This year’s SxSW was better — more energetic, optimistic and, to me, more compelling — than recent years.

But, one thing made it completely different: Twitter.

Last year, the audience in every panel and keynote presentation poured their conference coverage into open, glowing laptops that lined every row. Keystrokes were a drum core: tikki tikki tap. tikki tap. The hotel lobby and coffee shop was no different than at any Starbucks — laptops open on every table.

But this year, I walked into the café in the corner of the Austin Hilton and saw something very unusual: one lone laptop. Huh?!

The place was packed, every seat was occupied. And those who shared a table were, of course, not talking; they were busy — staring into the screen of an iPhone or other smart device with a very active keyboard. Thumbs, not hands, belted out coverage of this year’s conference. Phones, not laptops were deployed. That was the first moment I noticed that everything had really changed. Laptops were missing among the digerati.

We ALL had a laptop with us, of course. Some of us travel with two. But even my much adored and easy-to-schlep MacBook AIR was left in my bag while I roamed. More experienced Twitterati left theirs back in the room. With any Twitter-enabled iPhone/smart phone, we had the conference covered.

Last year, everyone was a publisher, journalist or blogger. This year we were all magnetos, pointing in the direction of anything cool. We shared our discoveries or unique impressions and announced any grand conclusions on the fly to ever-mounting, self-organizing Twitter groups. With their comments and retweets which followed, that was enough — it all got out there. I saw and heard and found and learned all I could possibly handle. No laptop required.

Of course, there was more work to do once you got back to your room. Longer dialogs and real blogging required some time with a full keyboard. The full 15” screen was a welcome daily reunion. I’m not giving my computer away anytime soon. But on the floor of the conference center (or nightclub) I could track trends, absorb insights, look up links if I had to, and txt my bar-hopping plans to other attendees with whom I was hoping to meet up.

I overheard that the CTO of the conference organization itself said the peak device load at the conference hit 6700+ at one point. This was before the show was over (and, I should reiterate, was only hearsay — so I’d love to see something official). But that stat would imply that 3-times the normal number of devices were actively in use at this conference.

That means that while noticeably fewer full machines were open posting comments, links and blogs at SxSW this year, a great many more people with devices were active, engaged and contributing to the conversation going on about and around the conference.

I think this all made SxSW 2009 better, more compelling, active and exciting. While the attendees at SxSW could be dismissed as the one-percenters in this context, the early-early adopters, I am certain that a similar wave of change will roll out across other venues and situations as well. And while Starbucks won’t have any more seating or actual capacity open up because of this, they are likely to see more open tables*.

(*Obligatory article-ending tongue-in-cheek uptick here, sorry.) Hope this was helpful or interesting. Would love to hear from you.

Jay Wolff

The Society of Digital Agencies (SoDA) held an interactive panel at SXSW Interactive this year called "The Inflection Point - How the recent changes in technology, culture and economics are changing the game."

Digital and traditional studio owners, entrepreneurs, designers, developers and the curious joined us (standing room only) to discuss important digital issues including contracts, budgeting, management, the pitching process and much more with the CEOs from top digital studios including our very own Jay Wolff.