I'm so behind. I meant to write this SXSW download post right when I got back but then work and life and podcasting and sketch writing and all that stuff got in the way and so here we are, weeks later, and I'm posting it. It's so late, it might as well be about next year. In fact, due to its ridiculously late appearance, I've stripped it down quite a bit to just bare essentials and thoughts and simple stuff. Many other people wrote really great posts about SXSW, so who am I to compete?
To put it briefly: I had the time of my life. I met hundreds of people, stayed out late, talked about SimpleLog, the podcast, hell, even xPad, and everyone else's stuff, and I had nothing but fun. The only down point was when, on the first morning, I had room-service breakfast. There's a reason TGIFriday's (the restaurant in the Radisson) doesn't make breakfast, and I learned my lesson rather quickly. I spent the whole second day feeling terrible, but luckily by later in the evening I was finally okay. That was the worst part of the trip. Everything else was a blast.
Before I left for SXSW, everyone I mentioned Austin to immediately told me they loved the city. I think SXSW must have been in the wrong area of Austin, because I didn't understand why anyone would be so into it. From my five days there, I came to think of Austin as the town with eight hotels, a conference center, two other buildings and one street lined with bars. I've been told that Austin is fantastic, and maybe next year I'll get out farther away from the convention center to find out. At the same time, when I went I really had no interest in Austin itself.
Everyone at the conference was wearing Threadless shirts. If you weren't already sure of how successful Threadless was, you could just look around SXSW each day and see that hundreds of people were wearing shirts. Panel speakers, young people, old people, during the day and at night. It's not that I didn't expect it, but I was a little surprised by just how prevalent it was. Granted, I have a crapload of Threadless shirts, but I actually didn't bring any to Austin. I sort of felt left out with my single-color tees, but each time I saw someone wearing one of the Threadless shirts I own I was glad to not be wearing it.
Buttons were also all the rage this year. I really like buttons and I think this is a trend I wouldn't mind continuing. You have to give credit to El Boton and DS Buttons for starting this whole thing, but everyone had buttons this year and it was a fun little additional thing about meeting people. By the last day I had to take the buttons I had been collecting off my bag because they were randomly popping open and poking me. That and people kept saying, "Uh, wow, you've got a lot of buttons there." Apparently, it's creepy to have more than a certain number of buttons.
The panels were so-so. That's the best way to put it. The problem with panels is that nearly everyone at SXSW already knows the majority of their content. That and most of the panels are made up of friends, who also have friends in the crowd, so it's a little silly to try to run through a panel when you're getting screaming and laughing and clapping all the time. It's still fun, but you're not learning much. The best panels weren't panels at all—single people on stage really talking about things instead of bullshitting with friends. I'm biased, but Brian Fling's mobile panel was my favorite. Chock full of info (almost too much!).
I only took a few photos. I was too busy enjoying myself. I had planned to take tons and tons of pictures, but every time I thought to grab my camera, I realized that I would rather just spend the time talking to people instead. I appear in plenty of photos, most of which you can find on Flickr, but I only took a few. Next year I hope to make a better effort with photos.
Nearly every picture I took is from the Avalon Star Bowling event, which was extremely fun and definitely one of my favorite events from the week. Brian Veloso did a great job putting the event together and it was a blast. The bowling alley we played in was nicer than any I'd ever seen. If anything, it was too nice. They had you use a demo ball to find the perfect size and then they gave you a perfect ball right there. I'm used to walking the rows and rows of crappy, heavy, mis-fitting balls and then having a hard time bowling the whole night. Not at this place. Granted, I still had a hard time bowling the whole night, but I can't blame it on that perfect ball.
This was my first SXSW, and I immediately regretted not going last year. I'm already counting down the days until next March. If you haven't been, but you've considered it, you owe it to yourself to go next year. It's worth it.