Following SXSW, Imgembed had more than 1 million images uploaded and received coverage from 80 media channels and blogs.

Several Singapore startups have made a promising debut in North America with their participation in South by Southwest (SXSW), one of the biggest digital media festivals and conferences in the United States. The 2013 SXSW event took place in Austin, Texas, in March, and the Singapore delegation was led by the San Francisco Office of the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA).

“SXSW was a huge success for us,” said Mr Alex Goh, Founder of Imgembed, a participating startup which enables free, fair and efficient use of images online. “We were there to raise awareness for our products (acquire new users), generate media buzz, and meet with investors. At the event, we had close to 600 contacts who left business cards at our booth. Following the event, we now have more than 1 million images uploaded, coverage by 80 media/blogs, and currently in talks with investors.”

Through image embeds, Imgembed allows websites and bloggers to use hosted images that are automatically attributed to the creators. Premium use of images is further enabled with CPM pricing (paying only for the actual impressions displayed). This gives content owners maximum control, protection and ability to monetise their creative work, while giving bloggers and site designers access to great images without infringing on permissions and copyright.

Another company which had a successful showcase at SXSW was ConnectedHealth , a mobile health company which provides a wireless platform connecting health devices to healthcare providers via the cloud.

ConnectedHealth is focused on business-to-business (B2B) deployments to hospitals, insurance companies and healthcare organisations. “Our sales cycle is long and it is a B2B cycle. SXSW was not about closing sales but instead about identifying initial engagement opportunities,” said its Chief Executive Officer Mr Mike Holt.

CarbonStory, a crowd funding platform for climate change projects, was present at SXSW to launch its public beta and raise its profile in the media.

ConnectedHealth’s participation in SXSW was focused mainly on customer and partner meetings. This has led to discussions with several target customers which could potentially lead to evaluations and trials. The company is also exploring partnerships and is in discussions with potential investors, said Mr Holt.

CarbonStory, a crowd funding platform for climate change projects, was also present at SXSW to launch its public beta and raise its profile in the media. CarbonStory lets users sponsor projects that offset their own carbon footprints and share their involvement with friends via Facebook to encourage others to get involved.

At SXSW, the company was placed second in a competition by VentureBeat (a leading online technology publication focusing on innovative companies) for best bootstrapped startup, and seventh overall for all startups at SXSW. “It was great to see CarbonStory performing well in the VentureBeat competition. This raises awareness of Singapore as a great place for social entrepreneurship and technology startups,” said CarbonStory’s Co-founder Dr Andreas Birnik.  The beta launch was also covered by several publications including Sustainability at Harvard, Acre and Eco-Business.com.

Other Singapore companies which were showcased at the "Singapore Alley" within the tradeshow included

• Digital XS , a white-label online games publishing platform  which allows websites or any business with access to gamers to create their own game channel in a few minutes, increase stickiness and monetise traffic through great online game content.
  
  
• Kindernomics , a digital media platform that introduces children to essential and easy-to-understand economic concepts through a fun, nurturing and active learning environment where they can gain experience in making independent decisions and applying important academic concepts in real‐life situations.
  
  
• Sprooki , a real-time retail marketing system on a cloud platform, which gives the retail sector easy access to location-based app technology, mobile commerce, proximity marketing and a new level of shopper analytics, via a white-label Software as a Service model.
  
  
• TellMyFriends , a media sharing and affiliate-marketing-style technology that allows anyone to share music, e-books, videos and apps with friends while countering online piracy. Rather than passing an illegally downloaded copy of a song freely, Tell My Friends gives users the choice to share a link to licensed music every time they buy - and pay them when someone else buys from the link that they have shared.
  
  
• Tripvillas , a leading holiday rental website in Asia that connects travellers looking to visit Asia with private homes as an alternative to hotels.
  
  
• YouCommentate , a mobile app that allows sports fans to choose the commentary they wish to listen to while watching games and matches. With YouCommentate, passionate sports fans can stream their own commentary to their friends and beyond for free.

"IDA's startup programmes aim to create incredible opportunities for these emerging businesses to explore new global market opportunities, through participation at SXSW. These events also serve as a prime discussion platform for international tech companies looking to put down roots in Asia," said Mr Victor Tan, Centre Director at IDA's San Francisco Office.

In addition to the "Singapore Alley", the San Francisco Office also conceptualised new events to help the Singapore startups derive greater value through their participation in SXSW.

For example, IDA organised a business match-making session to link the companies with relevant and high-profile organisations such as The Clinton Foundation, Universal Music and CBS Interactive, among others.

It also partnered with VentureBeat, to showcase some of the Singapore startups via a series of video interviews. This provided additional media coverage and exposure for the startups. VentureBeat also organised a closed-door "Singapore Night" evening reception for the Singapore companies and invited more than 100 selected guests who were relevant to the startups. “This provided networking opportunities for our companies to meet senior executives that were normally not accessible to them,” said Mr Tan.

IDA also facilitated an investor round-table hosted by Jefferies and Company to increase opportunities for Singapore companies to meet with venture capital and investment firms.

This was the third time that IDA organised an industry promotion showcase for Singapore companies at SXSW. SXSW attracted more than 26,000 participants from more than 72 countries, and attendance at the trade show was estimated at more than 65,000.