SxSW Interactive Mini Survival Guide

February 21, 2007 · Filed under Articles, Blog, Professional

The hour-by-hour grid of panels, panel descriptions, speakers and speaker bios for the 2007 SXSW Interactive Festival has just been released.

It’s all getting a bit real now and soon geeks from all over the globe will be gracing the shores of Austin, Texas (well, if you count the river as a shore).

I am lucky enough to be talking on a panel this year, and also lucky enough to be speaking the first day so I can relax afterwards and really enjoy the evening activities.

Maxine Sherrin, Molly Holzschlag, Cheryl Lead, Cindy Li and myself will be on a panel together discussing From <tags> to Riches: Life After Code.

This almost all-female affair will discuss the life paths of five ex-coders, who have either completely removed themselves from coding altogether or just stepped away from the day-to-day work they used to do and explain their decisions in doing so. Come check this one out as I think it will make for a pretty interesting panel.

Now I mentioned we managed to be speaking the first day, which suggests there might be possible strategies to ensure your visit to SxSW will go as smooth as possible. For anyone lucky enough to be going for the first time this year, I would love to impart one or two pearls of wisdom from my experiences attending last years event.

Things to do in Austin
Shoot a gun
Go on a segway tour :-P
Go to the mall (if you’re Australian, you might understand this one)
Check out Congress Street
Buy cowboy boots or simply dress up like one
Panels
Don’t stress about seeing them all or trying to see the best… there are wayyyyy to many panels going on at once and they all end up podcast and on the website after the event
The best panels are rarely the ones from the big names. SxSW is really about supporting the underdogs and getting new speakers up there for the first time, many of these can really be engaging
Don’t waste your time reading through all the panels beforehand and coming up with an itinerary before you arrive (yes, I was that anal last year). This itinerary will fall apart the first day when you see the first few panels and talk to people at the conference
Speakers
Try to support people you have never heard of… just go to the panel based on a topic that sounds interesting. Some of these panels will be the ones everyone ends up talking about all next year
Must see speakers for me are: Cameron Moll, Aaron Gustafson, Jeremy Keith, Cameron Adams, Kelly Goto and anything that Henry Rollins does (yes, he was there last year and it ruled!). These guys put a lot of energy and time into each speaking gig I have seen them do.
Talk to them… that’s what SxSW is all about
Evening Events
Go to the first one, go to the second one, don’t go home… seriously.
Some events were RSVP only last year, so get on Upcoming.org and sign up for them now
Keep on truckin’ until you end up drunk in some pizza joint on Congress with a thousand other drunk geeks wondering how the hell they are going to manage getting up for the first panel in the morning
Parties to watch out for: The 2nd Annual Avalonstar Bowling Extravaganza, Media Temple closing party, The Great British Booze-Up and perhaps wrap it all up with Breakfast with Dustin (if we can convince him to host it again)

See you there!

Comments

Andrew K. says: February 21, 2007 @ 3:44 pm

/me makes a cardboard sign - “Will trade (partly sullied) soul for airfare and accommodation”

Hopefully next year :)

Cheryl says: February 21, 2007 @ 5:13 pm

True about not stressing about seeing everything. I did that last year, I made sure I saw everything I could and took copious amounts of notes from each panel - I’ve only re-read two of the notes from those panels, the rest aren’t that useful.

This year I’m going to relax and see what interests me.

Oh another tip is don’t take a computer with a crap battery that will run out. The computer I had last year would only last about 40 minutes without power, so I was always racing to get a seat near a powerpoint, which was another unnecessary stress.

This year I have my new powerbook, whoo hoo.

Patrick says: February 27, 2007 @ 6:31 am

Leave the laptop in the bag unless absolutely necessary. Talk to people. Say hi to the panelists, “web-lebrities”, or simply the person sitting on the floor in the passageway next to you. Stay hydrated.
Smile, have a good time, relax, and go with it. See you guys there!

Standardzilla says: February 27, 2007 @ 9:43 am

yes, the laptop thing is a bit of a funny one.

I understand that we are all uber-geeks and live half-absorbed in our laptops, but when you are in a large room and sometimes can’t get a seat close enough to the front…

… tap, tap, tap… is all you can hear and you really strain to make out what people are saying in a couple of the auxiliary rooms. I also find these guys are usually the ones that drift, start surfing and generally not paying attention. This can suck if you are interested in the talk but are straining to hear someone speak over idle chatter in the crowd.

My preference is to listen, then jot down rough ideas on paper if I need to. This way I am not distracted so much and get more out of the panels in general. If I need specifics then there are usually a minimum of 5 live blogs of each panel the moment you walk out the door that you can reference.

SxSW Diary - sharing our experiences of South by Southwest Interactive 2007 | SxSW Survival guide says: February 27, 2007 @ 10:47 am

[...] Gledhill, speaker for “From Tags to Riches: Life After Code” has written a mini survival guide for us south by south-west virgins and it would appear we might have already made a couple of [...]

Bill Simmon says: February 27, 2007 @ 8:27 pm

Don’t waste your time reading through all the panels beforehand and coming up with an itinerary before you arrive (yes, I was that anal last year). This itinerary will fall apart the first day when you see the first few panels and talk to people at the conference

That’s funny, I didn’t spend the time organizing last year and I felt like there was too much going on that I was missing as a result, so I am planning on pouring over the panel schedules this year. My plight is amplified by the fact of my Gold pass, so I have to take film screenings into account too. I know, cry me a river.

Thanks for this… valuable advice! I would just add that you simply must see the bats.

Standardzilla says: February 27, 2007 @ 10:08 pm

oh no! I didn’t even think about the fact I have film to consider now! I might even have to go back on my own advice and actually have a bit of a study of the film agenda :-) I feel your pain now Bill.

I also haven’t seen the bats… still a few things to check off of my list.

Marcus says: May 15, 2007 @ 8:44 am

Patrick gave a good advice.

Turk Hit Box says: May 26, 2007 @ 6:35 am

During my time in the States, I always enjoyed the SxSW interactive festival films and panels. Do you guys know where I can download the clips for 2007 & 2006? Wish I could go…

Standardzilla says: May 26, 2007 @ 12:59 pm

@Turk Hit Box - panel podcasts are in this location, great to listen to on a walk to work, etc.

Turk Hit Box says: May 27, 2007 @ 10:16 am

Thank you! Could you also point me in the direction to listen to them on my ipod?

Turk Hit Box says: May 28, 2007 @ 8:16 am

Thanks alot for personally emailing me, I appreciate it.