The Texas State graduate students covered the 2013 SXSW Interactive conference through the SXTXState Project. A team of 6 students produced over 120 articles, 44 videos, and engaged on social media before and during the conference. Their comprehensive multimedia coverage included interviews with notable speakers like Elon Musk and Rachel Maddow. Analytics showed strong engagement on their website and social media. After the exhausting but inspiring week, students reflected on the career and networking opportunities gained from participating.

1. SXTXState Project 2013
Texas State graduate students
cover SXSW Interactive

2. The Project
• Weekly Hangouts &
In-Person Meetups
• SXSW Coverage
• Mobile Reporting
• Website Design
• Social Media & Promotion
• Ushahidi Mobile App
• Hackathon
• Taco Party

3. Our Team
• Brittany Black – social media
• Kiana Fitzgerald – text content, features
• Megan Kilgore – Ushahidi application lead
• Emily Lyons – website redesign
• Sara Peralta – multimedia content, mobile
reporting
• Faculty: Dr. Cindy Royal
• Faculty Support: Dr. Jacie Yang, Jon
Zmikly and Ryan Stewart

4. Design
Logo iterations:

5. Design
Final logo designs:
• Main Logo:
• Social Media Logo:

6. Website
New DesignOld Design

7. Website
Website redesign overview:
• Kept a WordPress format
• Visual display
• New color scheme and logo
• Responsive layout for mobile
• Refined categories

8. Ushahidi
u-sha-hi-di
[oo-shah-hee-
dee] – a Swahili
word meaning
“testimony”

9. Ushahidi Design
Ushahidi design overview:
• Utilized new project theme and colors
• Responsive layout for mobile
• Created logo (Kiana):

10. Ushahidi Design

11. Hackathon

12. Hackathon

13. Hackathon

14. Hackathon

15. Hackathon

16. Hackathon

17. Social Media

18. Social Media

19. Social Media

20. Social Media

21. Social Media

22. Social Media

23. Social Media

24. Social Media

25. Social Media

26. Content – Before SXSWi
Previews:
Coverage of notable panels and events before the
SXSWi conference. 30 articles.
Process:
Team members assigned to beats but
collaborative approach allowed flexibility.

27. Content – Before SXSWi
Weekly News Roundup:
provides visitors with the latest
in panel sessions, tech news &
social media issues
Top 5:
provides visitors with the top
5 relevant panels by SXSW
session category
6 articles 6 articles

28. Content – Coverage of SXSWi
Tim Berners-Lee
(inventor of World Wide Web)
Elon Musk
(SpaceX, Tesla, PayPal)

29. Content - Coverage
Rachel Maddow (MSNBC)
Top viewed SXTX video ~ 900 views
Matthew Inman
(The Oatmeal)

30. Content - Notable interviews
Paul Qui
(South Bites)
David Karp
(Tumblr)

31. Content - Notable interviews
Andy Carvin
(NPR)
Michele Norris
(NPR)

32. Content - Notable interviews
Adrian Grenier
(Entourage, SHFT)
W. Kamau Bell (Totally
Biased)

33. Content – Summary
Content Highlights:
• Articles
• 42 articles produced before
SXSWi.
• 81 articles produced over 5 days
covering SXSWi.
• Total of 123 articles!
• Multimedia
• 44 videos produced, 38 on
location coverage
• 29 Storify curated stories
• 1 SoundCloud audio story
• Mobile
• SXTXState Stories: 48 geotagged
stories
• GroupMe to coordinate coverage

34. Analytics - SXTXState.com
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
Visits Unique Visitors Pageviews
2011
2012
2013
Site Traffic YOY
2011-2013

35. Analytics - SXTXState.com
Global Visitors
January 20 – March 17

36. Analytics - SXTXStories.com
Session/Spea
ker
35%
Official
25%
Party
18%
Food
12%
Free
10%
Top 5 Story Categories

37. Analytics - SXTXStories.com
0
50
100
150
200
250
8-Mar 9-Mar 10-Mar 11-Mar 12-Mar
Site Traffic During SXSW Interactive
Visits
Unique Visitors
Pageviews

38. Analytics - @SXTXState

39. Analytics - #SXTXState
• 624 tweets with #sxtxstate
• 140 tweets with @sxtxstate account in 2013

40. Analytics - #SXTXState

41. Analytics - Instagram
• 59 photos shared
• 68 likes

42. Analytics - YouTube
• 1,517 views
• Top Video:
Rachel
Maddow
– 586 views
during
SXSW
– 867 total
views

43. Post-SXSWi: Student reflections
• Brittany Black
“South by Southwest has been an
amazing experience. Exhausting, but
amazing. My brain has absorbed so
much information and I have had the
chance to meet so many inspiring
and influential people.”
Post-graduation plans:
Communications and Employee
Engagement staff at Hewlett-Packard.

44. Post-SXSWi: Student reflections
• Kiana Fitzgerald
On SXSWi, it “leaves me
enlightened, exhausted, well-connected and
honestly, a bit depressed. It’s always difficult
to go back to your regularly scheduled life
after being introduced to so many new
ideas, people, products and concepts in a
such an inviting environment, surrounded by
people just like you.”
Next steps: Invited to attend the Diverse
Voices reception at the annual White House
Correspondents Weekend in Washington
DC.

45. Post-SXSWi: Student reflections
• Megan Kilgore
“It’s hard not to feel overwhelmed by that
much knowledge flying at you from all
directions at once. It was absolutely
exhausting, and I wouldn’t have missed it
for the world.”
Post-graduation plans: Joining the Capital
Area Food Bank as the Digital Marketing
Manager in May 2013.

46. Post-SXSWi: Student reflections
• Emily Lyons
“I think it was especially rewarding for me
because I’m at this crossroads of my life –
nearing the end of my formal graduate
education and considering where I’m
going from here. I was inspired by the
startup panels I attended, and took away
some great inspiration for my future
career.”
Next steps: Joining the Capital Area Food
Bank as the Digital Marketing VISTA for
the Summer of 2013 and graduating Fall
2013.

47. Post-SXSWi: Student reflections
• Sara Peralta
“As a whole, I sincerely believe SXTXState’s
coverage of SXSWi rivals that of any
“professional” coverage of the event. I continued
to be amazed by my cohorts’ instinct for
newsworthy content and their drive to secure
interviews with the conference’s biggest names.
From David Karp, W. Kamau Bell, Michele
Norris, Gary Vaynerchuk, and more, our team
successfully interviewed the same high-profile
leaders in tech and communications as major
news outlets.”
Next steps: graduating Summer 2013 and
attending the SALT Institute Multimedia Summer
Immersion program.

48. Post-SXSWi: Looking Ahead
Students are working on panel proposals for SXSW ’14,
so they can join SJMC alumni as SXSW speakers

49. Thank You
• Find this presentation at
slideshare.net/cindyroyal
• Visit SXTXState.com and SXTXStories.com