NeoKa takes on Texas SXSW in the most spontaneous way ever. A couple of days before we even knew we were going to be making our way to Austin Manychat (social media platform) invited us to attend their hosted spot of promoting Say it With Us: Fuck the Grind SXSW! At first, I (Karla) only saw an event in Austin and it looked fun, and since we have a flexible schedule we decided to make our way there! 

Two days later, before even realizing it, I put two and two together. ManyChat was hosting a spot at SXSW in front of the Museum of the Future of Dubai. This is when I got excited because I had no idea it slipped over my head that it was with SXSW. NeoKa was excited to see what we were going to see and do while we were there! 

We woke up at around 7 am and made our way to Austin at about 8 am to get there around noon. When we arrived Austin was packed! So many people all over the place with their badges attending one event to another. Luckily I lived in Austin before, so parking was not so hard to find. Even though we only really came because of Manychat in SXSW there are tons of free events the public can attend. We took advantage of visiting the Museum of the Future of Dubai, which had to be the main attraction there. They were hosting for many days in SXSW and not just giving free Dubai chocolate or chai to try, but they also had amazing panelists that flew in from all over the world to discuss issues they want to resolve now to be better in the future.

It was quite fascinating because Dubai now overall as a country is thinking 10 years ahead. We attended three separate panelists while we were there which were: 

• Food from the Dunes: What Can the Desert Bring to the Table
• Hindsight to Foresight: Indigenous Wisdom for the Future
• The Future of Storytelling

We were incredibly impressed by the innovation mindset Dubai has on how they are working towards building a sustainable future and using AI as a tool to innovate not in the sense of taking jobs of the people but allowing them to use it in their jobs to be more efficient. For instance, in the food industry, AI is used to measure sustainability and make it more efficient. Another topic spoke about farming with well-fertilized soil and creating seed recipes for plants to grow faster in a sustainable way even in the desert. Or how the Emiratis want to creatively integrate their plants from the desert to bring to the table, so people get a taste of Emirati food and flavors. It was so interesting how the United Arab Emirates is getting ahead of its time.

As well, another important topic that was talked about was how the Indigenous community views AI. The Indigenous people believe it or not are more caught up on what is going on in the rest of the world than probably the majority of us. The Indigenous community is a unique one where they have their language, customs, and culture. However, a lot of what is going on is more of a political state of confusion or control. The community not being able to speak their language, the land being taken away from them, and even random disappearances in the community. It’s all really concerning, however, they are using their voices to speak up about these concerns. Whether that is fighting for their land, protecting their language from being copyrighted with AI or even taking these concerns up to the court of justice. The Indigenous community is keeping up with what is going on in the world and it is quite extraordinary.

The last panel we had the pleasure of attending was about storytelling/cinema. It was about two Emirati producers who have been in the film industry for some time and speaking about the representation of their culture being presented in the film industry. Right now there is quite a shift from Hollywood, and the East is getting its foot in the industry. Right now with the rise of Korean Dramas, Chinese Dramas, and even Abu Dhabi is stepping right in. The future is a blend to be represented on the World Stage, and it’s quite remarkable what they are doing.

Last but not least we DID attend the Manychat event of Manychat and it was so much fun! They provided us with coffee, some cool merch that was spray painted, and as well had live music with a DJ and saxophone artists. The event was super cute and well hosted making everybody feel comfortable and allowing the creators to network with others. We loved our experience and we met some lovely creators who are from the Austin community that were genuinely so interesting! Thank you Manychat for inviting us down to Austin to get a snippet of what SXSW is about and what it has to offer! Highly recommend 1 for anyone having a business or social media page to use Manychat, and 2 recommend attending SXSW even if you don’t have an official badge there is a whole lot of free stuff for the public to enjoy!