AI Trailblazers SXSW Dinner, March 10, 2024

View photographs below of our over-subscribed AI Trailblazers SXSW Dinner for 90 marketing, product and technology business leaders alongside AI visionaries, authors and startup founders. The evening was simultaneously inspiring, dynamic and entertaining thanks to the attendees, the quality of the conversations and the ambiance at The Well in Austin, Texas.

The evening kicked off with cocktails and introductions by AI Trailblazers Co-Founder, Shiv Singh, setting the stage for the AI Showdown. In this spirited competition, five finalists, selected from over +100 AI startup candidates, delivered compelling pitches to a distinguished panel of judges that included Bonin Bough, Chief Strategy Officer of Group Black, Jennifer Prince, Chief Commercial Partner of the Los Angeles Rams, Jeremiah Owyang, General Partner Blitzscaling Ventures, and Sandy Carter, Chief Operating Officer, Unstoppable Domains. View the AI Showdown page for more on the participants and the winners.

The AI Showdown was followed by a formal sit down dinner where Zach Seward of The New York Times was interviewed by AI Trailblazers Co-Founder, Greg Kahn. Some of the themes included how the The New York Times is using AI to enhance internal workflows, investigative journalism, data analysis and even multi-modal storytelling. Zach, who's role is probably closest to a Chief AI Officer, also talked about the Kate Middleton doctored photo controversy which broke barely an hour before the dinner and what it meant.

As dinner was winding down, Guy Griggs of The NYT and Andy MacMillan of UserTesting shared their reflections on the AI space. We then announced the winners of the AI Showdown (congratulations Atomo Health!) and concluded with our third Co-Founder Amit Shah recapping the evening and closing it out.