As I gear up for South by Southwest Interactive 2010, I’m thinking back to last year’s event. It was my first SXSW-–an amazing, exciting, completely exhausting experience.
It was a profound intersection of creativity, technology, and innovation. I’ve lived a lot of places and done a lot of stuff, but I’d never experienced anything quite like SXSWi.
I met brilliant creatives, technologists, marketers, and strategists. Funny, intense, brilliant people like Tony Hsieh, Guy Kawasaki, Gary Vaynerchuk, Baratunde Thurston, and James Powderly.
I sat in ballrooms and breakout sessions filled with people tweeting, blogging, questioning, learning, yelling, and challenging the presenters and points of view. I was never alone and all alone. Except the night before …
My husband went with me to pick up my registration stuff–in return for a promise to buy him dinner at Moonshine Patio Bar & Grill. The lines at the Austin Convention Center were really long. The “digital creatives” (picture my husband’s air quotes here) were giddy with anticipation. These were my people. I knew in an instant. My husband, still in his office khakis and Prox badge, not so much.
I can’t wait to do it all over again and breathe in the inspiration that is South by Southwest.
A big thanks to @kozcomm for setting up SXSW Report to connect our respective SXSWi experiences in one place. (Important safety tip: It’s smart to hang out with a guy who knows how to fix the tech stuff I might screw up.)
Koz really knows technology (and beer brewing). I know just enough about technology (and beer drinking) to be dangerous. My focus is keeping up with what technology means to how we work and live every day, and how it’s reinventing our business, our culture, our society, and our world.
I think we’ll make a helluva tag team. Welcome to Austin, Koz, and remember three things:
1. There’s no such thing as too many breakfast tacos.
2. Don’t say “Howdy” in Hook ’em land.
3. Keep Austin Weird.
Your friend,
Looking at the interactive panels, here are ones that I most interest me:
Friday
Touch + The Holy Grail of Delight
A Touchy History of the Future
Wave and Communication’s (R)evolution: Better than being there?
Saturday
Web Fonts: The Tome Has Come
Can the Real-Time Web Be Realized?
iPad: New Opportunities for Content Creators
All About the Browser, Baby!
Is WordPress Killing Web Design
New Publishing and Web Content
Sunday
What if Your Phone Had Five Senses
What’s Open Video and Why Does It Matter?
Improving Social Media with Live Streaming Video
Monday
After Magazines; WIRED’s Digital Rebirth
The HTML5 vs. Flash Debate Invades Mobile
Moble Development with the Flash Platform: iPhone and More
Web Education Ricks: 2010 WaSP InterAct Annual Meeting
Tuesday
Playing with 140 Characters: Designing Games for Twitter
Effective Dashboard Design: Why Your Baby is Ugly
Is Canvas the End of Flash?
The Future of the Digital Living Room
Interactive Infographics
QR Codes and 2D Barcodes: Bridging Physical and Digital
Thanks, Brian! I’ll reference your list as I plug stuff into my.sxsw.com. So many great choices to explore and not nearly enough time. I’ll miss having you guys here this year!