Unless you’ve been on holiday and made sure to switch off, or been without internet - like most people your social media feeds have been flooded with posts about SXSW in Sydney, the first time it’s been held outside Austin. I’ve never attended the original in Austin, but did speak to a number of people who have been and asked how it compared. The general response was “not the same”, what made it special was how the entire city of Austin is taken over. When I last attended Web Summit in Lisbon, it had a similar vibe. I think there’s something special about a smaller city hosting a large conference, completely being taken over. Many people (especially outside tech) I knew in Sydney didn’t even know it was on!