Dan Lacaze: A Suit in SXSW – day one

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long horns.jpgDan Lacaze, a Group Account Director at BMF Sydney, is attending SXSW in Austin, Texas and is writing a daily diary exclusively for Campaign Brief.

Day 1: the arrival

Why is it that suits rarely get a trip abroad? Sure we enjoy the odd long lunch, but you’d have to sneak an award winning ad through your ECD to get a ticket to Cannes. And unless you’ve got ‘Digital’ in your title you’ll have a hard time convincing management you need to be at SXSW.

Have faith my dear friends, for the times they are a changing.

The interactive world descends on Austin, Texas each March for the biggest and most progressive digital conference in the world. And I have just arrived (albeit without my suit). That’s ok, because everywhere you go there is a gaggle of geeks in jeans and t-shirts hammering away furiously on keyboards, thumbing phones and adjusting spectacles.

the result.jpgMy old mate Paul Dery (pictured above left with me today) is the ECD at R/GA Austin, and he has kindly offered to show me the ropes and give me his inside tips on the best keynotes. He picked me up this evening from the airport in his “hog” (old Ford Bronco) and we went direct to a Texan BBQ rib house where they smoke meat for 13 hours a day! Paul loves America and his insight into the way the yanks consume media, particularly the impact of a high penetration of Cable and IPTV, is a foreshadowing of what is about to happen at home.

On top of that, my Australian Uber app worked seamlessly to get me back to the hotel after dinner. In fact it had augmented features such as the ability to stream your own Spotify playlist to the car, or share a ride, and these features didn’t require a new app download.

If we’re a couple of years behind the States, then it’s an exciting time for Australia.

And it’s an exciting time to be a #bmfSuitInSXSW

dan-lacase-SXSW.jpgDan Lacaze is a Group Account Director at BMF. With over 13 years experience in the industry, Dan has been driven by the power of creativity to create unfair advantage. He has worked across a range of Agencies and also spent three years on the inside at Coca-Cola. Whilst there he launched Coca-Cola Australia into social media. He then delivered the experiential component of the Share a Coke campaign, and most recently developed a world first innovation for Australia Post – a Video Stamp, which has been awarded at Cannes, D&AD, the Webby’s and the Asian Marketing Effectiveness Awards. At BMF Dan works on Lion, FFA, Sporstbet and new business.