Robert Baird

South By Southwest 2016. Digital Natives, Millennials. VR! VR!! VR!!!

What was once a music festival has now, wisely I have to admit, become a technology conference, all of which loosely fits under the umbrella heading of the term, interactive. What does all this technology actually do? And is any of it practical? Does any of it apply to life right now? I have to admit that watching real estate being sold live in real time over a computer (to buyers who never actually saw the house?) was fairly odd. As someone who remembers when music was the focus of South By Southwest, I tend to cast a very wry eye upon these inventors, these artistic toy makers. Clearly though, many apps are useful. I use them every day. And it’s great to see all this young energy unbounded, the future shining before us. If we live in an economy of ideas, then SXSW interactive is full of them, good, bad and indifferent. Oh yeah, and VR, virtual reality, is going to change everything on this planet, or at least that's the word in interactiveland.

Dispensing with all those chips and apps and sexy textured mobile device cases, the French, being French—and let me say I adore France so this is not a take down— decided to cut to their strong suit and push these stylish lighted running shoes, whose purpose, outside of looking very glammy and cool, was mysterious.