivating action that benefits the commons.

  Designers and social entrepreneurs are forming strong communities of practice and collective identity as desire shifts toward sufficiency and well-being. Entities willing to take a creative risk and a leadership role in adopting holistic design processes are becoming the leaders of our future development. Providing tools for educators to restructure the pedagogy is essential for preparing future creators to face the challenges with sanguine, innovative solutions. Join with us on a journey towards redesigning design.

  LEVEL: Intermediate

  • Activism
  • Design
  • Social Entrepreneurship
  • Sustainability

  At 3:30pm to 4:30pm, Monday 14th March

  In Room 8A, Austin Convention Center