Wallonia-Brussels at SXSW: finding inspiration, networking and grasping future trends

South by Southwest (SXSW) took place from 8 to 16 March in Austin, Texas. A festival of music, film and emerging technologies, founded in 1987 and considered the world's largest digital, innovation and creativity event.

This year, 17 Walloon organisations attended the conference. Why is it important to take part in SXSW? What are their objectives? And what's their state of mind as they return to Belgium?

SXSW, four letters we hear about a lot. An unmissable event, THE most important digital, innovation and creativity meeting place for professionals from all over the world... SXSW is just like the United States: enormous!

A total of 17 Walloon organisations flew to Austin, Texas. Entrepreneurs, project leaders, researchers and academics share with us why they made the trip to Austin. "For inspiration," answers Alexandra Gérard, managing director of Stereopsia, the first avant-garde, XR event. "I'm here for the XR: the experiences, talks, pitches and people. It's the place to be to meet the international XR community. My aim is to raise Stereopsia's profile. This Walloon delegation context is also important, not only for the financial support, but for the close contacts forged when people live together for a week." "We're stronger when we're all together in terms of branding and representation," confirms Héloïse Devaux, business development director at La Grand Poste. "Being all together, supported by AWEX and WBI, makes us stronger than if we had each come as a small structure independent of the others."

The importance of the network

This is Héloïse Devaux's second time at SXSW. Her goal? To make La Grand Poste shine on an international stage. "My aim is for it to become a must-see when you visit Belgium. I also want to meet other creative hubs and incubators." Among the interesting contacts Héloïse mentions is Jeanne Dorelli, Senior Director of Strategy and Operations at Zú. This Quebec-based incubation programme supports and drives entrepreneurs who use technology to revolutionise the creative industries, generating innovative projects and world-class intellectual property.

Everyone agrees that this is the most important thing. After only 48 hours on site, Gérôme Vanherf, director of La Grand Poste, feels that he could return to Belgium. "I could go home already and would still have everything I wanted. It's not just about meeting new people, it's about maintaining links, having a good time with people you know and that you maybe only get to see once a year."

It was after returning home from visiting SXSW for the first time in 2017 that Wallifornia Music Tech was born, an innovation programme in the music and technology sector, developed in partnership with LeanSquare, Les Ardentes, the Théâtre de Liège and the KIKK festival, whose aim is to make Belgium a benchmark for innovation in the music industry. "What I'm taking away from my fourth time at SXSW is very positive. I'm humbled to say that the Wallifornia brand is doing very well internationally. We have really strong links with Austin and the whole delegation here. This also allows us to come and meet start-ups, discover innovations and see what's going on. And above all, to attract speakers, investors and entrepreneurs to our conference and accelerator held every year in Liège." The next event will take place from 9 to 11 July.

Liège's creative sector is well represented at SXSW. Coralie Doyen, Program & Partnership Leader at Noshaq, is also at the event. Her aim here is to curate Wallifornia Music Tech. "For me, as someone who creates programmes, and organises conferences and events, this is exactly what I need. I'd like to meet people from the music industry in Latin countries, South America and Africa. I came here to focus on that and I'd like to leave here with a few leads and key profiles."

Curation – in terms of content and speakers – is also the reason Gilles Bazelaire, director of the non-profit organisation KIKK, has made the trip to SXSW. "At KIKK, we're used to getting content from all over the world. We always start out from the principle that we're trying to bring immediacy to the world of digital creativity. And to do that, we need to travel and bring back the best content found in the USA, Africa, France, Belgium... to Namur."

Gilles Bazelaire is concentrating on two areas of the KIKK Festival – which will next be taking place from 24 to 27 October – the Market and foreign delegations. "We meet quite a few ecosystems present here – that's the advantage of SXSW. I've discovered a Japanese start-up that I really want to bring to KIKK. They've developed a prototype of what is known as haptics, which allows people to feel virtual reality. For the moment, it all happens through helmets, gloves and equipment. With this start-up's technology, it's felt directly in the body, without the need for a device. It's quite incredible."

Although the festival is spreading out a little and becoming less clear, for Gilles Bazelaire it's still an event where you can meet the digital world in a very short space of time.

Meeting so many people who share the same passion for the digital arts in such a short space of time is what Gwenaëlle Gruselle, international business developer at Dirty Monitor, enjoys most. Dirty Monitor is a Belgian creative studio founded in 2004, and a pioneer in the design and creation of content for video mapping and other audiovisual productions. Based in California for two months to grow the American market, Gwenaëlle seized the opportunity to join the Walloon delegation in Austin – especially as Dirty Monitor recently presented two video mapping shows in California in December: Let's Glow (which welcomed almost 67,000 visitors) in San Francisco, and the New Year countdown at Los Angeles City Hall. "This is my first experience so I'm in more of an exploratory mode to see what might come out of this type of event. It's already allowing me to make connections with local partners for potential developments in Texas and Austin, as well as meeting other digital arts studios and reconnecting with the Walloon ICC network."

This very Walloon ICC network also includes Sébastien Resier, CEO of Arduinna Silva Studio. The main reason he's in Austin is to make a name for himself. "Wallonia has nothing to be ashamed of when it comes to technology. It's quite interesting to be able to benchmark the market, to see what's happening in other countries and whether there's a place for our products. In the United States, we've discovered things we'd never have thought of. Here, they're much more daring than in Europe. So, I'm coming back to Belgium with a lot of discoveries, new ideas and things I want to develop and move forward.

Damien Van Achter, a freelance consultant in the fields of media, education and entrepreneurship, is also returning full of ideas. And above all, confirmations. "I come to check out the intuitions I have during the year about technologies, dynamics, products, services to imagine, to offer to my customers or myself. I spend a lot of my time just observing. But from Belgium, our little corner of Europe, it's hard to get an overview and be able to confirm or deny."

Daring

Are Belgium and Wallonia too shy? This was the conclusion drawn by other members of the delegation, too. "I'm in Austin for inspiration," says Sébastien Nahon, director of MIIL, a media innovation lab at UCLouvain specialising in immersive technologies. And his experience not only confirms his intuitions, but also that it's time to resolve Belgium's inferiority complex. "Sometimes, we're well above what others are doing but we're not daring... We have to retain this humility that is our strength, but we also have to identify what we're good at and really showcase it... We missed the web train, the AI train, but here in Belgium, we're not missing the XR train. For me, that's the greatest recognition. We got it right very early on, both in terms of ecosystem players, and works, investors and public representatives."

Wallonia is not lagging behind

Pierre Collin, executive manager at twist, explains: "I understand that, thanks to generative artificial intelligence, we'll be able to internationalise our culture even more, develop an industry and do an enormous number of things. Wallonia isn't lagging behind, and it's now that we need to make the right decisions to move forward, get into the right ecosystems and find the right partners."

Finding partners is one of the reasons why Xavier Péters, CEO of Leansquare (an investment fund based in Liège and part of the Noshaq group), is attending SXSW. "This event is a must for music investors like us, who have also created an acceleration programme in the music tech market. As the years go by, we can see that we are becoming more and more integrated and gaining recognition." Like Coralie Doyen last year, Xavier hosted a panel during this 2024 event. "It allows partners to see that we're present at their programme and that they're coming to ours... We try to arrange meetings with corporates and investors, who we don't get to see outside SXSW. Over a drink or at a concert, you could meet the CEO of Deezer or Universal, whereas you'd be hard pressed to do that if you sent an email via LinkedIn. These people are just like us, in a more festive, cool, more relaxed mode, while discussing business."

Source: KinKong Mag