It’s Actually Pretty Easy To Be Green, Says SXSW

Kermit the Frog has been singing the blues…er…greens…about how hard it is to be green for DECADES now.  Take a looksee:

But according to this post from Jaunted.com, the organizers of the ever-popular SXSW are disproving the Muppet’s thoery.

Instead of giving “swag bags” to attendees that contains flyers, trinkets, branded goodies and other budget-busting, tree-slaying materials, SXSW will be going green with a digital SXswag “bag.”  Contents will include free music downloads and other free and discounted materials and services.

This is a tremendous thing for many reasons.

1) Save The Trees – Without trees, we don’t breathe.  We don’t breathe, we die.  Enough said.

2) Easy to Add Contents – If a sponsor comes on last-minute to cover costs, their materials can be included, presumably a million times easier.  Take it from someone that has stuffed thousands and thousands of goodie bags for events…it is not easy to add one more thing.

3) Reduce Staff Stress - Worry less about doodads people will throw away immediately and more on running the coolest conference of the year?  Win!

4) Attendee Back Pain – You get swag at registration and then…carry it around with you all day long.  The bag breaks, you leave it in a panel discussion and can’t find it or ditch it on your way to happy hour.  (It’s OK, we’ve all done exactly that.)  Or…access the portal when you get a break…or get home.  Oh, and don’t worry about stuffing it into your carry-on, either!

I’ll do a review of how SXswag works during or after the conference, but at this point, it sounds like a fantastic idea!