Heading to SXSW? 3 ways PR pros can score big at the festival

You most likely have your metrics and deliverables all set.

It’s time to put those away for a minute.

Instead, you have to figure out how you’re going to be a part of the amoeba-like mass that manages to stay in a constant state of motion. You have to determine how you—as a PR or communications pro—extract personal and professional value from this event.

Here are three suggestions.

1. Meet with as many people as possible. To extract value from SXSW, you need to embrace the subtitle of the conference: Interactive.

Set up coffees, happy hours, and brunches with the folks that will be there that are outside your core list of media. Recognize other influencers, such as the corporate bloggers of your company’s competitors or analysts that tend to create more real-time content.

It’s difficult to maintain the currency of the PR industry—relationships—when the majority of people that we interact with are based at least two states away, so there is inherent value to meeting with somebody in person.