Wrestling With SXSW

A crowd outside the Mohawk during SXSW 2014 (Photo by John Anderson)

Commissioned to "identify challenges, problems, issues, and risks" currently afflicting South by Southwest, global design and planning firm Populous issued a Sept. 30 report on its workshop with SXSW and managers of six different city of Austin departments (including Austin Police Department, Fire Department, and EMS). The report offers simple deductive reasoning: SXSW makes this city an extremely large amount of money by putting on a conference that, while long ridden with logistical growing pains, has now reached a critical mass making it difficult for the company to control how it runs its business.

The group recommended a series of organizational changes that may allow SXSW to continue generating comparable revenues for itself and the city, while simultaneously increasing site safety and maneuverability for individuals involved with the event. Populous' report concludes with the implication that difficulties succeeding in those two projects could result in the company finding another city in which to hold the conference.

Issuing that last proviso, all the firm forgot was an animated GIF showing a stack of greenbacks on a truck to San Antonio.

SXSW immediately attempted to walk back the reaction to Populous' report; SXSW Managing Director Roland Swenson told the Statesman that evening that "SXSW is so tied up in Austin and we reflect each other so much that I can't really imagine that happening." The company also issued a statement that same day, Oct. 2, separating its own sentiments concerning unofficial events from the report's – which get a thoroughly raw deal under the Populous review – by refocusing the discussion on temporary events: "The Populous report is their expert assessment and opinion, not ours, and we agree with most of it, but not all of it." (For what it's worth, it was city staff that made the initial introduction of the Populous firm to SXSW management.)

SXSW's eventual framework hinges on today's uncertainty over how the city of Austin can open the pressure valve on civic resources while still keeping the company's economic benefits to the city somewhere around $315 million. City Manager Marc Ott's assessment dropped five weeks ago, and suggested a number of changes ranging from marked corridors for pedicabs to increased scrutiny over temporary event permits (see "SXSW Post-Mortem," Sept. 12). But it failed to address how to direct or redirect the conference runoff's wandering crowds, safety hazards in themselves.

Populous suggests exiling those masses altogether by creating barricades both literal ("a controlled soft perimeter" with safety and security checks) and figurative ("a legal injunctive zone ... that protects the brand equity and its sponsors") to keep uninvolved parties at bay. The report addresses safety, but focuses on safety as a detail of a contained event – not a civic party. Its insistence on recognizing the former but not the latter seems a logistical oversight, and also suggests that Pop­u­lous was not an ideal appraiser of this particular event.

Indeed, the firm admits quite early in its report that SXSW's sprawl and complexities make it "not possible for an outside entity to have a strong grasp of all the operations in a short period of time." But a look through Populous' dossier also makes clear the company is simply not accustomed to assessing such events. Of the 718 projects listed on its website, 94 pertain to stadiums, 72 to arenas, 90 to ball parks, and 25 to convention centers. There are sections for colleges, training centers, landscape architecture designs, tennis centers, Olympic villages, and Super Bowl boulevards. Its "Events and Accreditation" section focuses on singular events like the NFL Draft, World Cup, Democratic National Convention, and Big Air events. At no point does the company boast assessment of a citywide function like Mardi Gras, Oktoberfest, or Carnivale. It specializes in temporary behemoths, not monsters intertwined.

Such inexperience results in a critical misunderstanding – you can't build a wall around a city and expect a citywide festival to take place inside. There are businesses unassociated with SXSW that are fully entitled (and need) to operate throughout the 10-day stretch, as well as suppliers and participants who must make their way through, unencumbered. Not to mention a mess of disgruntled badge-holders who can't believe they're stuck in an access line waiting for their turn to traverse down a city street.

How do you wrestle an octopus? Very carefully.