Why you really shouldn’t announce your big startup news at SXSW. Really. Please.

This is a bit late for this year, but all you tech entrepreneurs and PR folk, copy the URL for this post and add it to your calendar for next year, right around the time you start planning for SXSW 2014. DO NOT LAUNCH YOUR PRODUCT OR MAKE A BIG ANNOUNCEMENT AT SXSW. You: But why? It’s the perfect time! Twitter and Foursquare hit the big time there, if we launch there, we have the chance of a viral hit! Me: Everyone thinks that. Ever since the concept of ‘This year’s big SXSW hit app’ took hold across the tech media, people have been trying to recreate the success of Twitter and Foursquare. It hasn’t happened yet and it maybe never will. Even when the group messaging apps were battling it out a few years ago there was no outright winner, and when the likes of Highlight and Glancee got described as possible SXSW hits last, attendees responded with a collective shrug. Maybe the day of the ‘one big hit app at SXSW’ is gone forever. You: Okay, but with a town full of influential people, it’s the perfect time to make a big splash and let them all hear our news in person! Me: No it isn’t. There are approximately 845 million events in Austin every day during SXSW (well, something like that, I lost count). That means that even if journalists and other ‘influencers’ spot your pitch email in the sea of identikit SXSW pitches flooding their inboxes, they probably won’t have time for a briefing. Even if they do, t