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This year I attended my first SXSW Interactive. It was, in a word, overwhelming. However, even as a freshman, I did manage to find a few good hacks.

Too Old to Couch Surf

My journey began with a last minute search for a place to stay. It seems that every hotel room in the greater Austin area was completely full – probably due to the near 40,000 attendees. Luckily, I got hipped to HomeAway a vacation rental network, based in Austin. Within an hour I had signed a 4-night lease on a clean, simple, one-room condo - only a twenty-minute walk from the convention center.

A Super-Duper Swam

The evening I arrived I opted to postpone the revelry and get over to the convention center to check-in and pick up my badge before the 9pm cut-off. I had a hunch that the morning might be a mad house. It proved to be the right decision. There was no line – I just walked right up and walked right out, hopped a cab and got to my party. The next morning, every social channel was buzzing with complaints about how insane the registration line was. For giggles, I popped over to see the ruckus. Then proceeded to check-in to Foursquare, unlocking a couple of new badges. See Fig.2 above.

A Phonebook of Sessions

The amount of panels, session, salons and core conversations was a bit dizzying. In the weeks and days leading up to the event, the schedule felt impossible to penetrate and it became impossible to make any decisions. Thankfully, my colleague Allison directed me to Lanyrd where I could tap into my existing social graph to see things my friends were planning to attend – it was a helpful filter. Then after I arrived, I put the phonebook-sized agenda to work by using the speaker index as a way to find sessions of interest. As I indentified them, I plugged them into the handy SXSW GO app and could review them in my personal calendar. I used this calendar throughout the weekend, making the final decision on what to attend at each time block.

Tiger blood, Winning and Charlie Sheen

While the networking at SXSW was outstanding, the content was a bit inconsistent. I did attend some good panels, usually due in great part to the skill of the moderator. But others lacked focus, clear structure or a compelling argument. When I was unsure about a panel, I would strategically position myself in back of the room. If it was a dud, I had no qualms about slipping out in search of an alternate session. Good, bad or otherwise, there was no escaping the current memes. “Tiger Blood”, “Winning” and “Charlie Sheen” dominated and featured heavily in this year’s Battledecks, in which contestants try to put together coherent presentations from nonsensical Keynote decks.

BBQ, Tex Mex and Buckets of Beer

While in Austin I consumed copious amounts of Barbecue and Tex Mex. Hey, that’s what you’re supposed to do. We even made a pilgrimage with SoDA to the Salt Lick in Driftwood Texas – the Mecca for meat lovers. I did manage to eat a little green, but only the kind that could be scooped up on a tortilla chip. The party culture was also pretty rampant. Most of the drinks are free, and free flowing. There’s a reason while they call it spring break for the digital industry. Allison and I dubbed it Nerdi-Gras. Don’t get me wrong, the parties are fun and wildly extravagant, but I did see some high-powered digital agency executives get pretty sloppy but all in good fun. Though, I would recommend pacing yourself, and drinking lots and lots of water.

A Note From a Three-Year Veteran

My fellow attendee, Allison had this to add about SXSW having gone for the last three years:
This year, SXSW was bigger than ever with more content, more people and more brands taking over spaces. There were pop-up stores a plenty and even a pop-up grill by CNN. Every year even more influential people attend, and somehow the content gets less interesting. Seems like the best thing SXSW can do is get a little better at curation. Nobody launched anything that was worth noting as in years past. But all in all, a good time - a digital summer camp, if you will, where you hob nob with old friends from around the world and meet up with new people who are tying to make the web great. A worthwhile experience to network, perhaps learn a little something and have a drink too.

And there you have it. Until next year...