So, I’m sitting in Chicago O’Hare airport, trying to think about what has happened at SXSW the last few days.
SXSW is a web conference in Austin, Texas, and has bumped the number of attendants this year with 50% so now there is 15,000 people in the Convention Center. It is an amazing combination of thinkers, doers and makers with strong focus on interaction and development of all kinds.
The best part of it all, was how smoothly it went. The WiFi worked perfectly 95% of the time, and the remaining time it was just a bit flaky – nothing major. AT&T even managed to set up a network that did not break down (as it did last year), but most important; every single session went as planned. No delays, no cancellations (not for me at least – a lot of people were bummed when Quentin Tarantino cancelled his appearance at a panel).
It just runs smoothly – and that might be the biggest problem as well. Unlike Reboot and other smaller conferences, there is not much of the action that happens when 600 people or less are gathered. It is not a big problem in any way – it is just the difference that is bound to be there when so many people are at the same place.
For Austin, I must say that I was really impressed with the vibe of the city. It must be a pain to live there when so many geeks get out and get in party mode simultaneously, with the lines that follow (the line for every major party counted several hundred people).
Because of the party hubs that are pre-planned, a lot of people choose to make their own as well. I had a lot of fun at several other venues that were not part of any major, official parties. Austin is known as the live music capital of the world, and everywhere you go, there is a band playing. From Dirty Dog to Headhunter and Emo’s – there’s rock’n'roll everywhere.
I will definitely be going again, but the experiences from this year will come in handy next time around.
- Live as close to the Convention Center as possible (preferrably Hilton or Marriot – both right across the road)
- Bring more sandwiches for eating during the day – there’s no lunch break, so you tend to forget to eat for a lot of hours.
- Bring better shoes. Doesn’t matter what they look like – they just have to be fantastically comfortable.
- Plan less. Everything goes havoc anyway.
Over the next week, I’ll post video post cards and a few write-ups of what I attended during the conference – this post is just to grab a bit of the feeling from the interactive festival and share it with you guys.
(And yes, I know this blog post is very non-visually oriented, but check back soon…)
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