MG Siegler’s post about the future of SXSW is a must-read for techies who have or will attend the Austin event. I couldn’t have written this any better. My favorite line:
But don’t mistake my cynical tone for a declaration of doom for SXSW. It might be “over” in the sense that I no longer get much out of it, but I’m no longer the key demographic. The truth is that the conference has simply evolved. And the conference organizers need to tap into that evolution.
The fact of the matter is that SXSW is now far too large for it to be an insidery show where a handful of tech hipsters (the people who already hang out with each other in San Francisco or New York City all the time anyway) decide what’s “cool”. It is no longer the “spring break for geeks” that it once was.
SXSW is now a full-on trade show.
For me, a New Hampshire resident (formerly of San Francisco) I thoroughly appreciated this year’s conference because I saw old friends and made new ones but I’m no longer in the SF Party Scene so I got a lot out of it. Those that are, were complaining and that makes sense. I won’t stop attending SXSW but I also agree that it has changed and there’s no going back to SXSW of 4 years ago.