.png)
Will Dupree, KXAN Midday Anchor: Welcome back, everybody, and thanks again for being with us. Austin's iconic South by Southwest is going to London for the first time ever. The festival will head overseas starting next week, and musicians, artists, tech experts and entrepreneurs from all over the world will gather for this inaugural event.
Avery Travis, KXAN Midday Anchor: And of course, the festival's hometown of Austin will be represented in part thanks to the founders of Texas House. That's an activation from the Austin festival just a few months back. The goal is to give Texans a platform to tell their stories on a global stage.
Will Dupree: So joining us this morning is founder and president Will Herrmann and the VP of Communications, Alex Kuehler Will and Alex, thanks for being here.
Will Herrmann, Founder & President of Texas House: We appreciate it.
Alex Kuehler, VP of Communications: Thanks for having us.
Will Dupree: We appreciate you all coming in before you head overseas, too. So, I know that's going to be a lot to pack for, but before we get to London, I want to start at the beginning of all this - talk to us about how Texas House started. Because I believe this most recent South by Southwest was the first time that that happened.
Will Herrmann: That's correct. Yeah. So, Texas House was actually the idea of my late wife, Abby. Texas House was something that we thought needed to happen. After many years of attending South by Southwest and seeing a house for every city, state, and country except our own, we thought it was time to tell our story.
Avery Travis: And talk to us a little bit about what the spirit of that was. I got to go and actually got the opportunity to moderate one of these panels. Shout out to Dr. Levander with Rice University. But that was just one example of the way that you guys really infused the Lone Star spirit into this festival, that you know, you would think would already have a uniquely Texan edge, but, like you said, is sometimes lacking.
Will Herrmann: I think it's we're right on time. We're living in an era of significance in this state that we've not seen since we discovered oil. It is a remarkable time to be a Texan, and I think that the world needs Texans and what we have to offer more than ever.
Alex Kuehler: Texas House is really a platform to bring Texan voices to the global stage. And we're living through this period of significance, like Will said, since we discovered oil, and we have all these different things to offer to the world. There's so many tech companies who are coming to Austin. There are so many different avenues. We just saw the project in Abilene, right? There are so many different things, whether it's space, defense, tech, life sciences, our universities are leading in so many areas. So, we felt it was time that we had Texas House tell that story. We wanted to give a platform for Texans to be able to tell that story across borders and across the globe, and now you'll be able to tell that story in London.
Will Dupree: So I want to ask about that. Now that the festival is going on over there, holding its first event, how did the opportunity come up to have Texas House there?
Will Herrmann: We saw that they announced that they were going to London, and we were half dead after that event, and thought that we had just enough steam left in us to take another swing at it and and here we are.
Alex Kuehler: And there was afterwards as well - It was our first event right at SXSW in March, and so we wanted to see how the event went. We wanted to iterate from it. And so we learned a lot of great things from that event, and what we can do better. And so we saw this opportunity in London, and we were like, well, there's only a couple months away! Let's jump at the opportunity and give it another go. And so we have a really great platform now, and the whole thing right from the beginning was Texans leading global conversations. And what better place to do that than in a global city like London?
Avery Travis: So what can people expect if they are wanting to follow Texas House as it heads across the pond? What can people expect from the programming? What might be different than what they saw back in March here? And then what's, of course, going to be the same.
Will Herrmann: Well, we have barbecue this time. Strangely enough, we managed to find a spot in London that is a reputable barbecue spot and [we will have] a bit more music locally. We're bringing folks like Rice University with us again. I'd say that what's different about it this time is we have a much larger cultural component that we we didn't have as much of here at SXSW here in Austin, and so this event here in London, we're taking as an opportunity to showcase more of our culture to the rest of the world, so people can see all the things that we Texans love.
Alex Kuehler: And on that note, we've got some interesting things that are happening, which are a little bit different than what we did in our first iteration. In our first iteration, we had a lot of wonderful panels. We saw many panels from Rice University, right, the EU at SXSW came and did some panels at Texas House. So we had a lot of really interesting things that were happening. Now we're also going to have some great panels in London. But we also have [items like] "Deep in the Heart," which is an award-winning film. The documentary "Deep in the Heart," I think it won SXSW in 2019, the award for best documentary film. That was directed by Ben Masters. He's a local right here in Austin, Texas, A&M grad. And then it was also narrated by our local hero, Matthew McConaughey. So we're going to have a showing of that film as well. We've got a barbecue panel as well as and we're going to be talking a little bit about fashion. Will mentioned the gentleman [whose] restaurant is Texas Joe's Barbecue in London. He's a Texan. Has a barbecue joint over there.
Will Dupree: Wow.
Alex Kuehler: So the barbecue is going to be from him, and he also does Union Western Clothing. So, we're going to have a couple of [his custom outfit designs] on display. He's outfitted Post Malone, done custom [suits] for others like Charlie Crockett and Lil' Nas X. We're gonna have a lot of really interactive and fun, and interesting things going on at this next iteration in London.
Will Dupree: I guess our final question is, can we come? Take us with you.
Avery Travis: Yeah, take us with you!
Will Herrmann: Yes, we're leaving Friday [May 30th, 2025]
Alex Kuehler: So absolutely, we've got some room. And you know, everyone else is welcome to if you're going to South by Southwest in London, come check us out.
Avery Travis: Some room in the bag for the cowboy boots too, of course,
Alex Kuehler: And the hat. Can't forget it!
Avery Travis: Alex, Will. Thank you so much for being here. We really appreciate it. It was so fun to get to take part back in March. So I can't wait to see what you all do in England and get a full report when you make it back to the States.
Alex Kuehler: You guys will have it! texashouse.org, if anybody wants to go check it out and sign up to go with us in London.
Avery Travis: Fantastic. Thank you guys so much.
###
