And that’s a wrap on DISRUPTIVE FUTURES at #SXSW!

Sara Vasic Consultant Quant & Analytics shares her reflections from SXSW and Truth Consulting’s pop-up at Bread & Butter.

I went into this week not really knowing what to expect and honestly, worrying whether people would actually come to our pop-up. But I’ve been blown away by how open everyone was – whether they were SXSW attendees or the general public – to listening to our stance on the future, sharing their own lived experience, challenging us, and getting stuck in.

Through our DISRUPTIONS, we wanted to bring future-facing conversations to the forefront – encouraging businesses, brands, and people to rethink how they act and respond. To quote Mark Thorpe, “the future has always been now, because the seeds of the future are already planted”. We aimed to create a warm and inviting space to explore 7 of these disruptions differently, through beautiful artwork created by Eliane Amend.

Some people who came in thought we were artists, creatives, an edgy Shoreditch coffee shop or co-working space, but that didn’t matter. Every single person who stepped into our space was ready to be disrupted and have difficult, meaningful conversations. That’s what made for an eventful, thought-provoking week.

Through these conversations, I learnt a lot about the world we live in – from how people switch off when their mind feels at capacity (my favourite being something called forest bathing) to why some believe brands inherently cannot ‘care’ about us because their ultimate goal is profit, which made me wonder how we can change this view.

This week also unexpectedly prompted me to learn about myself, not just from the disruptions, but also helped me gain confidence in having potentially challenging conversations about the current state of the world and how we can create

hope for the future.

As someone who is terrified of what an AI takeover could mean, one thought that stood out from our live podcast session was when Emily Dent said that in a world where AI is growing exponentially, so is a need for things to have a ‘human’ feel and to have genuine connections with each other. Laura Barber highlighted in her discussion that “it’s a dangerous world when we don’t know what’s been created and what’s real”. This is super important for brand messaging and comms in a time when people are starting to clock on to what is ‘human’. But brands should welcome the benefits of AI while being proud when their content is AI created and own it when it's real. I also tried my hand at a few vox pop style interviews and freshened up my qual skills (keep your eyes peeled for these – some fascinating views came through)!

In terms of what this means for Truth Consulting and our clients, it has always been imperative for us to understand consumers, but now more than ever. In a world that feels more uncertain every day, we need to get under the skin of what makes people tick, what angers them, what they expect from businesses so we can plan for a better and brighter future.

Thank you to everyone who came along, who agreed to be filmed, and who let themselves get DISRUPTED – we couldn’t have done it without you! Watch this space for more…