10/04/2026
🎓 Ivy+ Schools in Austin Meetup| The Innovation Journey of SXSW
Such an interesting evening with the Austin Ivy + community, hearing from Hugh Forrest of SXSW about how a relatively small music event grew alongside Austin and became an international gathering for music, film, technology, ideas and innovation.
One of my favorite takeaways:
✨ “You find value in what nobody else finds value in.”
The story of SXSW is really a story about Austin — people with an idea, knocking on doors, believing in something before everyone else sees it, and being in the right place at the right time.
From its early music roots 🎶 to film, interactive, startups and tech 💻, the conversation kept coming back to a few things that make Austin special:
🤝 The power of community
💡 Creativity + innovation
📍 Being in the right place at the right time
🌎 Austin’s international reach
🎸 Keeping Austin weird — and creative
👥 And most importantly: the people
Another idea that stayed with me:
Austin reinvents itself every seven years.
And now, with AI, health tech, transportation, the growth of the medical ecosystem and a new Convention Center on the horizon, it was fascinating to think about the question: What will Austin look like in 2030?
For all the technology changing our world, Hugh also reminded us about something very human: the power of face-to-face connection.
Sometimes a small conversation, introduction or meeting can lead to something much, much bigger.
And that might be one of Austin’s greatest strengths. 💜
