SXSWorld
Issue link: https://sxsw.uberflip.com/i/81859
Help Save Japan booth. fl oor and secured a number of sizable corporate sponsorships, which we rewarded with honorable mentions on our home page. Friends like David Meerman Scott, Valeria Maltoni, Geoff Livingston and many others wrote blog posts, and the media began a steady stream of calls. Many friends also took the time to donate money and men- tion us in their panels and keynotes. Very soon, we were featured on the local news, Huffi ngton Post, CNN, Forbes, Th e New York Times and other outlets. It was hard to stay on top of the mentions, but we trended on Twitter more than once and were happy to see the stream of support from those who couldn't attend SXSW. Th e SXSW team continued with support, asking us to appear in a panel adjacent to a remote keynote by Bill Keller, Editor-in-Chief of Th e New York Times, on the future of journalism. We were honored and humbled by the opportunity to talk about SXSWCares, and very touched by the response afterward. We were approached by Yasushi Tsugihiro, a Japanese documentary fi lmmaker who told us, "I came to learn what SXSW was all about ... Now, I know." SXSW's Kevin Connor asked us to extend our eff orts within the to place with great haste. We missed panels, networking and parties, but did so with the full realization that what we were doing was more important. As we worked, donations soared along with the new fundraising pages on our site. Our friends at Samsung kicked in $5,000 from their local SXSW budget and hosted an impromptu panel on our activities. Joseph Jaff ee, author of Flip the Funnel, donated two "Keynotes for a Cause" at a minimum of $15,000 each. We adjusted our sights from $10,000 to $25,000, then to $50,000, and soon $80,000 with a fi nal goal of $100,000 for Japan by the end of SXSW. We also met with many Japanese colleagues and attendees. Our discussions were deeply moving and did nothing but strengthen our resolve to generate funds to help Japan. We were honored to collaborate with events like Japan Nite, Hurricane Party and other grassroots fund- raisers to bring the SXSW community together. It was one of the most successful collaborative eff orts we had ever participated in, and every single one of us was honored to be a part of it. Music Track, inviting us to participate in the live KSGR broadcast from the Four Seasons Hotel. He also hooked us up with Matt Curtis at the mayor's offi ce, who worked with us actively to issue a press release, coordinate media interviews and support our activities as SXSW transi- tioned from Interactive and Film to Music. For days, our team operated on little sleep and shuttled from place Conference, I stayed to help with the eff ort during SXSW Music. Denice Crowell had joined our rag-tag team and donated her time to DURST: As Rob left SXSW on March 16 for the Non-Profi t Technology Hanson, of Hanson Music, who were interested in streaming a live, 12-hour music telethon featuring artists from SXSW. Th ey had pro- cured donated space from Bubble Studios and streaming support from Live Stream, and had lined up more than 40 artists to perform live for the SXSW4Japan Telethon. Th e grassroots telethon they coordinated was masterfully exe- cuted, featuring artists that included Ben Folds, Michael Stipe of R.E.M., Bowling for Soup, Widespread Panic, Kina Grannis, Natasha Bedingfi eld, Ozomatli and others. While we collected donations from help us extend SXSWCares into the music track. She developed ban- ners, reached out to bands and served as the on-site coordinator for our Red Cross/SXSWCares booth at the large venue concerts at Auditorium Shores. On Friday the 18th, SXSW connected us with Issac, Zach and Taylor Yoshiko Goto and Audrey Kimura at the Help Save Japan booth. the live concert venues, the Hanson streaming telethon helped push online donations from $83,000 to just over $95,000. We tipped $100,000 in online donations by Monday, March 20. We later re-streamed the broadcast with Hanson Music in associa- tion with AOL Music and MySpace. Hanson Music also arranged the release of a 40-plus track album, complete with additional donated tracks from artists such as Michelle Branch, which is now on sale on Amazon and iTunes. All of the proceeds are going to the Red Cross for Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief. We can't imagine a better example of people using their talents and infl uence for good. We are honored to have been a part of such an amazing real-time, community-sourced, iteratively developed collabo- ration. We hope it's just the beginning of the great things we can do together. ■ SXSW ORLD / M AY – J UNE 201 1 43 NINA HARWICK NINA HARWICK