[MEDIA RELEASE] South by Southwest Sydney® (SXSW Sydney) has today revealed the first round of announcements for its 2024 Conference as well as Music, Games and Screen Festivals, as anticipation builds for the 2nd edition of the annual event.
SXSW Sydney Chair and TEG Group CEO, Geoff Jones said: “After the success of the inaugural SXSW Sydney in 2023, we are once again inspired by the overwhelming response from the creator communities to participate in the 2024 program. This is the first of many announcements as we roll out the extensive and diverse range of visionaries & creative thinkers from around the globe that make up the SXSW Sydney 2024 conference lineup”
“SXSW Sydney is about discovery and an opportunity to be surrounded by the best and brightest minds from Tech & Innovation, Games, Music, Screen and Culture. This year’s SXSW promises to be as inspiring as ever.”
A centrepiece for global thought leaders, emerging talent, and Hollywood luminaries, last year’s inaugural event saw a long list of heavy hitters descend on Sydney, the global centre point for creativity in Asia Pacific, for a week-long celebration of Tech & Innovation, Gaming, Screen, and Music, with notable standout sessions from Chance the Rapper (celebrating 50 years of Hip Hop), Nicole Kidman, Black Mirror creator Charlie Booker and futurist and AI expert Amy Webb.
Building on this success, 2024 is set to step things up with an inspiring first round of Featured Speakers just announced for the SXSW Sydney Conference:
- Australian astronaut at the Australian Space Agency, Katherine Bennell-Pegg
- World-renowned futurist and authority on global business, politics and corporate governance, Ryan Patel
- Global Head of Business Marketing at TikTok, Sofia Hernandez
- Trend curator and founder of Non-Obvious, Rohit Bhargava returning after his popular session in 2023
- Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant
- Award-winning Australian filmmaker and director of Mortal Kombat and Mortal Kombat 2, Simon McQuoid
- Gomeroi and Torres Strait Islander writer, actor, director and publisher, Nakkiah Lui
- Boy, Girl, Artist, Advocate, global queer icon, Australian entertainer and television personality, Courtney Act
- Founder of POPS Worldwide, revolutionising Vietnam’s digital music landscape, Esther Nguyen
- Vice President of Product – AI Platform at IBM, Armand Ruiz
- Australian human rights lawyer and barrister, Jennifer Robinson
- Tennis Australia CEO and Director of the Australian Open, Craig Tiley
- Vice-Chancellor and President of the Australian National University, Professor Genevieve Bell AO
- CEO and Founder of multi-million dollar production studio Spawnpoint Media, Jordan Barclay (AKA EYstreem)
- Group CEO of leading Singapore-based creative agency, The Secret Little Agency, Eunice Tan
- Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of Sydney, Professor Mark Scott AO
- Co-Founder of Metaphysic.ai and Codec.ai, Martin D. Adams
- Founder and Chief AI Officer at the AI Leadership Institute, Noelle Russell
- Filmmaker, 2019 Australian of the Year, and Lieutenant Governor of South Australia, Dr Richard Harris SC OAM
- Founder and CEO of Silicon Quantum Computing, Professor Michelle Simmons
- Host of the hit podcast, The Psychology of your 20s, Jemma Sbeg
- Ass. Dean Indigenous, Faculty of Information Technology, Monash University, Professor Christopher Lawrence
- Co-Founder, Andromeda Robotics, Grace Brown
- Resident architect-councilor, HY William Chan
- Mathematician, comedian, raconteur, and conversationalist, Adam Spencer
The first round of Sessions to be announced provide a taste of the thought-provoking discussions to come:
- 36 Months: Raising the Threshold for Social Media Citizenship (Hamish Blake, parenting specialist Maggie Dent, Michael “Wippa” Wipfli, Nova, and Felicity McVay, former Global Head of Entertainment at TikTok)
- A New Playing Field: Opportunities to Monetise Athlete IP and Expand Sport Globally (Australian Cricketer David Warner, sports advisor David Gallop, Olympian Tillie Kearns, and Nicholas Saady, Pryor Cashman)
- AI and You: What You Need to Know Next (Dr Sandra Peter and Professor Kai Riemer, University of Sydney)
- Designing with Country: Cultural Design as Driver of Extraordinary Contemporary Places (Ros Moriarty, MD, Co-Founder and Creative Executive, and Ngunnawal man Johnny Bridges, Indigenous Creative Lead, Balarinji)
- Beyond the Big Screen: Film Tech in the Real World (Aaron Corera of XM2, Filmmaker Gregory Read, Duncan Jones, CEO of Myriad Studios)
- For News Media, Digital Transformation Isn’t a Process – It’s a State (Lucy Blakiston, founder of Shit You Should Care About; Duncan Greive, founder of The Spinoff; Gaven Morris, Bastion Transform, Lee Lowndes, CEO Daylight)
- The Digital Fashion Experience: In Conversation with Jere Calmes, CEO, The Iconic (Jaana Quaintance-James, CEO of the Australian Fashion Council)
- Meet: Nature – Your Actual CFO. How Nature Impacts Every Organisation and Will Dictate Your Future (Moderated by Atlassian’s work futurist Dom Price, with climate and ecological experts Chris Ewing of Taronga Conservation, Guy Williams of Pollination, Dr Rachel Marshall of Accounting for Nature, and Cr Bradley Widders, National Parks Wildlife Service)
The SXSW Sydney Conference is organised into 23 programming tracks presented in a variety of session formats. This year, Conference tracks include 2050; Advertising & Marketing; AI & Robotics; Culture, Society & Media; Design; Energy, Climate & Sustainability; Future of Work; Games Industry; Health & MedTech; Money, Markets & FinTech; Music Industry; Screen Industry; Sports Industry; Startups; Technology; Transport & Smart Cities; Travel & Leisure, and XR & Metaverse, as well as new tracks Creator Economy; Cyber & Your Data; Education & Skills; Fashion, Lifestyle & Beauty; and Food.
More information on the 2024 Conference program can be found here.
The SXSW Sydney Music Festival has also released the initial music acts for its 2024 lineup, with an electric list of new and emerging talent forming a solid foundation for the program. First up are magnetic multi-hyphenate artist and Heartbreak High star, Ayesha Madon, boundary-pushing triple j Unearthed alumnus, Nick Ward; dreamy Colombian psych-rock trio, BALTHVS; Eora/Sydney artist, singer, songwriter and Queer heartthrob, Total Tommy; 21-year-old vocal prince and first Australian artist to sign with Def Jam, SAHXL; Rising Marranunggu rapper brothers, J-MILLA & Yung Milla; evocative, genre-defying instrumentalist, Joel Sunny; Manila-based Japanese-Filipino electronic-pop artist, Ena Mori; Indie-rock four-piece hailing from Boorloo/Perth, Smol fish; UK-based duo who have toured with the likes of CHVRCHES and Sam Fender, HighSchool; rising Sydney R&B sensation, Maina Doe; and electronic artist-on-the-rise hailing from Seoul, Korea, 404. More information on the Music Festival can be found in the appendix below and at sxswsydney.com/news.
The first round of games have been selected for the SXSW Sydney Games Festival Showcase taking place 17–20 October 2024. Games announced today include Blood Reaver (Hell Byte Games, Australia), Curiosmos (Céline and the Darlings, Belgium), Demon Spore (DinoBoss, UK), DICEOMANCER (Ultra Piggy Studio, China), FRUITBUS (Krillbite Studio, Norway), Hyper Light Breaker (Heart Machine, USA), Mystiques (Lemonade Games, Australia), No Case Should Remain Unsolved (Somi, South Korea), Rose and Locket (Whistling Wizard, New Zealand), and Window Garden (CLOVER-FI Games, Philippines). See addendum. More information on the Games Festival can be found in the appendix below and at sxswsydney.com/news.
The SXSW Sydney Screen Festival has made its initial selection of short films to premiere at the event, including Fish Tank (Wendi Tang, China/USA), Meat Puppet (Eros V, UK), Vivie(Hweiling Ow, New Zealand), and Make Me a Pizza (Talia Shea Levin, USA). More information on the Screen Festival can be found in the appendix below and at sxswsydney.com/news.
Today’s unveiling of SXSW Sydney’s 2024 initial lineup is the first of many announcements within the program.
SXSW Sydney 2024 Badges are now on sale at a special Early Bird rate (prices rise May 16) with new inclusions for Platinum Badge holders. Learn more and buy your badge today at sxswsydney.com.
South by Southwest® (SXSW) Sydney is an annual gathering of visionaries, thought leaders and emerging talents from the Asia-Pacific region. The week-long program is stacked with more than 1,000 events and networking sessions across the key pillars of Tech & Innovation, Games, Music and Screen. The event seamlessly integrates art and entrepreneurship, cutting-edge advancements and fostering a collaborative ecosystem where ideas are exchanged, and partnerships are forged. SXSW Sydney 2024 will take place on 14-20 October, on the land of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation.
SXSW Sydney is supported proudly by the NSW Government through its tourism and major events agency, Destination NSW. Plan your SXSW Sydney 2024 trip now, visit sydney.com
PHOTO: SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – OCTOBER 19: Chance the Rapper speaks during the ’50th Anniversary Of Hip Hop’ keynote at SXSW Sydney on October 19, 2023 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images for SXSW Sydney)
