Dear Omar
SXSW Online Did Not Suck (Like Most Zoom Conferences Do)
In its highly experimental 2021 edition, South by Southwest shows how Zoom conferences can be done
Welcome to Dear Omar, a weekly Debugger column from tech expert Omar L. Gallaga. If you have questions for Omar, send them to debugger@medium.com with the subject line “Dear Omar.”
It must have been around July 2020 when I decided I was officially done with virtual conferences.
They were a noble effort, a way of cleaning up the mess Covid-19 was making, as it caused the cancellation of one major event after another, whether it was conferences about mobile phones or annual corporate tech summits or video game expos. Some events tried to salvage their carefully booked agenda by switching to an all-Zoom format, substituting livestreaming for live appearances, and the results were very, very mixed.
Apple is the only company I can think of that really pulled off the switch elegantly with a series of videos instead of an in-person WWDC keynote. But as polished and crafted as Apple’s effort was, it felt sterile and even more hermetic to Apple’s culture than normal. Gone were the applause and the instant reaction from an audience of people hanging on every word from Tim Cook’s…
