Business and Marketing

Marketers love South by Southwest as much as anyone—maybe more.

Throngs of artists, consumers, and of course marketers are convening in Austin this week to consume copious amounts of entertainment, insight, and media at South by Southwest (SXSW). SXSW has grown into one of the premier media and culture events, and every year marketers' interest in the extravaganza grows.

This year is no different.

Panels, presentations, and the inherent buzz that come with the festival seem to be galvanizing marketers—many who are sharing SXSW sights, sounds, and lessons on Twitter.

Critical. Product and marketing, engineering and creative, the need for convergence. Great #SXSW conversations. #sxclash

— Sid Bhatt (@Sid_Aarki) March 17, 2015

The Dark Web needs a marketing strategy. #SXSW #midnightcowboy

— Sam Wilson-Späth (@SamWilson1) March 16, 2015

I've never used Twitter more than during #SXSW. #socialmedia #marketing

— A Lexus OliveOil (@Miss0live) March 17, 2015

"The last ten years, content marketing has been king, great experiences will lead the next ten." @derrick_k_lewis @rapha #sxsw

— Antonia Dunbar (@AntoniaDunbar) March 16, 2015

I'm a huge fan of these inventive #marketing ideas but always wonder - do they make sales more likely in the long run? @GlenGilmore #SXSW

— Robin Lord (@RobinLord8) March 17, 2015

Saw clever quote earlier to the effect: "Wish I was at SXSW so I could see marketers marketing their marketing efforts to other marketers."

— Joseph McKeating (@josifmck) March 17, 2015

As with any other large event, SXSW hype seems equally rife with excitement and enmity.

Drowning in meaningless marketing buzzwords and retweets. Must be SXSW.

— Brian Jepson (@btjepson) March 16, 2015

#SXSW is more about marketing now then music, film, & art.

— Champion.Randy (@EpicScene_LS) March 17, 2015

So, #SXSW is just one huge marketing stunt, right?

— Jake Pechtel (@JakePechtel) March 17, 2015

#SXSW This time use to be fun. Now its a desperate corporate sellout event with attempts to capture trends without doing marketing homework.

— Bluefoolio (@bluefoolio) March 17, 2015

Business Breaking News: Want a Career Boost? Become a Mentor

In a traditional mentorship, there is a mentee, who is usually a new or less-seasoned worker seeking direction in his or her career, and a mentor, who is typically an older professional who imparts wisdom to the mentee based on his or her extensive experience. As a mentee, you can call on your mentor to guide you through your career challenges, help you make difficult decisions and offer advice when you're not sure which direction to take.

"A good mentor [is] an expert active listener who can give constructive but developmental feedback," said Anka Wittenberg, chief diversity and inclusion officer of enterprise software company SAP. "He can put himself [aside] and listen to the mentee. [Mentors should] have a genuine interest in the professional development of others."

Within this context, it might seem that the "student" has much more to gain than the "teacher" from the relationship. Reverse mentoring — having younger employees share their technological know-how and fresh perspective with older ones — and peer mentoring are gaining traction as ways to create more mutually beneficial mentorships, but the classic dynamic can still provide great value to the mentor's professional life. Business leaders shared the ways in which mentoring others has furthered their own career development.[Want to Advance Your Career? Try Peer Mentoring]

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