Rambling Ken

SXSW Roundup

Well, this took a little while, but figured it was a good time to give a quick roundup of my SXSW trek. I also picked up the SXSW Plague (the flu that's making it's rounds all over the country), hit me as I left the conference, and kept me in bed for a couple days. Next year, antibacterial hand wash in my backpack!

SXSW is actually 3 different conferences (actually, almost 4), co-located, related in some ways, with several overlapping. There's Interactive (my main reason for going), Film, Music, and several sessions and a room dedicated to video games as well.

The first thing for a newbie is to not try and do everything, but rather go with the flow. It's OK to miss things, otherwise, you'll just go nuts, and not get much out of it. A challenge for overanalytical planners like me! Also, doesn't hurt to pre-plan. Check out Upcomming, go the SXSW site and make a calendar of things to do, when you get there, take the "party" envelopes and mark down what you want to do, then take it easy, and go with the flow. You're likely to meet some group of people, then switch your plans based on other impromptu parties. And, it almost goes without saying that if you're not into social networking, you won't have nearly as much fun. It's all about contacts, meeting, improvising.

During the day, there are a huge number of sessions, at any one time I'd find 1-4 sessions I wanted to be at. I find the best purpose of the sessions is to identify people you'd want to catch up with after, and chat. Although some of the sessions were excellent on their own, I found them most useful as a basis for discussion with people later.

In fact, that's the most important to remember. The conference's real value is in networking. In the hall, at lunch, at dinner, and most importantly at the series of parties into the night. The best conversations and meetups I had were generally sometime between 11p-2am! And, at SXSW, everyone is up for chatting. Just go up to any random person (or someone you've always wanted to meet), and say "hey". I met a ton of folks, many I'd so far met only on Twitter, or reading blogs or found via other social networking routes. Also, plan on staying up late, this isn't an option, you just won't get much of of the event if you treat it like an "old school" tech conference. The first sessions in the morning are a 10am, and they tend to be sparsely attended as people wander out of the hotels kinda late. Not being as young as I once was, I alternated late nights, getting to bed by midnight every other night, so plan ahead, knowing you'll be up late if you're getting the most value from your time there.

One challenge was, since film and interactive happen at the same time, and there are a lot of movies playing at night, what to do? I highly recommend if you go, and you go to film as well, save the nights for networking, do movies during the day or early evening. And, have fun! Again, you'll get out of the experience what you put in. You're not there to consume, but to participate!

Music is another experience altogether. I only had time for one day at the Music conference, but it felt like the number of people doubled or tripled, I think that's because Music takes place mostly in the clubs, and not in the convention center, so the streets immediately fill up. Next year, I think I'll take some vacation directly after so I can visit more of the music. 1500 bands in tons of locations, much like the sessions at interactive, it's just an experience to be immersed in, not to try to manage.

Posted at 01:20PM Mar 22, 2008 by kenwallich in Personal  |  Comments[0]