My twitter followers must have hated me last week. In five days I managed over 200 updates. While it sounds a bit excessive, I had my reasons: I was in nerd Mecca.
South By Southwest Interactive festival is a conference / party hosted in Austin, Texas. For five days I was amongst my peers in the interactive community, participating in interesting and inspiring conversations about digital media, eating and drinking some of the best food, and partying alongside the who’s who of the internet. I had the opportunity to meet some amazing people and learn a lot about the future of the industry (and it’s current state). And while my tweets covered quite a bit of my experience in Austin, there really is only so much you can say in 140 characters.
So I bring you: Dana’s SXSW Top Ten
1. iPhones
iPhones were in abundance at SXSW Interactive. It seemed that every attendee had at least one (some had two). The convention centre was full of hordes of people, walking around, their heads down, vigorously typing on their iphones, macbooks strapped around their waist in a laptop bag. It was pretty much Steve Job’s wet dream.
SXSW TIP: The best way to be popular at SXSW? Bring an extension cord to share with new friends, or carry a portable iPhone charger. Being a power source will make you famous.
2. Panel Junkie
With well over 30 panels a day, SXSW Interactive is the place to be to get a sneak peek at the latest and greatest developments coming out of new/digital media, or to be a part of the many conversations surrounding new media. Panelists ranged from all over the interactive spectrum – developers, designers, producers, comedians, social media socialites, porn stars – you name it. Hey, even my boss, Victoria was a panelist – talking about interactive documentaries and our project Redress Remix (who can’t wait until June for that project to launch? This guy). The running theme in all these panels: be passionate about what you do.
Highlights included:
- WIRED’s live demo of their new tablet app (nerdgasm right there)
- Teen getting up to the mic to criticize the That’s Not Cool campaign…at their own panel!
- Seeing my first ever Battledecks (aka, power point karaoke)
- Microvision’s demonstration of a laser based projection during a panel on the future of cell phone technology
- Cooking For Geeks bitter taste test and slides of geek hardware demo fail (note: do not try to vacuum pack a lemon meringue pie)
3. Ok Cogaoke
The first sponsored party myself and the SXSW posse attended was the Ok Cogaoke karaoke competition. It was hosted at Scoot Inn – a dive-y bar located in a dive-y area of town. The party was an absolute blast and featured some awesome singers. A local from Edmonton sang ‘You Oughta Know’ by Alanis Morrisette, which was a real crowd pleaser. Rannie (aka @photojunkie) sang ‘Faith’ by George Michael giving a really fun performance.
To keep the interactive spirit, the audience was asked to vote for their favourite singer through their smart phones. The competition ended with two dudes winning for their cover of ‘On a Boat’ by The Lonely Island. We left the party not too long after the ‘award ceremony’ (complete with a dancing panda) and wound up at Club De Ville, another awesome dive bar with an outdoor dance floor. If ever in Austin, definitely check out Scoot Inn and Club De Ville.
4. Zone Energy Bars
Zone energy bars were one of several sponsors of the event. They had a street team out in full force distributing free samples of their energy bars. At times the street team seemed almost desperate to get rid of their stash, and I wound up with upwards of 20+ free energy bars to keep me fuelled throughout the week. Energy bars and drinks were actually totally necessary to the SXSW experience. When you’re going 9am – 2am every day, you totally need that boost.
SXSW TIP: If you want to survive SXSW – take a daily, one hour nap. It totally saved me, and kept me going each day. Mark (a SXSW web award winner [waterlife] from Jam3) adds that you should bring good shoes to avoid sore feet.
5. Nom Nom Nom
Left: Red velvet cake from the WordPress BBQ
Right: BBQ sampler plate from Iron Works (brisket, sausage, ribs, potato salad, beans, peach cobler)
Left: bacon waffle cone with Captain Crunch couscous coated chicken and honey mustard
Right: Brisket sandwich from amazing food truck.
Tex Mex from around Austin. Taco Trucks trump restaraunt variety.
Food chains.
Left: Amy’s Ice Cream (rootbeer with butterfinger chocolate)
Right: IHOP (a Dana Herlihey standard while in the USA)
6. Diplo
Gowalla sponsored a terrific party dj’d by Diplo. It was held outdoors during a pretty big rain shower. But give us enough free booze and loud music, and we’ll be too distracted to care that we’re absolutely soaking wet.
7. Salon Party
Not to be outdone by all the SXSW parties, local Austin bars and businesses got in on the fun as well. During our first night out wandering the streets, Stephan and I found ourselves at a Salon party. A hair salon offering free booze and apparently, free hair styling. Other SXSW attendees found their way into the salon, which was by far the most surprising and interesting party we happened upon.
8. Swag
While the Swag bag handed out by SXSW isn’t anything too exciting, a simple walk around the convention centre and through the trade show gets you some pretty awesome free stuff.
SXSW TIP: If you find swag you like, make multiple trips to the vendor. If you go once per day, chances are they won’t recognize you.
9. Foursquare
Foursquare was in full effect at SXSW. Not only was the app in serious usage (everyone trying to get the 16 speciality SXSW badges – I got three) but the founders of the app were there giving away ‘real life’ badges (tattoos and buttons) – if you could find them.
You could also grab yourself a free shirt if you found the guys playing the school yard version of foursquare. I asked them how long they would be playing for, and the told me ‘until the cops come again’. Oh foursquare, guerilla style all the way.
10. Brought to you by our spons…glug glug glug
Free booze.
Everywhere.
Enough said.
