Residence for SXSW Panelpicker 2027

SXSW builds part of its lineup by vote. Anyone with a free account can weigh in on which proposals make the stage in Austin next March, and the community vote is a real input into what gets programmed.

Eight sessions from across the Residence network are in the running for SXSW 2027. Brand systems at enterprise scale, a new way to measure whether a brand means anything, synthetic audience research, manga fandom, golf, and the influencer economy.

How to Vote

1. Click through to a session below.

2. Create a free SXSW account. Takes about 30 seconds.

3. Hit the heart button in the top right of the session page.

Voting closes Sunday, August 23. 

You can vote on every session, so read through and back the ones you want to see.

The Sessions

Category Transfer: A Bank's Brand Playbook
Residence x J.P. Morgan Payments

• Ben Langsfeld, Chief Creative Officer, Residence

• Karina Vivas, Executive Director, Global Brand and Creative, J.P. Morgan Payments

J.P. Morgan Payments is an $18 billion B2B business with a brand challenge: expressing the modernity of payments today while carrying the legacy of one of the world's most iconic financial institutions. Ben Langsfeld, CCO of Residence, and Karina Vivas, ED of Global Brand & Creative at J.P. Morgan Payments, share how they built a design language honoring that legacy while giving the business a bold, contemporary expression. They explore how to build brand consistency without sacrificing differentiation, and what any organization can learn from executing brand architecture at enterprise scale.

VOTE HERE

A Metric for Meaning: Share of Culture
OK COOL

• Liz Stone, Co-Founder, OK COOL

Marketing can count everything and prove almost nothing. We track impressions, reach, and engagement, then quietly admit none of them tell us whether a brand actually matters to anyone. Liz Stone, co-founder of OK COOL, makes the case for a different metric, share of culture, and the work behind measuring meaning instead of volume. If you can't measure whether you matter, you'll keep spending to be seen instead of building to be felt.

VOTE HERE

New Money: How Design Turns Technology Into Money
Residence x Phantom

• Ben Langsfeld, Chief Creative Officer, Residence

• Thierry Ambraisse, VP Creative, Phantom

Money is changing faster than trust can move. Value now crosses borders and platforms while trust still forms through local habits, institutions, and rules. Every new rail faces the same question: why should anyone trust this as money? Wealthsimple answered with outdoor art about mortgage-rate anxiety, Cash App with a card that entered hip-hop culture, and Phantom with a ghost people love. We helped build all three, one in-house and one agency-side. This teardown opens the briefs, decisions, shipped work, and results: how design earns the trust that makes new technology money.

VOTE HERE

Synthetic Research: Balancing AI With Human Judgement
Part and Sum

• Katrina Klawiter, Sr. Manager, Analytics, Part and Sum

• Leila Wu, Director of Strategy, Part and Sum

We've spent years studying how brands build understanding of their customers. We've watched that process slow, become more expensive, and grow more disconnected from the speed at which decisions are actually made. Meanwhile, synthetic research and AI persona work are becoming fast replacements for traditional research. But there's another way forward: Synthetic Audience Models (SAMs). In this presentation, we'll dive into the SAM methodology: a hybrid approach that turns static audience research into an evolving decision tool. One that keeps teams closer to their customers. Not further away.

VOTE HERE

Blame the Generation? Then What?

• It's Nice That, organized by CLIP

• Alex Bec, Co-Founder, It's Nice That

Every generation gets blamed for changing work. Millennials are entitled. Gen Z isn't work-ready. Gen Alpha is next. But what if we have been looking in the wrong place? As technology and AI reshape roles, many entry-level jobs demand experience before experience exists. If the next gen enters work under different conditions and employers still say they aren't ready, what explanation is left? Drawing on 20 years of creative industry insight through It's Nice That, 10 years of Creative Lives in Progress, and leading employer perspectives, we explore rethinking talent, technology, and the future of work.

This one is up for both events, so it has two entries:
VOTE HERE (SXSW)
VOTE HERE (SXSW EDU)

Beyond the Page: Manga, Fandom & Brand Love
ACRONYM with Kodansha USA

• Michael Fullman, Chief Creative Officer, ACRONYM

• Alvin Lu, CEO, Kodansha USA

Some fandoms span generations. Founded in 1909, Kodansha is Japan's largest publisher and the home of iconic Manga, including Attack on Titan, Sailor Moon, and Akira. In this fireside chat, Alvin Lu (CEO, Kodansha USA) and Michael Fullman (CCO, ACRONYM) explore manga's evolution from page to screen to immersive real-world experiences, revealing how Kodansha has expanded globally while staying true to the stories that inspired devoted fan communities in the first place.

VOTE HERE

Inside the Shift: How High Noon Rebuilt Its Golf Playbook
OK COOL x High Noon

• Quinn Frehner, Head of Strategy, OK COOL

• Heather Ward, Head of Influencer and Creator, OK COOL

• Jordan Guadagno, Senior Brand Manager, High Noon, Gallo

High Noon had long been present in golf, casually consumed at the course and showing up in legacy settings, but it never fully captured the sector. Transfusion changed that: a social-first approach, a capsule with Good Good, and a bat signal, "It's Fusion Time", met golf's audience where they actually interface, the group text, the cart ride, the 19th hole. The market broke open. UGC poured in unprompted, the campaign hit brand records and sold out in a month. This session unpacks what changed, and why meeting an audience where it lives turns a campaign into a two-way relationship, not a broadcast.

VOTE HERE

An Insiders Look at the Influencer Bubble: When Will it Pop?
OK COOL

• Heather Ward, Head of Influencer and Creator, OK COOL

Influencer marketing isn't on its way to disappearing; it's reaching an inflection point. As algorithms, AI, and trend cycles create a sea of sameness, the real bubble isn't creators; it's brands that don't reject formulaic creator marketing. This session will roadmap that the future belongs to brands with taste: those that prioritize originality over trends and treat creators as cultural collaborators. The tension is that the influencer bubble will never pop; it will evolve, rewarding brands that create lasting cultural resonance over fleeting relevance.

VOTE HERE

The Deadline

Voting closes Sunday, August 23. Sessions are announced later this fall, and SXSW 2027 runs in Austin next March.