film festivals. “In LA, work was my life. My time on the weekends was spent working press junkets, which I loved, but after awhile, I realized it wasn’t what I wanted to continue doing, and I valued my weekends and my time with friends and family so much more than the job. It just wasn’t paying off in a way that I wanted to continue with. … I feel like I paid my dues.” Then, she hopped on her first-ever flight to Austin.
Krause bounces into Josephine House on the first brisk morning of December sheathed in black workout gear from head to toe. The fanciful Clarksville eatery, known as much for its charming blue-cottage exterior as for its decadent lemon-ricotta pancakes, is undoubtedly her spot. Though the 9 a.m. breakfast crowd consists of a mere three patrons, Krause and this reporter included, it’s her presence that draws unseen staff members out from behind counters and corners, peeking their heads out to nod, wave, mouth hello to her as she cruises to the corner table by the window. It’s been more than six years since Krause moved to Central Texas from California, and this March will mark her seventh SXSW. Last year, Hugh Forrest (Chief Programming Officer and Krause’s boss) promoted her to SXSW Conference programming manager, essentially making her the curator and creator behind every keynote and every featured speaker, in addition to SXSW Style. Krause recounts coming to Austin for the first time in 2010. “The second I landed in Austin, I was just like, ‘Oh my gosh. This city is so cool. There’s so much going on. … This feels so good. This feels like my kind of city.’ There weren’t a lot of chain restaurants; it was a lot of mom-and-pop shops. I picked up on the vibes immediately,” she says. “The Austin vibes are just cool, but progressive and forward-thinking, and really nice people. I basically
went back to LA and was like, ‘All right. I’m getting to Austin one way or another. I don’t know what I’m doing or how I’m doing it, but I’m getting out of here.’ ” After her initial Austin visit, Krause returned to LA and promptly reached out to a woman she had worked with once on a film who now worked for South By Southwest. “We spent 15 minutes together in LA working on this film, and I reached back out to her blindly over Facebook [and said], ‘You probably don’t remember me. We worked on this film together. Is South By hiring? I’d love to move to Austin, and I’m planning on moving soon.’ [The woman said,] ‘We’re actually not hiring in the film department, but our interactive publicist just left. Do you have any tech experience?’ I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, I totally do.’ … She’s like, ‘Great. Let me put you in touch with the old publicist, and she’ll set you up with an interview.’ ” Krause moved to Austin, landed the job and started handling publicity for the rising star, SXSW Interactive, which saw badge sales for 2011 surpass badge sales for the SXSW Music Festival portion for the first time. “This is why I always say never burn a bridge because you never know when you’re going to circle back with someone, and everything ends up coming full circle. It’s wild,” Krause expounds. “The same people that I worked with in LA are now clients at South By Southwest, so everything comes full circle. I fully believe that.” Krause credits those who came before her and the entire SXSW team for laying the groundwork upon which she started to find success. By 2012, nearly two years into her tenure at SXSW, she had mastered her publicity duties, but wanted to do more. She started developing content on her own and securing the partnerships and speakers that would deliver that content.
“Everything comes full circle. I
fully believe that.”
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