Daniels professor Michael Myers shares his primary takeaways from 10 years at SXSW
Over the last 10 years, Daniels College of Business faculty member and MBA Programs Faculty Director Michael Myers has led more than 200 students through the renowned South by Southwest (SXSW) conference in Austin, Texas.
The pinnacle of science, technology, innovation, marketing and culture, Myers describes SxSW as a ‘transformational educational experience.’
His four-credit marketing class, ‘SXSW: Marketing, Technology & Innovation,’ is available to undergraduate and graduate students, and will now include executive PhD students in March 2025.
The format is straightforward: preliminary research and Zoom class meetings, until it’s not. The next step is choosing from an impossible list of overlapping conference sessions and events.
Myers allows students to choose their own adventure from the interactive track—emerging trends in culture, tech, startups, psychedelics, design, energy, government and civic engagement, advertising and brand experience, artificial intelligence, creator economy and more. Students can purchase a more expensive “Platinum” badge to attend music, TV and film sessions, but those don’t count for class credit.
“I give a lot of freedom and leeway. It’s introducing them to an ecosystem and letting them self-select what they’re most interested in,” Myers says. “Some of the best learning happens outside the classroom; there’s just no way to escape engagement. That is the power of experientials. And when I let them self-select, it’s even better because I’m playing to their passion. Self-selection is part of the secret sauce to this.”
Myers is there to help students navigate the overwhelming experience and capitalize on networking opportunities. His favorite tip is to notice which sessions have extremely long lines and see if the speaker and/or topic appeals to them. Even if it’s not the session they signed up for, sometimes it’s worth pivoting in the moment.
This is how he found himself in an unexpected session with the late celebrity chef, TV host and author Anthony Bourdain, after waiting in a mile-long line that extended to the roof.
Annie Langston (BSBA 2019) attended SXSW for three years as Myers’ class assistant.
“This course is by far one of my favorite memories of my degree,” she says. “It’s a chance to see the world in action. This is the opportunity to learn how to network in a global setting, meet potential new employers and gain real-world experience that you could not get in the classroom. It is wild to see some of the industry’s greatest minds and talents sitting right in front of you.”
For Daniels alum Jordan Wehe (MBA 2019), some of those greatest minds included Shark Tank’s Mark Cuban and former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz (pictured with Wehe). Wehe previously worked in corporate marketing with legacy brands that were set in their ways, so the lively, interactive brand activations he experienced at SXSW—with companies like Twitter and Netflix—opened his eyes to marketing innovation.
Daniels alum Jordan Wehe with Howard Schulz.
He says networking with industry big wigs and entrepreneurs at the conference helped him land a job shortly thereafter, where he has since built a “huge brand” as chief marketing officer for Jade Communications, a regional internet service provider in southern Colorado.
Myers notes he’s seen students exchange business cards and LinkedIn connections with global leaders—including managers at Google and the principal engineer at Mercedes-Benz.
“I’ve seen some amazing things,” he says. “The people that come and speak at this event are the most passionate, engaged individuals I have ever met, and they’re very willing to talk to students and kind of help them figure out where they might fit in those trends.”
Students purchase their own (discounted) conference badges and travel accommodations, and there’s a $350 course fee.
Before the conference begins, students research the topics in their preliminary schedule so they’re not “totally lost” when they get there. This helps them form a base level of understanding to get more out of their sessions, events and keynotes “as opposed to going there and everything is bright and shiny and students feel like, ‘oh my goodness, I know nothing,’” Myers explains.
Panels often focus on industry projections for the next five years, and the knowledge students gain about the future impacts of technology and consumer behavior on business can enhance students’ educational and career trajectories.
“It’s just this amazing opportunity to ride the wave of change. We’re all in the throes of this incessant and constant change and South by Southwest is one of those places that allows students to kind of go, ‘okay, here’s a directional change that may take me to another opportunity,’” he says. “My goal is that students will become part of that change.”
Langston notes the SXSW course “is an opportunity to dive deep and open students’ minds to a new world of possibilities.”
“Simply put, SXSW blew the doors of my world right open,” she says. “My confidence as a person grew exponentially—and I carry this confidence everywhere I go.”
While Myers wants students to “have an amazing time,” the four-night, five-day conference also comes with nightly assignments in the form of a 5-10-minute video synopsis of each session attended that day for a total of 16 video synopses due to Myers.
This, he says, is to help students cement their learnings when the information is fresh and allows the class to share insights with other Daniels marketing students who couldn’t attend.
South by Southwest’s own marketing copy promises, “the most unexpected discoveries happen when diverse topics and people come together.”
The class gains fluency in various forms of digital media while researching, documenting and sharing those new discoveries and perspectives.
“If you want to know what’s going to be happening in the industry over the next five years, this is the event to go to,” Myers says. “It’s very, very different. It’s like the Coachella of conferences. It’s people nerding out on what they’re most passionate about. I want students to know that this is available to them, because it’ll help them with their career.”