"Keep Austin Weird" is the motto in Austin, Texas and the weird folks of Austin put on a good show during SXSW. Since 1994 when the festival added the music and interactive components, SXSW has been a meeting point for rockstars, geeks and all sorts of creative types. This year was my first time at the festival and the fifth year in a row for Raincity Studios. From what I understand about previous SXSW festivals, this year was par for the course with a lot of good people, great conversations and fun parties.
First of all, it should be mentioned that there are two very different sides to SXSW. During the day, the conference is much like a mild-mannered marketing executive. Panels are attended; ideas are shared; insights are gained; hands are shaken; relationships are formed. While the sun is still up, SXSW appears to be much like any other conference. And the lineup of presenters were great this year. I was particularly interested in all of the presentations on the topic of mobile applications and location based social networks. More than just iPhone users having fun playing around with Foursquare, there was a real sense that mobile devices - the computers in our pockets - had the capacity to help people "do good" in the world and start to level out some of the inequalities of our digital divide. And it's also exciting to see the internet moving away from our computer monitors as the ubiquitous web begins to enhance the way we live our daily lives and enrich our social interactions.
There were just too many good presentations to mention here. Raincity's own Robert Scales and Kris Krug participated in a great panel "doing business in china for fun and profit" that was very well recieved. There's some great coverage you can check out here. And of course, each of the keynote speakers were great, but if I learned anything from SXSW, it's that the real action takes place in the hallways between sessions. When you pack so many bright, creative and ambitious people into one building, the results are bound to be inspiring.
But as I said, there are two sides to SXSW. When the sun goes down, the mild-mannered marketing execs transform into raging rockstars. Each night there were plenty of sponsored parties and the streets were full of conference attendees stumbling from one venue to the next. Raincity Studios was proud to be sponsoring the SXNW party for the fourth year in a row. After the success of previous SXNW parties, it was clear that people were excited for this year's throw down. And they weren't disappointed. The Iron Cactus was packed with good people and the free drinks flowed late into the evening. A big thank you is due to our co-sponsors, Acquia, Blue Flavor and Rackspace, and of course thank you to everyone who attended. Perhaps I'm biased, but it was my favorite event of the week and I heard the same from many other folks.
SXSW was an amazing experience and it's not to be missed if you have the chance to go. While this was just my first taste of SXSW, I know I'm going to do everything I can to get back there for SXSW 2010. See you next year!