SXSW Wrap-up – Finally

OK, boy am I late getting to this, but I feel like I should write something as a summary/wrap-up. Even though others have already, and very well.  After Cathedral of Junk and the great greasy-spoon BBQ with the Flickr gang, the next day started with the usual assortment of panels.  Social Design Strategies was informative,  of course I can barely remember any of it now ;).  Followed that up with time at the Trade Show, checking out the booths and grabbing t-shirts, etc.  Took a bit of a break during Zuckerberg’s keynote, hanging out in the Day Lounge and watching the simulcast.  Wasn’t really paying too much attention but then it got real interesting.  Not to repeat what’s all over the Internets, but it got ugly at the end and let’s just say they had the wrong girl for the job.  I don’t think she did horrible, but she definitely wasn’t reading the audience or the subject

Sunday evening was still an out and about night, we hit the Flickr/Fire Eagle meet-up first for the obligatory food, margaritas and t-shirt.  Moved on to the pre-web awards party outside of the convention centre and hooked up with Dave, Scales, Nick and Steve (Tod was there but moved on).  Headed back to the Presidential Suite at the Omni Hotel to spend some time with the RainCity crew (OK not sure if it’s actually the Presidential Suite but Hillary did stay there last year).  Played a little Rock Band which is always a blast, then headed over to Riley’s for more deep fried pickles and the Tap Room to check out the action there.  Spent a bit of time, although it was hugely packed, but did manage to bump into Tara Hunt and grab a picture:

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Met her the next day at her panel and gave her my card at the end.  Nice of her to visit my Flickr page and tag it as a favourite.

After that it was on to two more parties and late into the evening – Gawker and Google, I think… Club de Ville to end the night, at least.

The next day was more panels, starting with Blame Canada – Kris’ panel.  The discussion was about how technology is very successful in Canada (Flickr, StumbleUpon come to mind) and that the grant programs, etc. help out quite a bit.  The audience started out predominantly Canadian, ironically enough, but ended up about 50/50.  Was a healthy discussion towards the end with many different arguments coming up for and against, and a long line of people coming to the open mike.

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A great panel followed with Chris Heuer, Tara Hunt and others discussing how to market without marketing.  The basic message was to be more open, give more away to get more back, etc.  Followed this with Browser Wars, which people were hoping was going to be a Cage Match but turned into more of a polite love-in.  Oh well… the Microsoft guy did get picked on quite a bit tho ;).  Attended Building Portable Social Networks after this.  Then it was back to the Hotel for a while before ending up at the Adobe Sneak Peek party.  This started out great – good food, very cool young band complete with skateboarders, but they ruined it giving a dog & pony, something John swore would never be tolerated at SXSW.  He was right, seeing as how we left…  But tonight was all about SXNW, Raincity’s big bash, and we weren’t disappointed.  Had a great time there, ran into quite a few people I knew and got to spend some time with Dave & crew.

Tuesday was “All about the iPhone” – a swoon fest for the phone and not much else, other than talking about many ways that it has changed the industry and only a small number of things that were missing.  Followed this up with more trade show time, then the final panel I attended – Secrets of Javascript Libraries.  This was by far the most technical which was actually a welcome thing to attend.  The plan after this post was to head out to the Salt Lick for Scoble’s BBQ, via bus.  The bus(es), however, never showed and we ended up cabbing it in fours.  I got shotgun, at least, which was good for the odd photo op:

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 The Salt Lick was all it was hyped to be – a big ranch with great BBQ.  Lots of people there, including Ferriss:

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Took 2 buses full of people back into town (a 30-40 minute ride) with intentions of hitting the Digg party and/or the Rock Band party.  Scoble asked us to pick, pretty much saying “stick we me and you’ll get in”.  The Digg party was chosen, and Scoble quickly figured out there were too many of us to just usher in the whole lot.  So instead of admitting that, unfortunately, he claimed fatigue and bailed.  No matter, John, Colleen and I were joined by Kristin Reilly (HP Gaming, one of the sponsors) and we got into Digg fairly quickly.  Colleen, Kristin and I decided it wasn’t what we had in mind, though, and we wanted to go to the Rock Band party.  So off we went, and John stuck around with Phillip, Roland and friends.

Turns out it was a bit tricky to get in, but between Colleen knowing the Facebook rep that showed up and Kristin being somewhat connected, we got wristbands and walked right in.  Ended up spending the evening on the top floor chatting with Colleen, Kristin and her friend Everett Lee.  Took a couple shots, mostly out of boredom, but some worked out well:

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Relatively early night, dropping Colleen off at her hotel, then back to mine for late night Flickr work, etc.  Seeing as how the next day was the last day, did some packing as well.  And that pretty much closed off SXSW, formally at least.

For the last day, John and I met up with an old friend of his at her workplace by one of the Universities.  We had lunch at Chango’s which was actually quite good – Shrimp taco FTW ;).  Spent a bit of time in some shops and did a loop by Lady Bird Lake and Stevie’s statue:

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Then it was basically head to the airport and wait for the flight(s).  First one being delayed and layover becoming extremely tight, it was an adventure but overall pretty quiet getting back.  Pretty late too, home at about 2am.

For me, the top 2 things that come to mind when I word-associate with SXSW this year (after BBQ of course) are “iPhone” and “Canada”.  The number of iPhones was insane, probably at least 1 in 3 – not to mention Macs actually.  Not many Airs, maybe 6-8 that I saw (including mine and John‘s).  But many Powerbooks, Macbooks, MBPs, etc.  Seemed like more than non-Macs which I guess says something for the crowd being Interactives and Filmies…

I am still feeling the pangs of BBQ withdrawal and missing the people and parties, but I’m sure it will pass eventually.  As for next year, I’m seriously thinking of staying for the full 2 weeks to get the full experience and soak up the music.  See you next year, Austin. 

Social tagging: Austin > Conference > SXSW