SXSW Cares Influences Efforts to Raise Support for Japan

Sitting in a room with the biggest influencers in the world, Durst and Ng realized they were in the perfect place to get something started. “If we can’t pull this off here of all places, then where?” said Ng.

They learned that Rob Woo of CauseVox had the same idea and had created #sxsw4japan. The three met right away, combined efforts and put a plan into action. They asked Hugh MacLeod from Gaping Void to create a logo, and they were off to the races.

“Doesn’t this represent the best of SXSW?” said Durst. “It’s crowd sourced and is rapid development for good.” The effort has been truly collaborative. People are spreading the word and donating money. Ng loves that it’s not just a re-tweet and that people are also digging into their pockets.

SXSW Cares established a formal partnership with the Red Cross. Within two hours they had raised $2,000—half of it from an anonymous donor. “Anyone can be an influencer overnight,” said Durst.

Influencers, indeed. To date, they are up to $7,200 in donations, and it’s only been one day. And to think, it was all conceived in the Samsung Blogger Lounge on Day One of the conference. What can we expect from Day Two? I challenge you, the SXSW community, to continue to come up with even more great ideas and embrace your inner influencer.

Please visit sxswcares.org for more information or to make a donation.

Want to know what else is going on at SXSWi? Check out the Samsung SXSWi Hub.

The views and opinions expressed herein, are my own and do not necessarily represent the views of Samsung USA, Samsung Electronics America INC or any of the parents/affiliates as well as any other individual employee thereof. A stipend was provided to me by Samsung to cover costs associated with this event.


Meghan Scibona is a writer, director, producer and content developer who has produced numerous short films, promos and short documentaries. She most recently added the feature film, Blood Junkies, to her producer/director credits. Meghan has spoken on panels about filmmaking at SXSW and is a partner in Small Media Extra Large, a creative content and digital video production company and interactive studio.