South by Southwest Sydney (SXSW Sydney) has made its first round of announcements for its 2024 Conference and Music, Games and Screen Festivals.

The event, scheduled to take place from 14-20 October 2024, will feature speakers from Atllassian, IBM, The Iconic, The AI Leadership Institute, Balarinji, and more.

"After the success of the inaugural SXSW Sydney in 2023, we are once again inspired by the overwhelming response from the creator communities to participate in the 2024 program. This is the first of many announcements as we roll out the extensive and diverse range of visionaries & creative thinkers from around the globe that make up the SXSW Sydney 2024 conference lineup, said SXSW Sydney Chair and TEG Group CEO, Geoff Jones. "SXSW Sydney is about discovery and an opportunity to be surrounded by the best and brightest minds from Tech & Innovation, Games, Music, Screen and Culture. This year's SXSW promises to be as inspiring as ever."

The first round of Featured Speakers includes:

- Australian astronaut at the Australian Space Agency, Katherine Bennell-Pegg - World-renowned futurist, Ryan Patel - Global Head of Business Marketing at TikTok, Sofia Hernandez - Trend curator and founder of Non-Obvious, Rohit Bhargava - Australia's eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant - Award-winning Australian filmmaker and director of Mortal Kombat and Mortal Kombat 2, Simon McQuoid - Gomeroi and Torres Strait Islander writer, actor, director and publisher, Nakkiah Lui - Boy, Girl, Artist, Advocate, global queer icon, Australian entertainer and television personality, Courtney Act - Founder of POPS Worldwide, revolutionising Vietnam's digital music landscape, Esther Nguyen - Vice President of Product - AI Platform at IBM, Armand Ruiz - Australian human rights lawyer and barrister, Jennifer Robinson - Tennis Australia CEO and Director of the Australian Open, Craig Tiley

The first-round of session announcements include:

- 36 Months: Raising the Threshold for Social Media Citizenship (Hamish Blake, parenting specialist Maggie Dent, Michael "Wippa" Wipfli, Nova, and Felicity McVay, former Global Head of Entertainment at TikTok) - A New Playing Field: Opportunities to Monetise Athlete IP and Expand Sport Globally (Australian Cricketer David Warner, sports advisor David Gallop, Olympian Tillie Kearns, and Nicholas Saady, Pryor Cashman) - AI and You: What You Need to Know Next (Dr Sandra Peter and Professor Kai Riemer, University of Sydney) - For News Media, Digital Transformation Isn't a Process - It's a State (Lucy Blakiston, founder of Shit You Should Care About; Duncan Greive, founder of The Spinoff; Gaven Morris, Bastion Transform, Lee Lowndes, CEO Daylight) - Meet: Nature - Your Actual CFO. How Nature Impacts Every Organisation and Will Dictate Your Future (Moderated by Atlassian's work futurist Dom Price, with climate and ecological experts Chris Ewing of Taronga Conservation, Guy Williams of Pollination, Dr Rachel Marshall of Accounting for Nature, and Cr Bradley Widders, National Parks Wildlife Service)

The SXSW Sydney Conference is organised into 23 programming tracks including 2050; Advertising & Marketing; AI & Robotics; Culture, Society & Media; Design; Energy, Climate & Sustainability; Future of Work; Games Industry; Health & MedTech; Money, Markets & FinTech; Music Industry; Screen Industry; Sports Industry; Startups; Technology; Transport & Smart Cities; Travel & Leisure, and XR & Metaverse, as well as new tracks Creator Economy; Cyber & Your Data; Education & Skills; Fashion, Lifestyle & Beauty; and Food.

The SXSW Sydney Music Festival has named first music acts for its 2024 lineup, including Ayesha Madon, Nick Ward, BALTHVS, Total Tommy, SAHXL and others. The first games for the SXSW Sydney Games Festival Showcase include Blood Reaver (Hell Byte Games, Australia), Curiosmos (C'line and the Darlings, Belgium), Demon Spore (DinoBoss, UK), DICEOMANCER (Ultra Piggy Studio, China), FRUITBUS (Krillbite Studio, Norway) and others.

The SXSW Sydney Screen Festival has made its initial selection of short films to premiere at the event, including Fish Tank (Wendi Tang, China/USA), Meat Puppet (Eros V, UK), Vivie (Hweiling Ow, New Zealand), and Make Me a Pizza (Talia Shea Levin, USA).

SXSW Sydney is supported by the NSW government through its tourism and major events agency, Destination NSW. SXSW Sydney 2024 Badges are now on sale at a special Early Bird rate until May 16.

For the full list of speaker and session announcements, visit the SXSW Sydney website.