Caroline Collective

Every year in March, members of the worldwide community of tech, film and music converge on Austin, TX for SXSW. The next 10 days are filled with panel discussions, keynotes, films, music, parties and meetings with members of your respective global communities.

This is a week where people promote new products, albums and films. This is a place where people find out about what’s going to be hot that year in tech, what the best films will be, what the buzz bands are. This is a global meetup that ranges from open sharing to pretentious posturing.

For many it IS Christmas and the planning begins before the new year. If you hit it right, SXSW can make your band/film/product. For that reason, companies and individuals invest a great deal of time and energy into getting everything right for their launch. In past years, the amount of noise has risen to the point where only remarkable or innovative ideas even get visibility. Those without the resources or the know-how are left with less than stellar results attending SXSW.

In this economic climate, with a conference of this magnitude we need to try something different– something innovative. Here at Caroline we feel that regionalism is the path to success for our community. It’s the basis for much of our programming and it’s an approach that we are initiating to prepare those attending SXSW in 2009.

Towards this goal we have scheduled a series of programming called Houston @ SXSW. These events will happen at Caroline Collective before SXSW and be followed up in Austin during SXSW. These events will prepare and celebrate those representatives from Houston seeking to promote, sell, launch, land deals and grow audiences.

We kicked off this series with Bandcamp: SXSW PREP where a two hour workshop with creative professionals provided local artists with a digital toolbox, preparing them to promote themselves and to be discovered online. Next, on March 10th we Caroline will host have a Craft Night where we will fold origami pieces which will serve as Caroline Collective’s schwag for the conference. The next day, March 11th we kick off our partnership with Werkadoo and offer a workshop to prepare your resume or portfolio, focusing on your marketable skills. The final event before SXSW is a pre-party at Caroline Collective where members of the community can meet each other to share resources, trade schwag along with best practices for the conference beginning the next day.

At SXSW we have several day parties planned. The first, on the 17th at Gruv, is being planned in conjunction with Grace Rodriguez of AYN Brand. The party will showcase the best of Houston in Interactive, Film and Music. Day parties are standard during the Music portion of SXSW but are rarely staged during the Interactive/Film portion. We think it will be a success to showcase Houston as a whole and to promote our best and brightest. Stay tuned for more information as we firm it up. For now, we NEED SPONSORS. Please contact matthew@carolinecollective.cc or grace@aynbrand.com to contribute or sign up to promote at the party.

The second two day parties are for Houston musicians and will be held on Wednesday and Thursday.

The final event in ‚ÄúHouston @ SXSW‚Äù is a day and night party thrown by Houston’s IndieHouston.org, sponsored in part by Caroline Collective, featuring 20 local bands from Houston bands and a couple national bands thrown in for good measure.

All of these events are free and all of these events are geared towards bringing visibility and helping our community succeed in what is one of the largest conferences in the world for music, film and interactive media. If there was ever a time to show pride for your city it is this the month of March. Please join us at as many events as you can attend to celebrate and help elevate our fertile community.

Thanks,
Caroline Collective