SXSW is an annual festival that takes place in the city of live music; Austin, Texas. The festival aims to bring new ideas and inspire people through innovation, technology, music, film, art and a lot of things combined.
This year I had the incredible experience of living the whole festival camped out in an incredible trailer. Since I started coming on behalf of Abundance Brasil, I've become more focused on topics such as climate, technology, innovation, business development and investment. What's more, the event is so random that we network and connect with inspiring people all the time. So the happy hours and meetings are very conducive to connecting with people who can be an important business link or, better still, become your friend.
By coincidence, I had the incredible opportunity to come across this "Plant Music Lounge" which was a lounge designed by Plant Wave, a startup that designs IoT to be plugged into plants, reading the electrical signal, turning it into a wave and generating plant sounds. With this natural and impressive symphony of relaxed plants came a breathing session led by the company's CEO. This incredible experience made me realize that we must trust our instincts, be present to enjoy life and also trust more in the universe and in the natural and hopeful unfolding of the unknown.
This experience also reminded me more strongly that Abundance's first name was actually "432hz", which is the frequency of nature's harmony. Why not harvest the best that forests have to offer the world? Like capturing carbon, restoring soils, springs and fauna, enriching the diversity of fungi while storing carbon in the soil, but ALSO enjoying the beautiful sounds and harmony that forests can generate. Maybe it's a scene for future chapters... but I thought it was pretty cool.
In addition, it was very cool to participate in panels about space exploration and see how people who have already done it (like Sion Proctor for the SpaceX expedition) are striving to make it more feasible for other people.
Still, they talked a lot about this "overview effect", in which you get a peak experience that leads you to a profound realization that we are such a small self within the universe and that the Earth is so beautiful that you come back with great chances of becoming a stronger advocate for environmental and humanitarian purposes. In the end, they said that if 0.5% of the world's population could have this feeling, we would have a better chance of reaching our environmental and social milestones for the overall betterment of the Earth in the coming years.
Some important discussions have arisen, such as: if we invested all the money earmarked for space exploration and sent it to environmental recovery and preservation, would we have a better result in this regard?
Maybe yes, maybe no; it's hard to say. The technological and paradigm shifts involved in space exploration also have some inspiring effects that can contribute to doing our best to restore and protect our planet. I just don't think it's one or the other. I think it's possible to do our best to live in the present and preserve what we have, while at the same time thinking about the future, about new possibilities and cool things to pursue.
Anyway, this mix between connecting with leading entrepreneurs, technologies and visions for the climate future and having this inspiration from space exploration has made me even more excited about what we're doing at Abundance. We have a lot to improve and mature, but we are definitely on the right track to increasing our environmental and social impact through technology.
The musical events at SXSW began more intensely on Wednesday and I had the chance to see some unforgettable and very entertaining performances.
From a different perspective, the FOMO vibes at SXSW are very intense, and it made me realize that we live like this all the time. So feeling bad about something you couldn't attend isn't healthy for your life or your success. AI is growing a lot and will become something unimaginable in the next few years. Therefore, focus, information hygiene and immediate engineering will definitely be some life-changing skills in the coming years.
It was a great week, lots of great friends and new connections, inspiration, music and fun!
Now it's time to summarize the information, land and get back to work.
Because, you know, we have this goal of 1 billion trees that we need to make happen!
SXSW is an annual festival hosted by the city of the live music; Austin, Texas. The festival has the purpose of bringing new ideas intro fruition and inspire people through innovation, tech, music, cinema, art and a lot of things combined.
This year I had this amazing experience of living the full festival camped on an awesome RV.
Since I came representing Abundance, I got more focused on topics such as climate related, tech, innovation, business development and investment. Plus, the serendipity of the event is such that we are networking and connecting to inspiring people all the time. So, the happy hours and meet-ups are very friendly to connect with people who might be an important business connection or, even better, become your friend.
For coincidence, I had this amazing opportunity of finding this "Plant Music Lounge" which was a lounge designed by Plant Wave, which is a startup that designs IoT to be plugged into plants, reading the electric sign, turning into a wave, and outputting plant-sounds. With this natural and awesome relaxed plant symphony also came together a breathwork conducted by the CEO of the company. From that, I got this incredible experience that made me realize that we should trust our instincts, be present to enjoy life and also to trust more in the universe and the natural and expecting unfolding of the unknown.
This experience also made me remember more strongly that the Abundance's first name was actually 432hz, which is the frequency of harmony from nature. Why not harvesting the best the forests has to provide to the World like carbon capture, restoring soils, fountains and faunas, enriching the fungi diversity while stocking carbon in the soil but ALSO enjoying the beautiful sounds and harmony that the forests can generate? Maybe it's a scene for the next chapters... But pretty cool.
Also, it was really cool being part of panels about space exploration and to see people that already did that (like Sion Proctor for SpaceX expedition), came back and are putting some effort to make it more viable to other people. Still, they talked a lot about this "Overview effect" on which you get a peak experience that leads you to a deep realization that we are such a small-self inside the universe and that Earth is so beautiful that you come back from that experience with high chances of becoming a stronger advocate for environmental and humanitarian purposes. By the end, they were saying that if 0.5% of the World's population could have this feeling we would have higher chances of reaching our environmental and social milestones for the Earth's overall improvement on the following years.
Some important discussions came up like: if we invested all this money allocated for space exploration and sent it to environmental restoration and preservation, would we have a better result on that matter?
Maybe yes, maybe no; hard to say. The technology and paradigms shifts involved on the space exploration also has some inspirational effects that can contribute to also giving our best to restore and protect our earth. I just don’t think is one or another; I think is possible to give our best to live in the present and preserve what we have while we are also thinking about the future, the new possibilities, and cool things to be searching for.Anyway, that mix between connecting to the leading entrepreneurs, technologies and visions for the climate future and also having this inspiration from the space exploration got me even more excited about what we are doing right now with Abundance and that we do have a lot to improve and mature, but we are definitely on the right way to escalate our environmental and social impact through technology.
Still, the musical events started more intensely from Wednesday and I had the opportunity to see some unforgettable performances that was lots of fun.
On a different perspective, the FOMO vibes at the event are really intense and that made me realize that we live like that all the time, so feeling bad about something that you couldn't attend is not healthy for your life and also for your success. AI is growing a lot and it will become something unimaginable on the following years. So, focus, information hygiene and prompt engineering are definitely going to be some life-changing skills for the following years.
So, pretty cool week, a lot of great friends and new connections, inspiration, music and fun!
Now, time to wrap-up the information, ground it up and get back to work.
Because, you know, we have this moonshot of 1 billion trees that we need to enable so let's make it happen!
