If you’ve ever been to SXSW, you know what the RVIP Lounge is. It’s the RV that drives around Austin at night luring the drunken masses onboard to belt out Ace of Base songs. Yes, it’s the mobile karaoke extravaganza. And yes, it will be back this year. With a big time twist.
This year’s RVIP has attracted four big sponsors: Foursquare, Andreessen Horowitz, Get Satisfaction, and Wired. And each sponsor represents a faction at the conference that will be battling for respect, to the death… of their voices. East coast startups will be represented by Foursquare. West coast startups by Get Satisfaction. Investors by Andreessen Horowitz. And lastly, the press by Wired.
When you board the RV this year, you’ll be asked to choose to side with one of those four teams. Performances “and the general ability to ‘bring it'” will earn points that go on the RVIP Leaderboard. These points will be dished out by the audience subjected to the singing in the RV.
On Monday night, March 14, there will be a finale. There, the four sponsors will be represented by the following people:
- Get Satisfaction: Thor Muller & Keith Messick
- Foursquare: Dennis & Naveen
- AH: Ronnie Conway & Yujin Chung
- Wired: Jon Snyder
As if that weren’t enough to get you on board, Get Satisfaction will have a “Wheel of Satisfaction” on the RV to help you pick songs and make drinks. Foursquare will be highlighting the mayor of the RV for all to see — and they’ll get priority pickups by the van. Best of all though, they’ll get access to the “Mayor’s Throne”. I’m assuming that’s not a toilet, but we’ll see.
And apparently, Andreessen Horowitz is promising “magic carpet rides” — I have no idea what that means either, but it should be fun to watch!
So if you’ll be in Austin next week, be on the look out for the RV. Apparently it will be “one million times more visually stunning than previous years,” we’re told.
You’ll be able to follow the RVIP Lounge on Twitter to get location updates throughout SXSW. The awesomeness on wheels also made it to TED and AFI in the past year. It’s the brainchild of actress and musician Kestrin Pantera, product manager and startup founder Jonathan Grubb, and Walt Disney Imagineering CTO Scott Watson.
