We’re here for the final day of the SXSW conference, which means the tech talks will end and the music goes to 11. We will bid adieu by tonight, but first let’s catch up on a bit of tech.
The exhibition hall within the Austin Convention Center was light on tech. Really, really light on tech.
In years past, the hall was brimming with startups. This year, I found them in the installations and activations outside of the convention center, including Midwest House, Ireland House, and Funded House. Oh, and of course the parties too.
Founders were out and about — and looking for funding. There were delegations of founders too, coming from Europe, Australia, and Brazil. Notably, I didn’t encounter much chatter of dual-use or defense startups. Although that might have been due to circumstances — SXSW tends to spread out.
Quantum computing has been having a moment at SXSW with several talks on Wednesday and today. Plus, Marc Maron, the comedian whose podcast “WTF with Marc Maron,” receives over 80 million listeners per year, riffed on a lot of topics, including an earnest exclamation that the podcast will never get into video.
And we managed to get matched with a Waymo robotaxi with the Uber app. Hooray. More on that in a moment.
