How Do You Plan A Big SXSW Party and Cocktail

By Larry Chiang

The most important portion of this article is the date I wrote it.

It’s January 1.

Jan 1, 2013.

I’m in Pasadena drafting this after a Coffee Bean event (#EUTWMPPM party and keynote). I think about SXSW all the time. There may be pretty pretty women rolling by on floats, but I’m googling: How Do You Plan A Big SXSW Party and Cocktail

Wasnt too happy with the results so, I give you my expert answers to questions you will have between now and March 7, 2013.

-1- SXSW massively changes year-to-year.

2012 was a year of rainy driving and using WAZE

2011 rocked but featured de centralized tracks

2010 was a deluge of VCs attending but not speaking

2009 was the last great year for the blogger lounge.

2008 all the best of the best networking happened in the blogger lounge.

2013 will have a new official “dot edu” taking place the Wednesday before. It will also preview sxsw in Las Vegas in August (which in my opinion will bomb). SxSW itself will finally incorporate UT.

This year the speakers will actually be good. Well, the speakers besides me will be good. My time on stage will be yielded to a kid (undergrad) panel.

2013 will see a blogger lounge ‘out-in-the-wild’. There needs to be “pop up video blog *studios*, but no one will execute that. I also predict that there will be uninspired copycat food-cart promos.

In 2013, there will be 3-5 cool things that get 30% of the attention. Welcome to the new 80-20 rule

It’s more like the 0.2%-30% rule

How do you become part of the 0.2% like me and my legendary sxsw track record (Facebook AfterParty, Reverse VC Franchise, Selling a Company We Engineers Don’t Own, #AmexDuck9). Here is how to be part of the 0.2% that get 30% of the attention.

-2- No one-offs.

The majority of entities we compete against seek a one-off.

“I take you to dinner– You give me sex” doesn’t work as a dating one-for-one, quid pro quo philosophy. It also won’t work at sxsw. Pay attention to nearly every company vying for attention. They seem like they are spending their last $50k of VC hoping to re-up.

Instead of a one-off SXSW promotion– Do…

-3- Four Units for You, One for Me

I want to stress, others are doing “5 Units for Me. At your expense”

I wrote https://austinstartup.com/2012/03/four-for-you-one-for-me-sxsw/

People get furious when they see a portion of the picture (ie when they see 2 or 3 or 4 for them). When you manage your treasure correctly, it’s ‘four for you and one for me’. What I mean is that your new startup really has no choice. Quid pro quo is impossible to sell. Quid pro quo parties do not get you DISTRIBUTION at a show like SXSW.

Now I’m going to BLOW YOUR MIND

-4- Get Your Startups ROI BEFORE YOU GO

Conventional wisdom say, “spend and hope”

I say via a Fast company VIDEO: https://www.fastcompany.com/mba/profile/larry-chiang

There is massive work and risk to mitigate. It leads me to my critical next point that is an entire class’ content

-5- Risk Mitigate, Risk Eliminate to Risk Minimize

This can be done using promotional – Pattern Recognition – Pattern Iteration – Pattern Replication

It is a system where undergrads use it to launch their student startups. Google ENGR 145.

Question: Larry Chiang! But I just want to do one thing!

Answer:

-6- Do a satellite event as a pre-party pre SXSW

The cookie I put on your browser accesses your bank accounts via an API that tells me you just have $2k to spend and sxsw is 2 weeks away. Hmm.

A satellite event is something that augments an anchor event

Google satellite plus anchor For example, sxsw edu is a satellite to sxsw.

For example, sxsw V2V is a sequel to sxsw.

For example, “SXSW Accelerator” is a prequel sequel to startup village and Startup America.

For example, “Reverse VC” is a sequel party to my VC panel which is a prequel to my VC fund and a sequel to Stanford Entrepreneur Week’s Reverse VC which is a sequel to David Weekly’s reverse job fair.

It’s also a prequel to my teaching this stuff at Palo Alto’s Community’s College.

What are you and your co-founders gonna bust your cherry with? What I mean is what satellite event are u and what is your anchor?!

-7- I’m Your Genie in a Bottle, But You “Gotta Rub Me the Right Way”

According to my musical muse mentor, Brittany, rub me right

Rub me by pattern replicating versus creating from scratch. Pattern iterate at sxsw.

Since you’ve read this far, let me be your party mentor and I will pattern recognize for you.

Entrepreneurship has patterns that help you succeed in the face of massively crappy odds. There is a class at PACC on this called ENGR 145: Technology Entrepreneurship.

ENGR145’s Anchor Concept: Lemonade and Gua Gua Guacamole

It moves you to the right on the entrepreneur bell curve

CEO of Duck9 Stanford University Entrepreneur in Residence, Emeritus

Duck9 = “Deep Underground Credit Knowledge” 9 125 University Avenue/ 100 Palo Alto CA 94301 https://www.duck9.com/ass 650-566-9600 650-566-9696 (direct) 650-283-8008 (cell)

**************** Editor of the BusinessWeek Channel “What They Don’t Teach at Business School” https://whattheydontteachyouatstanfordbusinessschool.com/blog CNN Video Channel: https://ireport.cnn.com/people/larrychiang

Read my last 10 tweets at https://www.Twitter.com/LarryChiang

Author, NY Times Bestseller https://whattheydontteachyouatstanfordbusinessschool.com/blog/?s=Ny+times+bestseller

“What They Will NEVER Teach You at Stanford Business School” comes out 11-11-14

https://www.fastcompany.com/embed/c0d4562ea2049

52 Cards. Two Jokers. What They DO Teach You at Stanford Engineering