SXSW Part 3: South By New Zealand
The Mount Bonnell team catch up with Ray Salter, CEO of WLG X, to talk about his impressions of South by South West. He summed up this year’s SXSW in one word, ‘buzz’.
Then Ray reveals how inspired by global festivals such as SXSW, WLG X will be a blend of tech, design, film, music and gaming, albeit with a uniquely New Zealand touch and to reflect the smaller local feel of Wellington, kicked off on the first evening with an Irish inspired pub craw to sample some of the finest craft beers to get a real feel for this friendly city.
Sebastian Sauerborn: LinkedIn
Kevin Turley: Website
Ray Salter: LinkedIn
WLG X: Website
Episode Transcript
Episode 16: SXSW Part 3 – South By New Zealand
So a lot of people choose to start businesses in Texas because there is no state level income tax.
You’re listening to Move Your Business to the United States, with me, your host, Kevin Turley
Another thing that people sight frequently is the lower level of red tape regulation that Texas has, Texas is very-
Kevin: Here we are, Day 3 of the Mount Bonnell adventure, here at South by Southwest, I’m here with my other fellow at Mount Bonnell adventures, Sebastian Sauerborn and Emmett Glynn, we’re walking down at, what street is this, Sebastian?
Sebastian: Cesar Chavez.
Kevin: Cesar Chavez right beside the conference center, you can hear the traffic, you can hear the people, everything is buzzing today, that’s the key word around here, “buzz”, Emmett tell me what you really thought about yesterday what was the highlight for you?
Emmett: Just that we had the opportunity to meet a lot of Irish, German and English entrepreneurs bringing their products over the US and so it was really good fun to meet them, interview them and do some filming, check out the YouTube page you can find our interviews there, and it was really nice just to be part of this network and community.
Kevin: Yes, I agree, the meeting of the young entrepreneurs was quite something, yesterday, Sebastian you’ve interviewed a lot of the German clientele yesterday, they were quite something?
Sebastian: Yeah, I think we had a good time, meeting entrepreneurs from Berlin and very clever people with sophisticated business ideas, such as 3D printing of human tissue, it was incredible, I’ve learned a lot and I was really inspired and impressed.
Kevin: Today, it’s more of the same, the one thing we are learning about South by Southwest is to expect the unexpected, you just never know what’s going to happen next, who you’re going to meet next or what’s round on the next span so for now, from Downtown Austin, it’s over and out.
Emmett: Hello, it’s Emmett again, I’m not only looking after the microphones and cameras on this trip, but I’m also keeping an eye on the clock. As a guy who’ve organized several sit downs with influential figures at this week’s South by Southwest Festival. Today, we’ve got to head to the Hilton, where perched on a balcony, we’ve sat with Ray Salter the organizer of the festival, much the same as South by Southwest, but in New Zealand. Listening as we learn about New Zealand, and what’s involved in creating a world event like South By in Austin, Texas.
Ray: I’m Ray Salter I’m CEO of Wellington X, which is festival company that we are establishing in 2019 later this year.
Kevin: So, Ray, we’ve met at South by Southwest, in fact we were seating together and listening to Malcolm Gladwell of all people talking about driverless cars for some reason, and you let slip that you were going to do a South by down under.
Ray: Yeah, we’re taking some inspiration from entries as looking at the crossover between film, design and music, rather than necessarily than being the separate streams, what we find is that a lot of these professions or disciplines are quite soloed, it’s been a lot of time talking to themselves, or each other, rather than getting an inspiration across different sectors. So we are very interested in the intersection between those four areas. It’s really the whole creative sector we’re interested in.
Kevin: Ray, we’re going to dig a bit more into that in a moment, but I’m just fascinated about how the process works, has somebody starts to think that maybe they can do a South By in another place. So, let’s start at the beginning, when did you first come to South by Southwest?
Ray: This is our third time we’ve been here, we came in 2014 to have a look around, we basically didn’t know our way around, so, only really talk about twenty percent of what we could’ve done. We subsequently learned, we were here last year, and mastered to a certain extent the South By experience and this year we’re really making the most of it.
Kevin: Mastering the South By experience, I know exactly- this is my first time here and I know exactly what that means, I feel like it’s all passing me by, I feel like I’m in a river and the debris is going past me and I’m not really keeping up, what about you Sebastian?
Ray: I mean, I feel exactly the same, it’s kind of overwhelming, I mean in a positive way overwhelming but there’s so much going on and simply the people you meet here, and the conversations, you know, that you can have, there are so many that there is barely time to attend any of the events. I mean we didn’t attend that many events so far, right, but then the other- I mean the days are full from morning to evening, you fall into bed exhausted, again in a good way. So yeah, the days are very full and I know exactly what you mean.
Kevin: So, South By down under or, what it is the official title, the WLG X?
Ray: WLG is the airport code for Wellington, and X is really the crossover between those four separate areas. So it would be whatever you want to call it, but the vernacular we’d say it’s WellyX.
Sebastian: Why don’t you tell us about the format, Ray, I mean length, what size to expect, you know, how is it going to be, why don’t you give us some introduction to that?
Kevin: And even for non-interpreting listeners words, cause New Zealand for a lot of people is known a Hobbit land, so is this whole on the top of the mountain, Ray?
Ray: No, the city is basically like Seattle or Copenhagen, it’s a relatively small city, it’s a harbor city, where we’re going to run festivals is right on the waterfront, booked by the two big venues, one is our national museum and the other one is a conference facility and so we’ll have around ten venues and our plan is quite different to South By, in that we’re going to have basically A Pub Crawl which basically Irish would know all about, as the starting event and we’ll break up our participants into small groups and we’ll crawl around the craft beer pubs around Wellington, so that’s our opening event and then we will have three days of, during the day it’s going to be about the business solved and innovation and new components, across those festival ingredients and then at night time we will have a film and a music experience and that moves into different parts of the city, so, we want to get the whole city engage we’re small enough for that whereas here parts of Austin don’t even know the South By is on.
Kevin: You’re absolutely right, Ray, it’s a tale of two cities here really, isn’t it? I mean you got a really huge Sixth street and Downtown, part of Downtown which is buzzing with a festival vibe and we were few blocks north of here and Sebastian turned to me and said, “this is so quiet”, and it is, it’s like a Monday anywhere across the world. How much support you’re getting from the good people that run places like Wellington?
Ray: There’s an economic development agency in Wellington and they are very strong supporter of us and they are one of their corner stone stakeholders for the festival.
Kevin: How many people are you open to attract?
Ray: We’re looking for around three thousand altogether so that’s about as much as we think we can handle in year one, again, we don’t have one really large venue, so the design and structuring of the festival is multi-venue and people moving between venues and that’s one of the reasons why we’ve attracted to looking at South By.
Sebastian: And this sounds like a very complicated logistical enterprise, have you organized similar events before yourself? Tell us a little bit about your personal background.
Ray: Well, my partner and I are running this festival, she has twenty years of experience and runs an event agency, so she’s done things like Lord of the Rings premieres, King Kong premieres, big huge public events, right through to high growth firm conferences, my background is tourism so I’ve been looking at basically what’s the accommodation framework, how can we get the airlines involved and a broader picture as well as running the organization so my role is more managerial.
Sebastian: Sounds really interesting and talking about the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit and these things, you told me that the companies that were involved in these films they’re also part of the event or helping out the event right?
Ray: That’s correct, one of the family of companies that made all the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit films Wedit Digital, they are, one of our partners as well and so we will have a big component of that digital and technical import as well as the film side and you know we’re looking to companies like Magic Leap and some of the newer companies also to be involved.
Kevin: Ray what sort of, I mean, how you’re going to market this internationally I get it that New Zealand is going to be excited about this, but how you’ll compete with all the festivals out there?
Ray: Well, we’ve got one advantage, New Zealand is a very aspirational destination for people to come to, but our goal is not to trying conquer the world in one year or five years, so, our first priority is New Zealand, second is Australia and New Zealand and third is in the Pacific rim we would love to have lots of Europeans come, but that’s a way off for us.
Kevin: And who you’d got lined up I know it’s happening in September this year, if I’m correct, who’s your sort of keynote speakers that you’ve got lined up?
Ray: We’ve got half a dozen, couple to mention would be Nonny de la Pena and she is the God Mother of the WR, we’ve got Mark Moore from Uber Elevate, so we’re going to have a bit of a conversation about Flying Texas and so people like that we’re talking to probably half a dozen others, out of the US but we’re also very keen to get some European contributors, otherwise it’s a bit bilateral rather than multilateral.
Kevin: So Sebastian you fancy that?
Sebastian: Yeah definitely, yeah, sure I need to think about what I would be able to talk to the New Zealand audience but yeah of course. [smiling]
Kevin: I presume the New Zealand audience is like a South By audience, I mean, if you’re going to have curious minds, you’re going to have intellectuals, you’re going to have people that are cutting edge and open to new possibilities.
Ray: Absolutely, the Sixty New Zealand is here at South By, having a lot ground and really sort of learning or actually assisting with technologies at here, I don’t think as a country we’re behind any particular area, if you take space for example, Rocket Lab is already putting cube sets, Inter Space from New Zealand, other companies that are at the leading edge, or possibly the bleeding edge and then there’s others that we really came to learn from as well.
Kevin: Talking of being at the leading edge I wish the rugby team wasn’t so much the leading edge, I wish we give Ireland half a chance, so when does the campions start to really sort of market this and really put it out there that this is happening?
Ray: Well we’re in the process of opening for submissions and contributions and proposals to speak and we will really wrapping it up in two-month time, and we’re really into it.
Kevin: What has being the thing being this year at South By that you’ve really kind of noticed and learned from?
Ray: I think the big thing that we’ve noticed this time, is really two things, one is the continued concern around sort of social environment that technology operates within and for example things like data security, the influence of GDPR, starting to creep into the United States and go global. I think that the other thing that I’ve noticed this time in particular is AIA is becoming ubiquitous and embedded in applications much more and coming far more sophisticated software packages or applications.
Kevin: Would you agree with that, Sebastian?
Sebastian: I would agree with that and I would be interested, I mean coming from Europe for us GDPR has been somewhat, when I look at some of our clients paying for process, I would be interested to know from Ray if that’s a similar concern or have there been similar initiatives in New Zealand?
Ray: They haven’t yet but of course some of the companies have Europeans on their data bases and so there has been this sort of a proto application or GDPR for number of uses, but we haven’t had into New Zealand a legislative requirement in the same way as GDPR.
Sebastian: I mean, yeah, I can see that, this is certainly spreading through the rest of the world, there is strong community in the US, mainly in California I believe, to start similar initiatives in the US, and then I’m sure also in New Zealand, one other question, Ray, so our audience is predominantly from Europe, so why do you think European entrepreneur should consider attending your festival?
Ray: Well the things like Agritech where we are vitally interested where the leading edge is and what’s happening in terms of innovation, tourism is our biggest exporter but then an aggregate, agriculture is our largest exporter and so, we’re investing heavily in that and so there’s plenty of opportunity for shared learning and interchange between Europe and New Zealand in particular. I think the other side of it is, what we’ve observed historically is that we are a good test market for innovation and application, we’re an early adopter of many things and we’re small fairly homogenous market, and so people can have and tested applications and technologies in New Zealand.
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Kevin: Ray as you know this podcast is all about entrepreneurs and entrepreneurialism, what’s the state of things in New Zealand currently?
Ray: What we’re seeing is a, I think like many places in the world quite a bit of cash flowing into this area, the other side of it which we are a less happy about it is sales of companies to offshore owners and we only have a few really that have gone global, and so it’s really how you build companies and retain those companies in your jurisdiction rather than the main sold off to one of the, sort of mega companies.
Kevin: I suppose as well you have an element of what a lot of smaller countries have which is brand essentially, California, or parts of Europe, or maybe attracting top talents from New Zealand would you say?
Ray: I think the flow is too way to be honest, we’re getting quite a few people coming in and we obviously also get people going out, capital flow is probably the one way thing that we experience and we need more capital coming in.
Sebastian: Yeah, I can see that, as far as I know, New Zealand is a fairly open and welcoming to new entrepreneurs and also a lot easier to get a visa than say for example United States and even in the UK. I think if I’m right, if you have the necessary qualifications and you know, already set up a business, I think definitely there is support from the government in New Zealand would you say that?
Ray: Well, our visa system is very open and is accessible to entrepreneurs, we’re having very high migration inwards and have done for the last five or six years.
Kevin: Where is that coming from Ray?
Ray: Principally it’s coming from China and India but traditionally and that’s a big growth area for us, but historically there’s a very strong base of Australians and Europe people coming in from those places.
Kevin: Do you think in some ways that the whole digital revolution has leveled the plain field for places like New Zealand?
Ray: Oh absolutely, I mean the tyranny of distance still exists, but for example I work in four countries at the present time, and one of those is Iceland for example, so, I’m sitting in New Zealand and I’m working in Iceland, for an Icelandic company.
Kevin: Well, just to give our listeners, I mean, roughly how far is that away in terms of flight?
Ray: The quickest way you can get there, it takes twenty hours of flying and you if you miss it you can a day but otherwise it’s about three hours on LA or San Francisco.
Kevin: But yet you can work Iceland?
Ray: Yes, absolutely.
Kevin: In the sense that the Internet is made this possible.
Ray: Actually it works quite well because it is twelve hour time difference, and so at a 10 AM meeting in Reykjavik, I’m in 10 PM, and so we can actually work a 24-hour clock and I’ve actually done that for a number of assignments in the past.
Kevin: That’s incredible, that sort of happening in Europe or isn’t, Sebastian, you’re transatlantic, international, I think you’re 24-hour man?
Ray: Yeah, sometimes I wish I wouldn’t but I know, that’s the reality, I work myself with freelancers in Australia and New Zealand, you know, India, South America, so it’s important to talk when you work sort of remotely, and I totally see what you mean, but I think, you know, it’s possible the technology made it possible and in a way it’s a much more efficient way of working than, you know, sometimes it’s just sitting together in office and doing nothing.
Kevin: Absolutely, now Ray you’re out to South By the biggest festival in the world, what’s been the highlight so far for you?
Ray: For me other than Malcolm Gladwell, only the BMW M5, which I’m sure the Germans are happy about [smiling] I only went at future lock of technology as probably being the most comprehensive presentation about also the other one was one looking at AIA in the Marketing space and some of that which is partly good and partly bad is that some of the concerns around influences and the fake, for the market, for fake influences which they estimate 25% of the market place, so, if you’re spinning marketing dollars which I advise on and 25% of it is criminal, then you’ve got an issue.
Kevin: Now you’re heading back I think tomorrow oh no sorry, Wednesday to New Zealand, what would you say is South By 2019 in comparison to the former years, is this getting better is just getting bigger, how is this shipping on in terms of the organization, in terms of the festival?
Ray: It’s definitely getting bigger, because getting into rooms is becoming trickier and for example we’ve seen from the first time we went we’re- there is no sort of primary and secondary cues and now this time there’s express passes so they’re trying to manage the flows of people more. It seems a little bit less concentrated this time, previous years it’s been very much real convention center. But now it’s a bit more diffused. In terms of content, we just think that it’s going to continue to evolve as the whole of the sector evolves, really. We’ll come back next year and it would be, no doubt, 25% completely new and 75% of it would probably be fairly familiar.
Kevin: One of the attractive qualities of what you’re describing New Zealand, is it kind of back to basics? Something that’s much smaller and perhaps more intimate and you can get to know most of the people there perhaps?
Ray: Well, we’ve got sort of two degrees of separation, you may have five or six, so yes that is the case but we’re actually wanting to bring ideas to New Zealand rather than us being on voice out to find information, we want to get exposure for everybody about, common knowledge is really a goal, but we don’t really have an aspiration to get big on a fit for purpose size, really.
Kevin: Now you’re actively looking for speaker, I mean, you obviously looking for people to go to it, but are you actively looking for some speakers, or some panel representatives?
Ray: Yeah, absolutely, we’re very interested in tech and design and particularly in the interface between those two, and then there’s the whole flow between music and film and the tech applications so, it’s really- if people have got skills that cross over or applications or cross-disciplines, those are the people that we really interested to talk to, and if they got a fascinating story, all the better.
Sebastian: So how can potential speakers and attendees find out more about the festival?
Ray: They just need to go on to our website www.wlg/x.com and you’ll see the festival evolve on that site.
Kevin: Ray it’s been a real pleasure of meeting you and coming from so far I think you must won the award, have you come the farthest you think for the whole South by Southwest?
Ray: Actually it’s one hour flight to Oakland for us and then a 48-hour flight to Houston, so, it’s actually very easy for us to get here but yes it is a long way.
Kevin: It’s been great meeting thanks very much for taking part.
Next time on Move your business to the United States, Day Four, March 12, 2019 South by Southwest, with our driver here Mason, Mason what’s the traffic like today?
Busy.
Busy, yeah.
You’ve been listening to Move Your Business to the United States, with me, Kevin Turley.
And for the short feature on South by Southwest you’re also joined by me, Emmett Glynn.
To find out more, go to mtbonnell.com and remember, Dream Big, dream America
