An exhibition that looks to the future: that of music, arts and technology. There are 11 companies, including innovative startups and players in the audiovisual and music market, that make up the Italian pavilion in the "Creative Industries Expo" of the main event dedicated to cinema and independent music in the United States, the "South by Southwest" (SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas.
This year is the first structured Italian presence at the Texan event which, although mainly affecting the world of entertainment, hosts a real fair of innovative technologies: from the smart device that facilitates guitar learning, to the intelligent music library that finds the right soundtrack for each video, up to the many A.I. systems that support companies and creatives.
The Italian mission, coordinated by ICE, the Agency for the promotion abroad and internationalization of Italian companies, brings together virtuous actors from the world of audiovisual arts and innovation, promoting Italian creativity as a strong brand in the American and international market.
"Austin joins the calendar of important American trade fairs in which we make known the excellence of Made in Italy. - Underlines the Director General of ICE Agency Roberto Luongo - This time the focus is on Italian creativity that is increasingly expressed in the talent of our young innovators, in the audiovisual industry and in music. We disembark for the first time with an integrated project of the ICE Agency in South by Southwest, which for 35 years has been the strategic appointment for the main American entertainment and innovation industries. The slogan of our pavilion, "A Taste of Italian Creativity", sums up well our strategy of enhancing Italian companies overseas. Austin thus joins the calendar of important US trade fairs, including CES in Las Vegas, where we want to introduce the entire Italian industrial ecosystem to the market, highly specialized and able to compete in the most strategic sectors at a global level".
ICE Press Office
Tiziano Lamberti for "Sounzone", an audiovisual company that provides an innovative library of music tracks that can be used as a soundtrack for games and videos
SXSW Creative Industries Expo and the Italian pavilion
The exhibition, which remains open during the 4 central days of "South by Southwest" (between 12 and 15 March, while the festival takes place between 10 and 19 March), brings together innovative companies from around the world to offer a perspective on how creativity, through technology, will change society in the coming years.
Italy participates for the first time with its own pavilion, where 7 innovative startups and 4 companies from the audiovisual and music industry are protagonists. Among the startups stand out the many solutions based on artificial intelligence that optimize data related to business or create adaptive marketing campaigns with generative A.I., but also those to create interactive three-dimensional virtual worlds and an innovative smart device that through LEDs allows you to learn to play the guitar showing where to put your fingers. Audiovisual companies include film production companies and a platform that optimizes the sourcing of high-quality music for soundtracks.
Among the scheduled events: the "Spritz, Tech & Sounds" evening at the Stephen F Austin Royal Sonesta Hotel organized by ICE on March 14th, an opportunity to meet and network with industrial players and investors, in which the pitches of young innovative talents are accompanied by the showcases of some Italian artists invited by the SXSW organizers: the singer-songwriters, Prim and HerSkin, both from Modena, and the Bolognese duo Baseball Gregg.
And the Music Industry Happy Hour on March 16 at the Fairmont Hotel, coordinated together with the organizers of SXSW in order to encourage meetings between the music companies of the Italian delegation and the Italian artists present at the event, with American professionals in the music sector.
ICE Press Office
Vincenzo Maresca for "Visual Note", a startup that has created an instrument to facilitate guitar learning
ICE
The Agency for the promotion abroad and the internationalization of Italian companies is the government body that supports the development of the country's companies on global markets, promoting the attraction of foreign investments in Italy. The ICE Los Angeles office coordinates the mission to SXSW with its team specialized in innovation and audiovisual-music. The Agency is present all over the world as Italian Trade Agency (ITA) with a vast network of offices, providing advice and training to Italian SMEs and putting in place modern marketing and communication strategies to promote the excellence of Made in Italy.
The audiovisual and music team promotes Italy as a destination for film productions and the synergy between Italian and American industry players, thanks also to the dedicated platform italymeetshollywood.com, as well as numerous promotional initiatives on the US market such as American Film Market, Game Developers Conference, Kidscreen Summit, Billboard Latin Week and Audiovisual Producers Summit.
The IT innovation desk is active in supporting young talents and startups in the American market with numerous promotion initiatives and personalized assistance services, to facilitate the collection of funding and the validation process on the market.
Among these, the acceleration-incubation program GlobalStartup Program which, in its third edition, offers every year to 100 Italian startups paths on 9 foreign markets – including 4 in the United States (New York, Chicago, Houston, San Francisco), Singapore, France, United Kingdom, Germany, United Arab Emirates, South Korea, Japan, China – for a period of 8 weeks.