SXSWorld
Issue link: https://sxsw.uberflip.com/i/81859
SXSWCares Unites Community For Japan Tsunami Relief by Leigh Durst and Rob Wu (Curators of SXSWCares) Th e waves pushed as far as six miles inland, wiping away nearly every- thing and everyone in their path. In the wake of this disaster, two Interactive registrants were moved to launch a relief eff ort to send aid to the disaster victims, and brought out the best of the SXSW community in the process. Here is the story in their words: T his year, the start of SXSW Interactive coincided with the mas- sive earthquake that struck off the coast of Japan, triggering devastating tsunami waves estimated to be as high as 77 feet. " We ought to at least start a hashtag – like #SXSWCares and drive donations to the Red Cross via web and text. That's easy enough to do right now," I said... email from a colleague with the subject "Are U OK!??" showed up in my inbox. It was addressed to Tomo Saito, another colleague, who was in Tokyo visiting family at the time. Shortly afterward, we found a brief note on Tomo's Facebook stating he was okay, so I went to bed and slept fi tfully. When I woke up, I turned on the news and watched the tsunami footage in utter horror. It felt wrong to tear myself away to go to the convention center for LEIGH DURST (digital strategist and consultant): At around 2:30am on Th ursday, March 11, I was working late as an Conference Director for Blog World Expo. We talked about the surreal nature of the day. I shook my head and said that I didn't feel like I could do business as usual at SXSW while people's lives were literally being wiped off the map. She said she felt the same way. We agreed that we had to do something. "We ought to at least start a hashtag—like #SXSWCares—and drive donations to the Red Cross via web and text. Th at's easy enough to do right now," I said. Deb said, "Do that NOW. I'll start telling people to tweet it," and immediately began spreading the word. Buzz began to spread about #SXSWCares, and soon thought leaders, writers, PR experts, social media specialists and technologists were spreading the news. Th en, while I sitting on the phone with the Red Cross manning Tweetdeck and working on setting up an easy fundraising site, Jessica Lin tweeted me about a parallel movement at SXSW4Japan. the fi rst day of SXSW Interactive. However, I was meeting a client, so I fumbled through the early meeting and headed into the Samsung blogger lounge in a stupor. I dropped my gear and stood there with my head not quite together. Fortunately, the fi rst person I met up with was the aff able Deb Ng, 42 SXSW ORLD / M AY – J UNE 201 1 own fundraisers without the technology headaches and high margin overhead created by other service providers. So when I woke up on that Friday morning and saw the jaw-dropping photos and videos from the tsunami disaster, without hesitation, I used my own platform to start a fundraising site called SXSW4Japan.org. Th e goal was to rally the SXSW community to support disaster relief. Within 30 minutes, I registered a domain name, launched the site and began networking with key infl uencers on Twitter to build momentum. It was as if CauseVox had been designed specifi cally for this event. Th e community started to respond and by 1:00 p.m., working out of the Beacon Lounge, I had generated $600 in donations. About an hour later, Jessica Lin, who saw the #SXSWCares hashtag, connected Leigh and me over Twitter. We met immediately and set to work collaboratively in the Samsung Blogger Lounge. It turns out we were both trained in disaster relief with the Red Cross, and we were well acquainted with the organization's approach. We also knew that if we united our grassroots eff orts and our social networks to create a more organized campaign, we would create a larger impact. So we bought the domains for SXSWCares and rolled everything to the existing SXSW4Japan fundraising site. Our team hustled col- laboratively to adjust website ROB WU (founder of the startup CauseVox): CauseVox empowers small-to-mid-sized non-profi ts to start their fi nalize a partner agree- ment with the Red Cross. Hugh McLeod of GapingVoid.com drew up a new campaign logo. Drew Olanoff , Brian Solis, Stephanie Agresta and a host of others jumped in to spread the word and push people to our domains. By 6:00 p.m., we had content and offi cially launched a cam- paign to raise $10,000 by the end of SXSW and were on our way with $2,000 in donations. Our team hustled to our fi rst media interview and drew up some cards to get the word out at a coff ee table at the Driskill. By midnight that night, online donations had climbed to $4,000, and by noon the following day, we were at $8,000. So, we decided to raise the ante and aim higher. SXSW leadership stepped in to support our cause. SXSW Interactive Director Hugh Forrest promoted our eff orts in his keynote speech introduction, and had his team feature us prominently on the SXSW website. He also granted passes for us to use as donation incentives and encouraged speakers such as Guy Kawasaki to mention our hashtag and campaign during their sessions. Deb Ng gracefully managed her workload while telling everyone she knew about SXSWCares. Natalie Petouhoff took her own time off from Weber Shandwick to pay for printing. She also circulated the trade show NINA HARWICK