Team OCOCO at the SXSW London Roadshow

When creativity and technology collide, great things can happen. Team OCOCO had an incredible day at the SXSW London Roadshow’s visit to our neighbours PROTO, Gateshead.

Here are our key take-aways and calls-to-arms:

It’s a hugely exciting time to work in the creative industries in the North East – our collaborative, talented community have world-class facilities and tools at their fingertips.

Ambition is everything – the drive to deliver outstanding work to clients and retain the top talent in the region is clear.

The secret to supporting young talent – is to create opportunity, and actively enable the development of skills and confidence of the next generation.

Connection is vital across the region, country and beyond - we can all contribute our voices positively to global stories told from the North East.

There’s power in letting your audience decide how a story is told – through considered use of immersive experiences, we can communicate complex narratives more effectively.

Shared social experiences are incredibly valuable to individuals and societies as a whole – they can be crafted, but building an authentic moment takes effort.

It’s all about the feels – the way in which audiences experience, consume, and enjoy media is changing, but fundamentally emotional connections remain at the core.

Innovation happens when we break the system - contextualised against the endless scroll, we can experiment with disruption to generate interesting outcomes.

The pandemic drove innovation, and we’re still seeing the effects – with the surge in digital tools available, we need to embrace emerging technology and establish where in our systems it works, and where it doesn’t.

AI is a challenge – not a silver bullet. It works well in democratising creativity, but we risk “AI slop” taking over if we settle for it. Instead, utilise tools to elevate your processes, and maintain an impeccable standard of output. Think of it as helping with the frameworks, but don’t count on it to bring the magic.

There’s support available if you look for it – don’t be afraid to reach out to others, and ask for help when trying to develop partnerships and secure funding.

Being multi-skilled gives you an advantage – a disconnection from the capital and the rest of the country in past years has resulted in many individuals from the North East developing a multitude of skills within the creative sector. This is a huge advantage that can lead to greater opportunities and projects.

The choice really is ours – we should choose the future we want, and we can grow new production processes, new economies, and new experiences, while still prioritising human connection and creativity.

Do the right thing – having the courage, skills and confidence to push back professionally when things aren’t right is essential to making things better.

The Metaverse doesn’t exist – it’s just an aspiration.

Go deep – that’s where all your best work happens.

Invest in development, remove barriers, and support people – that’s it.

SXSW is a unique celebration of the intersection of technology, creativity and culture, and it was great to be part of this year’s conversation. We’re excited to work together towards a bright future for the creative industries.

If you’d like to learn more about the award-winning social media marketing solutions we offer at OCOCO Media, simply contact us to book a complimentary conversation: https://www.ococomedia.co.uk/