Irish success at SXSW, reviewed by Barry O’Dowd, IDA

Latest guest post by Barry O’Dowd. Who we recently interviewed here, and who previewed SXSW for us here.

As you may have seen Ireland, the IDA, and Irish business in general had a successful and productive time at SXSW. As one of principal cheerleaders for Irish Business overseas we caught up with Barry to ask him how it went in Texas.

IDA Ireland used the occasion of this year’s SXSW gathering in Austin Texas to promote Ireland’s creative & innovative culture. Austin is the fastest growing city in the US and is the hometown of UT –  the University of Texas – which is the biggest college in Texas. In recent years it has witnessed a major upsurge in the number of tech companies and IDA is building upon this opportunity.

Austin already has a number of its home town companies located in Ireland including Indeed.com, Dell,Amazing.com, Solar Winds and Loop 1. In early 2015 IDA opened a new office in Austin where it now has two marketing executives. In addition the Government  has opened a new Consulate there.

SXSW is a major annual event which attracts tech and media companies from across the US .It originated as a music festival but has grown to become a leading tech and media event attracting over 100,oo people over two weeks.

IDA brought MACNAS to Austin in conjunction with Culture Ireland and 3 corporate sponsors KPMG, Bank of Ireland and Eversheds. It proved very successful in showcasing Ireland as an innovative & creative country which could act as a beach head for US companies wishing to locate in Europe. Creativity and tech go hand in hand particularly for young early stage fast growth companies. The MACNAS “POP UP THEATRE “ on 6^th Street in downtown Austin generated lots of attention  for Ireland and received extensive media coverage  especially on social media. For example the Twitter handle- hashtag Ireland On 6^th Street – had a reach of over 1.1 m and 5.4m potential impressions over a couple of key days leading up to and after the event. IDA convened a number of targeted marketing events alongside the street activities which were very well attended.

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