SXSW Sessions

“More Than Robots” follows four teams of teenagers from around the world as they prepare for the 2020 FIRST® Robotics Competition.

Teams from Los Angeles, Mexico City and Chiba, Japan work towards the goal of taking their unique designs all the way to the highly competitive global championships. Although they are faced with overcoming challenges along the way, such as having limited resources within their community or putting everything on hold because of a world-wide pandemic, the kids persevere and learn that there is a lot more to the competition than just robots.

“More Than Robots” is directed by Gillian Jacobs in her feature-length documentary directorial debut. In this SXSW virtual session, Jacobs is joined by her Community co-star Joel McHale to discuss the challenges and victories shared while making the film.

Sexual pleasure has been lurking in the shadows, hidden discretely in store aisles, lit up in neon on the side of highways, in glimpses on late-night TV, or relegated to the dark and dirty corners of the internet. The sex industry deserves innovation. Global sextech leader Bryony Cole set up Sextech School to do exactly that - bring founders, entrepreneurs, investors, job seekers and learners together in a six week online school to share the best new sextech ideas to transform them into viable businesses and create a vibrant, collaborative and sex positive community that is growing the sextech industry together.

Alexis Jones is on a mission - inspiring people to reconsider stereotypes around sex, gender, and power dynamics. As the founder of I AM THAT GIRL, a badass version of Girl Scouts for college and other women with a 1.2M+ person community online and chapters in 24+ countries, her goal is audacious: to empower women and men of all ages to embrace both the masculine and the feminine traits that lie within each of us.

How did a fringe political issue become a massive business opportunity? When Troy Dayton began working on the cannabis legalization 24 years ago only 25% of Americans supported it. Today, Dayton leads The Arcview Group which is the largest group of cannabis investors and largest publisher of market data. He’s also on the board of the Marijuana Policy Project and the National Cannabis Industry Association. Join him for this special fireside discussion with Leafly's California Bureau Chief David Downs about the past, present and future of the intersection between cannabis advocacy, politics, and global business.

What does the future look like when we have the option to return to the office or remain remote? Which decisions have helped teams, and which changes have thrown communications into disarray? And what mindset shifts are required from leadership?

Join GitLab's Head of Remote, Darren Murph, as he sits down with Savvy Millenial founder Savannah Peterson to discuss the next phase of work and how society will benefit from widespread flexibility.