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@SXSW2021

It's here! We’re talking with people about the fun, the purpose, and the impact of their presence at this year's SXSW.

@DBPardes
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 2:39

SXSW Speaker Bryony Cole - The Future of Sex

article image placeholderBryony Cole
And for those of you who are thinking about what is sextech, which is kind of the moniker that she falls under when we see her speaking in the world, sextech is really the fusion of sexuality and technology. And it's not just about what we think of when we think about sex tech, which is pleasure and p***

A global voice in the sex tech industry, Bryony Cole brings wisdom, pathos, and diversity to this 40 billion dollar industry. #conferenceconnections

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@BryonyCole
Bryony Cole
@BryonyCole · 4:19
I started that in Australia when I first got involved in sex tech when I was really a curious human with a tech background thinking what the h*** is going to happen in the bedroom. Technology has infiltrated so many other parts of our lives from the office to when we go out, how is it going to affect our bedroom?
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@DBPardes
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 1:46

Language ...🌱

And when we don't we I think about Eve Ensler and her v***** monologues and her liberating sort of creation that enabled women to just take a huge, deep dive into their own power and their own bodies. And nobody anticipated the revolution. I think that she created in that. And I think similarly, your approach to sex tech and giving people the keys to their car is a really fascinating journey
@BryonyCole
Bryony Cole
@BryonyCole · 1:48

Live from the nail salon 💅🏻 next to a water feature ⛲️

But whenever taught that in school, and then when it comes to business, being able to comfortably talk on the stage in front of hundreds of people is a real skill in undoing some shame and taboo that we have around the world. Putting tech on the end of admittedly, makes it a little bit easier
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@DBPardes
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 1:22

Augmenting our world for intimacy and touch

And I say caring, because my question to you is, how much can the augmented reality or the VR world allow for a safe place for intimacy with people, where it doesn't go to the extremes of raunchiness and p*** itself, but where it's defined as a safe place for intimacy and touch in a virtual way that can enable people who are starved for intimacy have that experience. I'm so hopeful for that
@BryonyCole
Bryony Cole
@BryonyCole · 1:11
Good morning Monday morning in Little Italy, New York, construction in the background and past going by. So I go for my morning coffee and we're talking about with augmentation and the potential for sex tech to enhance people's lives that maybe weren't able to have access to another human couldn't relate to them much more beyond the sex and sex. I think we're talking about intimacy. And this is where it gets really interesting
@BryonyCole
Bryony Cole
@BryonyCole · 3:05
Now Deborah asked specifically about virtual intimacy and the potential for it there. So how could a technology like virtual reality be able to enhance, supplement the need for emotional connection, intellectual stimulation and have shared experiences together? And we've seen this work quite well in gaming, particularly with shared experiences and activities together. So it's one of those areas where there's lots of potential in virtual reality that's yet to be realized
@BryonyCole
Bryony Cole
@BryonyCole · 4:02
So this is something that should have been around a lot earlier, and I'm very happy to see companies like Handy now entering the sex sex space with these innovative ideas, and they're certainly not going to be the last ones. But if we think about those sort of populations that typically conceive as invisible, they don't have sex. The aging population is another one people that we think they wouldn't be enjoying sexual pleasure, which is actually so wrong
@DBPardes
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 3:01

Messaging to B and to C (and thank you for such a great thorough answer🙏)

There were volunteers waiting, but it was the stigma of walking through those doors to learn how to read at 55 or 60. That really wasn't the challenge of our industry. Do you have a dream where these kinds of advertisements are much more normalized and are able to be targeted to people who probably don't even self identify, but somehow working with large institutions that already service these people to get into their communication strategies and say, hey, please include us because this is as important as getting a job
@BryonyCole
Bryony Cole
@BryonyCole · 4:31
Giving people access to some knowledge and then people that they could pair up with or team up with to build prototypes is really how it begins. And the bigger dream, obviously, is to have a lot more people involved in this industry
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@BryonyCole
Bryony Cole
@BryonyCole · 3:32
And I think the brands are picking up on that. A lot of the onus on sex tech and sexual wellness brands at the moment is to be sex educators because the school system is pretty far behind, almost stuck in the 50s for most people. But we do have a sex tech brand jam coming up in April, where we're inviting designers, brand makers, agencies to join together with sex tech entrepreneurs to create more innovative branding and promotion in the space, which is going to be really exciting
@DBPardes
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 1:57

Sex tech brand Jam is a yes! + Swell as a resource / connector @BryonyCole

Just so that Swell as a brand can be a safe place, an expansive place for people to look into all the different avenues that come up with the future of sex and how we can as a society and as really thoughtful individuals have ownership of this revolution and this evolution and be a part of the advancement on any level. So that's the commitment I'm making out loud here in this conversation
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