Every year the SXSW interactive festival in Austin fills me with such enthusiasm and excitement that it takes a few weeks after I return to Richmond before I come down from it. I find myself missing the world where every conversation is conducted amidst constant iPhone cosultation-multitasking. I find myself searching endlessly for lunch partners, coffee friends and dance parties. Describing South-by as summer camp for geeks may already be passe, but it’s the closest description that would help give any indication about what happens there.
Every year the SXSW interactive festival in Austin fills me with such enthusiasm and excitement that it takes a few weeks after I return to Richmond before I come down from it. I find myself missing the world where every conversation is conducted amidst constant iPhone cosultation-multitasking. I find myself searching endlessly for lunch partners, coffee friends and dance parties. Describing South-by as summer camp for geeks may already be passe, but it’s the closest description that would help give any indication about what happens there.
For this, my third year, I knew how I’d approach it in order to get the most out of my trip. Once again I dug deep and bought a festival badge, but cheaped out and stayed with a friend in town. I didn’t miss much, but it made an exhausting schedule even worse when 9am panels and 3am particular were bookended by a five mile bike-ride; next year is the one that I solve the staying downtown puzzle. There is a growing contingent of folks who insist that you can navigate the events without a festival badge and still make the most of your trip to Austin. However, especially for beginners, or for those not comfortable with constantly checking twitter and attempting to make friends in every coffee shop, having the ability to rely on officially sanctioned events is the best way to ensure there’s something you could do at any given time. That said, this year I felt I had a better handle on when to skip a session for an impromptu lunch, or a trip to Foursquare’s foursquare court.
For five days and six nights I navigated the tech panels, eating vendor-sponsored free donuts, tacos and grilled cheeses, and drinking an endless supply of Pepsi, Sobe and beer. One could successfully avoid spending a dollar on food or drink if they were willing to deal with the ensuing damage that a week’s worth of hate-eating did to their body. Partying till at least two each night (the touring karaoke RV went until 3 or later most nights) also did not help the situation, especially when some of the only panels I wanted to see were at 9:30am the following morning.
I can say, without hyperbole, that it once again was the best thing I’ll do for myself all year. I saw some of my favorite comedians perform, either on shows or podcasts like Comedy Death Ray and Doug Loves Movies. I watched Paul Reubens give interviews about his life and career, not once but twice. On a panel about using the web to promote your comedy career, I asked Michael Ian Black how professional comics on Black’s website Witstream had received amateur writers like Richmonder Jeph Kelley (very positively). I went to a keynote by noted web series groundbreaker, Felicia Day. Partied with Tumblr and Funny Or Die, rubbed elbows with Jon Hamm, watched Matthew Lesko (the question mark suit guy) win an award, and danced to Diplo with the team from Know Your Meme.
Here are the things I’m left with: social networking tools are great things with limitless potential. They make our lives easier, and make it simpler to spread your message across the world, and to connect to countless strangers. What really still rules them is the human interaction behind them. And you should take any chance that you have to take those connections that you’ve made and turn them into something more powerful. Everyone who comes to SXSW does so with an excitement and enthusiasm that is almost unmatched “IRL.” There were very few times when I didn’t feel comfortable approaching groups of people to ask where to get food, or what parties they were headed to. The answer was always a friendly and enthusiastic one, and usually ended with your two parties merging into one. Suddenly, you’d find yourself in a group with CEOs, producers or other Internet celebrities who, just like you, are excited to learn and explore the event.
