Hello. I’m a SXSW veteran. There are many more who have been attending the conference for many more years than most of us. SXSW Interactive grows by 40% each year and will overtake Film next year to be the largest of the three tracks that fill Austin Texas for 2 weeks in March. Interactive is the tech geek spring break. Bars, hotels and even bathroom stalls are filled with people who stare into their phone more than those around them. It’s not a bad thing…it’s just like looking into the future. I even fall victim to it when I’m there. I can’t help but be a part of this crowd while in Austin each year but, I also am happy to be back in New Hampshire among the “normal people” who don’t own iPhones and don’t check-in to the gas station when they stop to refuel.
SXSW in 2011 was huge.
Hotels and venues were fully booked by December. If I go in 2012, I’ll have to decide in August so I can get a hotel that’s as close as the one I was in this year. Don’t worry about having that extra bed because you can Craigslist it for the price you’re already paying for that room a week before the conference and it’s guaranteed to be filled. You’ll get a hotel room for free and may be able to make enough back to pay for your early Bird Interactive badge that costs just over $400.
Luckily, as the conference grows, there are more parties so, the evening events didn’t feel “packed” more than previous years. Most people had their small 20 person groups and they moved in packs. The cool kids would sometimes not check in on Foursquare or Gowalla when they changed locations. Foursquare flash mob became a word thrown around all weekend. You’d hear, “dude, don’t check-in, it’s gonna ruin the vibe!”
I’ve read other SXSW reviews before writing mine. I like to hear what other geeks have to say and it seems like we’re all pretty much saying the same thing when it comes to launching at SXSW or marketing your startup at SXSW. if you are creating a mobile app that solves a problem at SXSW for SXSW attendees, you’re not solving a problem the rest of the world has. Foursquare’s use case for me wasn’t realized until they added the “explore” tab in the 3.0 release. This enabled Foursquare to recommend places based on my check-in history. Prior for version 3, Foursquare was really only useful when you’re bragging about buying a MacBook @ The Apple Store or at conferences when there’s you and 500 other friends and you all want to know where the party is and who’s doing what and eating where. I check in and say “I have a table if anyone wants breakfast” and 4 people show up. This doesn’t happen in rural New Hampshire and I only get this benefit while in Austin or Vegas for Blogworld. It might be useful in San Francisco when I go to visit but most people in daily life, don’t really want friends showing up when they check in for lunch. You could be having lunch with your wife and I show up and say, “hey bro! I’m in town. let’s hang!” Um….awkward. However, it does work at SXSW because it’s a conference / party and networking is #1 on everyone’s list.
I’ve complained about people staring into their phones before but, in between handshakes, photos, eating and attending panels, staring into your phone was the only way to find out what’s going on, reply to tweets and brag about meeting Ashton Kutcher while you walked to the next party. I seriously told about a dozen girls that I’d geo-stalk them after meeting them and added them on Foursquare. Each of them replied, “awesome just find me!” Girls do not tell this to strangers but this was SXSW and telling strange men to stalk you on Twitter is normal. For the record, I did not actually stalk anyone.
I said a few times via Twitter that you’re doing SXSW wrong if you pay for food and drinks while there. I think this is true for expert conference hackers but not for everyone. I’m part conference hacker and part networker. I knew enough people to get by and weaseled my way into things by hacking. ProTip – Don’t glance at someone’s name on the guest list and repeat it only to find out the door man knows the guy you read off. It’s hard to avoid this sometimes but can suck when he says, “that’s my friend. good job.”
The great thing about SXSW is that every company that’s in-touch with social media will be there marketing to you. They want YOU to tweet about their free tacos and cool dance party and free taxi cab service or perhaps they gave you a beer and iTunes coupon and it says “Tweet us to redeem the coupon” Well played. There was only a shortage of room in my stomach for free subs, ice cream sandwiches, grilled cheese sandwiches, bbq ribs, beer, cake and turkey melts. If you can’t find free food at SXSW, you’re not leaving your hotel. Free drinks mean crowds. Just be smart and RSVP early. Spend WEEKS RSVPing to every party you can find. Get on these lists and you’ll be fine. Lists are there to keep everyone out but anyone can RSVP early and every “list” was phone book sized at these parties.
AT&T and Verizon both get gold stars. Their service was absolutely rock solid aside for about one hour on Saturday morning when AT&T was dead for me and the group of friends walking around Austin. Congrats to both providers and their COWs that were seen on every street corner and atop buildings. there are thousands of iPhone users in one small space and they really pulled through.
Nothing in my 2009 review of SXSW has changed. There is still a lot of partying, learning, networking and yes there are people hooking up and doing their thing. I honestly got a lot out of this conference. I met some amazingly cool people, caught up with all colleagues and friends and my former boss met my former boss. Yes, two former bosses were in the same room at the same time. Another former boss was in Austin but I couldn’t get him in time to show up or it would be a trifecta of former bosses and that would have been rad. I think that last analogy though shows the importance of this event. When three out of 4 of your former bosses are at the same conference, it’s proof that, in technology and startups, SXSW is the one conference that everyone attends whether they have the money or not. Startups race to push out their new idea before SXSW and then they show up and network their way to the top.
SXSW may change as years go on but it will always be here. It’s just too important to our community to vanish. Austin would have to burn to the ground for SXSW to go away but, we don’t want that to happen because their BBQ is so damn good.
There’s a lot more I can say. I could add tips and tricks or discuss the state of mobile and our generation and how we interact but, instead I’ll just have those in other posts going forward when I have time to write them. For those at SXSW, you understand and those that were’t simply don’t. The majority of people that weren’t at SXSW don’t have to understand. it’s like a cable TV subscriber going to a seminar on building your own satellite dish. There are people that do that for you and all of them were at SXSW and they’ll be charging heavily for what they learned there.
There are the naysayers who say that SXSW is just one big party. I don’t disagree but, out of the party, the sleepless nights, the beer and BBQ and walking around and waiting in lines and staring into iPhones, we all came away at a higher place than we were upon descending upon Austin. Once a year, we go to get back in tune with the pulse of technology and what’s next and we leave Austin to all corners of the world to do what inspired us while there. Now, here’s some Advil. Please get back to work building cool shit.
:)