Joseph Beyer, Director of Digital Initiatives

The views expressed here are entirely my own. If you are already down with PanelPicker and smartly deduced that we want your vote, just click here. If you’re unfamiliar with PanelPicker, read on below.

I love #SXSW. There’s really nothing I don’t like and admire about their incredible growth and magnetism. Some people hate ’em. This post is not for those people. They’re cynics. I know you know what I’m taking about. Yes, #SXSW can be hot. Yes, it’s hard to get a cab. Yes, it’s a little crowded sometimes. Yes, it’s impossible to decide between brisket or more brisket – I get it.

It’s addictive, it disrupts, and it’s still where you bump into someone and something magical can come of it. It’s the kick-in-the-mental ass that let’s you escape that sluggish 2 p.m. feeling and get on with the hard work of using all these tools to further the creative control and benefit for artists and audiences.

I love #PanelPicker even more. I’ve been envious every year since it launched in 2007. It’s simple and it works–I wish I had thought of it. It’s also free to sign-up, free to start voting, whether you’ll be in Texas or not.

With PanelPicker, you help program the panels, workshops, presentations, demos and keynotes that make up the unique overlap of nerds and filmmakers and musicians that is #SXSW. Team #ArtistServices threw 4 horses in that annual race for the first time ever–we tried to offer the #SXSW crowd the very best data and ideas we’d collected through this past year. And it’s been an epic one. Creative Funding is exploding, the Direct-to-Fan movement grows stronger and more competitive, and we now have distribution patterns of over over 60 independent-releases and over 100 successful-projects on Kickstarter totaling $6 million dollars to study and learn from. There is a ton we want to share and talk about.

Click to VOTE FOR “How Subscription VOD Changed The Distribution Game”

Click to VOTE FOR “The Best Distribution Team Money Can Buy”

Click to VOTE FOR “Show Me The Money: How To Get Your Film Funded”

Click to VOTE FOR “Piracy! Are We Doomed?”

If selected, our staffers have promised free donuts and coffee at our panels. We’re going door-to-door on this one and kissing babies, cause we do want to earn your vote. We’d really like to host these truth-only talks.

Thanks for the time today, I approved this message. -@Cinejoe

P.S. Here’s us, this is what Team #ArtistServices is about: watch this FREE encore of our last event at Sundance’s NEXT Weekend in LA, courtesy of panelist Ondi Timoner.