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Innovation at the SXSW Trade Show

Here in Austin, we’re right in the midst of South By Southwest, an interactive, film and music festival. One of the festival’s main exhibits is the Trade Show. The exhibit features staples and startups across industries, showcasing the innovation and advances they are making in their respective sectors. We stopped by and are highlighting some companies whose products and apps are optimizing technology in innovative and creative ways.

 

Agbara Life

Oftentimes, clothing equipped with useful technologies can be bulky and severely lack aesthetic appeal. But Agbara Life is bridging that gap between technology and fashion with their sleek, minimalist backpacks. The bag includes a built-in battery for charging your laptop, and RFID blocking technology for additional security, protecting your content. Their products are cruelty-free and part of the proceeds go to connecting the youth in underrepresented communities with STEM programs.

 

Unique Creative Ideas, LLC

Founded in 2016, Unique Creative Ideas, LLC built the SOLSOL hat, headwear that charges your cell phone — and it’s really as simple as that. The snapback-style hat has a solar panel built into the brim that charges your phone for as long as the sun is shining. Since the hat does not have any built-in battery supply, you don’t have to worry about the hat being noticeably different from a regular one.

 

Earasers

Conceptualized by a drummer who desired to hear the sound of his cymbals while he played, Earasers’ Musician’s HiFi Earplugs are made to be discreet and comfortable, without sacrificing sound quality. The earplugs are made from medical-grade silicone that is flexible to fit into most ears without trouble. With an innovative design that places the filter closer to the eardrum, the earplugs eliminate resonation and tunneling of sound. This helps prevent muffling and improves sound clarity.

 

Festy

Festy, in brief: the future of payment in the entertainment industry. The Festy wristband is fitted with an NFC chip, allowing you to leave your wallet at home and complete transactions, touch-free. This technology is unique. In addition to being connected with a trusted bank, the band can be used to make purchases with cryptocurrencies. The band even comes in handy for unforeseen medical emergencies. The band stores vital health information, and has already been utilized at Electric Picnic, an Irish arts-and-music festival.  All of this information is private and encrypted, so you control how your data is dispersed or hidden.  

 

Origaudio

Origaudio makes a number of innovative products, but one that jumped out at me was the Aurabox 2.0 bluetooth speaker. The speaker functions similarly to Bluetooth speakers and has an animated display. But there’s a twist: it has an app. With the ap, you can customize the display to show the weather, time, gallery animation, or create a hand-draw gif. The interface displays incoming notifications by flashing the logo of the respective company logos. You can even record voice memos, chat with fellow Aurabox users, or play games while you enjoy your favorite tunes.

 

Revinyl

If you’re a tech-savvy LP collector, you’ll want to check this out. Revinyl is an app that doubles as a marketplace and social platform for record collectors. Through the app you can buy, sell and stream the records you own. By searching for specific artists or albums, you can follow collectors located worldwide with similar interests and engage with them and their music libraries. It’s time to bring your love for the vintage into the 21st Century — with a platform specifically designed to do so.  

 

goHappy

Event planning is tough — event planning with friends and family is near impossible. The app goHappy aims to make the feat more feasible with a single platform to help you build good relationships and live a happier life. With the app,  you can create private groups for all of your different social circles and plan, execute and memorialize your get-togethers. In one place you can poll event dates, create calendar events, organize logistics with group-specific messages and checklists and share pictures with everyone simultaneously. All of the information that is usually fractured across platforms and mediums is compiled into one, organized and easily-accessible place.