Last week the Sailthru team packed up our cowboy boots and headed to Austin to get our fill of people, panels, and parties during SXSW Interactive. Perhaps we’re slightly biased (just slightly), but our unanimous vote for best event of of the week was our very own Party for the People at Stubb’s BBQ on March 10th, an event we threw in partnership with Automattic and charity: water.

The evening kicked off with a DJ set by KidHack, followed by amazing performances by The Tontons, The Lone Bellow, and Dawes. In between bands we brought Matt Mullenweg (Founder of Automattic) and Aubrey Sabala (VP Marketing at Sailthru) into the limelight for guest DJ sets featuring tunes from their personal collections. If music wasn’t enough, we had a SmileBooth available to capture some of the more personal (and entertaining) moments of the evening (see below for proof!).

We were also excited to kick off The People’s Well water project during the event by matching all birthday pledges made that night with a $10 donation to the well. We had 300 people pledge their birthday throughout the evening (including band members from The Tontons and the Lone Bellow!), resulting in a donation from Sailthru and Automattic of $3,000. Our goal is to continue the momentum from Party for the People to raise the additional $7,000 needed to make The People’s Well a reality and bring clean water to community in need.

Overall the night was a huge success, we were thrilled to see so many people come out and join us over the course of the night. Let the planning and consumption of BBQ begin for next year!

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David Blanke (COO/CFO of Sailthru) speaking to the crowd with Paull Young (charity: water) and Matt Mullenweg (Automattic).

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Lead singer of The Tontons, Asli Omar, pledging her birthday on stage.

imageZach Williams from The Lone Bellow pledging to give up his birthday for charity: water.

imageDawes closing out an amazing night of music!

imageThe Tontons joined Dawes for a photo opp in our SmileBooth after the show.