SXSW Day 5: Finding happiness, making experiences and capturing a moment on the last day

Barkley associate content director Carolyn Cohen is blogging the SXSW Interactive festival for The Pitch.As SXSW wrapped up, I attended a  few final sessions, learned about content and innovation and talked to other folks from those disciplines. Here's my roundup.

1. Community Manager Meet UpI kicked off Tuesday morning with one of SXSW's many meet ups. This group was a mix of community managers for brands, production companies, agency folks and more. Everyone was excited to talk to people who have similar jobs. The theme of the meet up was the need for quality content for brands and the need to distribute it.

2. Making Distributed Content Work In The NewsMidday, I jumped in a popular session with panelists from ESPN, Reported.ly, CNN and NowThisNews. I was really impressed with their take on the way content is evolving. The panelists mentioned how so many publishers and brands are splitting off platforms, such as NowThisHealth and NowThisPolitics, and there is a unique au dience for everything. 

3. Why Happiness is Hard and How to Make It EasierAndy Puddicombe of Headspace Inc. took his entire audience through an interesting experiment; we all meditated. It was funny at first, but the whole group stayed silent for (what seemed like) a long time. Puddicombe then explained why it's important to train your brain to take a break. 

4. The Future is ExperienceMy favorite panel of the day was led by Brian Solis of Altimeter Group. He shared insights from his new book, X: The Experience When Business Meets Design, and discussed why companies such as Apple, Disney and Nike succeed: Each of those companies create an experience. Solis shared a few fun examples, such as how long it took Heinz to solve its problem: creating a squeeze bottle vs. using a traditional glass bottle. We can all create new ways to think about ongoing problems. 

5. Photo-worthy ContentSince this was my last day at SXSW, I spent some time digging through the hundreds of photos I have taken. One consistent trend is creating a photo-worthy moment. Whether it's a celebrity, exclusive moment creating FOMO, or just something so beautiful you have to capture it, it is a MUST. Here's to SXSW 2016! 

See more at Barkley's blog and read Cohen's dispatches here (Day 1, Day 2, Day 3 and Day 4).
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