SXSW Sydney 2024 Announces First Batch of Speakers, Showcasing Artists

Astronaut Katherine Bennell-Pegg, entertainer Courtney Act, and Australia’s eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant lead the first round of featured speakers for SXSW Sydney 2024.

Also announced today (May 6) for the 2024 daytime conference are futurist Ryan Patel; global head of business marketing at TikTok, Sofia Hernandez; filmmaker Simon McQuoid; and vice president of product – AI Platform at IBM, Armand Ruiz.

The SXSW Sydney Music Festival, meanwhile, is taking shape with Ayesha Madon, Nick Ward; BALTHVS; Total Tommy; SAHXL; J-MILLA & Yung Milla; Joel Sunny; Ena Mori; Smol fish; HighSchool; Maina Doe; and 404 among the first batch of confirmed performers.

“After the success of the inaugural SXSW Sydney in 2023,” says SXSW Sydney chair and TEG Group CEO, Geoff Jones, “we are once again inspired by the overwhelming response from the creator communities to participate in the 2024 program.”

This, Jones says, “is the first of many announcements as we roll out the extensive and diverse range of visionaries & creative thinkers from around the globe that make up the SXSW Sydney 2024 conference lineup.”

Set for Oct. 14-20 and produced by TEG, this year’s event will feature 23 conference tracks, including freshly-introduced talking points on the creator economy, cyber and your data, education and skills, fashion, lifestyle and beauty, and food.

Also announced today, the first round of conference sessions which include “36 Months: Raising the Threshold for Social Media Citizenship” (with Hamish Blake, parenting specialist Maggie Dent, Michael “Wippa” Wipfli, Nova, and Felicity McVay, former Global Head of Entertainment at TikTok); “A New Playing Field: Opportunities to Monetise Athlete IP and Expand Sport Globally” (with Australian cricketer David Warner, sports advisor David Gallop, Olympian Tillie Kearns, and Nicholas Saady, Pryor Cashman) and “AI and You: What You Need to Know Next” (with Dr Sandra Peter and Professor Kai Riemer, University of Sydney).

According to organisers, 287,014 guests attended the first annual SXSW Sydney, with 97,462 “unique attendees” turning out.

Reporters from The Brag Media were among the 758 media and press, as almost 35,000 tickets (including badges, wristbands and day passes) were distributed.

Sydney is the APAC leg of SXSW and serves as the first expansion city outside of its original home, Austin, Texas, where the event was presented for the first time in 1987.

“SXSW Sydney is about discovery and an opportunity to be surrounded by the best and brightest minds from Tech & Innovation, Games, Music, Screen and Culture,” says TEG’s Jones. “This year’s SXSW promises to be as inspiring as ever.”

Visit sxswsydney.com for more.