SVB is already the talk of SXSW.

Austin’s annual SXSW music, arts and technology festival officially kicked off today, and it’s already clear that the show will have at least one central focus: the ongoing collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and its aftermath.

I landed this morning and heard people talking about it on my flight from Toronto (filled with entrepreneurs, Shopify employees and some investors). Someone asked me about it when I didn’t bring it up on the street (I stopped on the street and was the only person I talked to); He first heard the crowd talk about extending the lives of dogs through the biological sciences, then a panel discussion titled “Dog Life: Longevity Science Gets Hard” as the first topic.

That panel, led by The Longevity Fund’s Laura Deming and Loyal’s Celine Halioua and The Atlantic’s Andrea Valdez, began with Deming apologizing to the audience in advance for “getting a little distracted because she’s waiting on the wire to move.” [her fund’s] money out” checking her phone. She then continued to look at her phone, not actively being questioned.

Hallyuwa immediately followed up with a distraction for her investor, saying, “We’ve been trying to figure out where to put our money all morning.” She later joked that the innovations her company was developing “became more complex over time, like I’m not getting money from my bank deposit.” Halio wasn’t glued to her phone, instead she was glancing down at her Apple Watch without interruption.

Note that neither had direct cash with SVB – their banking institutions were concerned that they might face a knock-on problem.

Image Credits: Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch

After both panelists volunteered their opinions, Valdez asked a question about the impact of the SVB collapse, and Deming said that if the audience didn’t know, it was the “worst banking crisis since 2008.” Terms of the startup world.

If you’ve attended tech and startup conferences in the past, you know that panelists generally don’t leave their devices on stage or actively check to see if they do for some reason. That, the investor and the founder both delivered their half-jokes coupled with nervous laughter was truly amazing to watch.

Before the event even started, different teams from both the front and the right side were talking about SVB with different levels of the situation. While you may think it’s too early to call this the talk of the show – seeing such sincere concern on stage from established startup industry players and hearing the general buzz and tension from everyone in the room makes this year’s SXSW clear. It probably won’t be about anything you’re supposed to focus on.