Post SXSW
SXSW is now officially over and I'm just now beginning to decompress. I've got a 3 hour wait @ the airport so blogging seemed like a natural thing to get done. If I don't knock it out now it won't happen.
This year's event was a complete success and blast to be at. More amazing than I thought it would be. Exponentially.
Panels
I tried to make it to as many panels as I found interesting. There were definitely a complete range from good ones to complete disasters. Zeldman's opening panel was fairly good and appreciated. Also loved Eris, Dan & Didier's panel on emotional stuff. Good non-technical discussion, cool information and badass slides. Design Eye was of course great again this year. I loved the concept.
There was a new core conversation concept SXSW was playing with this year. I only caught one, Mark Bixby hosted one on specialization vs generalization. It was for sure a hot topic and way too many people showed up appropriate for the venue of a round table. But we all overcame that and had a great discussion.
I missed the keynote interview with Mark Zuckerberg but I heard it was nothing short of a failure. Poor guy just can't catch a break. No love.
Naz's Design in Details was probably one of my favorites. Its always fun to peek inside the mind of a great designer.
On that same note, Jason Maria and Rob Weychert gave an amazing talk about the critique process in a client presentation ... Stellar presentation and awesome content ... even though there was a small moment that almost caused me to faint. If you were there you know. I can haz ice cream?
Parties
By far the best part of SXSW is the parties and they were unbelievably amazing this year. With SXSW getting so big the key is to avoid the massive major parties and head to lesser-known places with friends. Buffalo Billiards was a great average spot. Ginger Man had more beer in one spot I've seen. Tried a couple new things there and was pleasantly surprised. God bless the Belgians. Six was fun ... until I got thrown out. Apparently I get the SXSW awardy for a first on that one. I don't remember much of that night, but from those who were there I had a crazy over-the-top good time. The rest of the trip I was introduced as the "six guy." I apologize for the Twitter spam that ensued that night as well.
SXNW, Blue Flavor's co-sponsored party @ Iron Cactus was a fantastic success. Free margaritas, lots of dancing, interesting choices of music were the recipe to the start of a great night. It ended at the Pure Volume Ranch which was also good... especially getting the VIP treatment every time and skipping the +hour line (thanks Jeff!).
There were many more and they were all great. However after 6 days of intense partying, my body is still feeling completely saturated with alcohol and in the words of Garrett, "I can't wait to get home to my couch, my tivo and my not drinking alcohol every day."
A sincere thank you to all "ya'll" for a consistent great time.
Relaxation
Things were starting to blur by the end-stint of the trip so I was able to take some time on Tuesday and relax. I had a great time walking around the city doing some film photography with Tom & Sara. There's something about doing street with a manual SLR & Polaroids that just speaks me to me. Also had some great grass talk. Austin turned out to be a fantastic city and I was thrilled with the way the weather turned out. We got something different every day. It was also pretty special for me to be in Stevie town, especially at the beginning of a music conference. RIP.
People
So much fun to connect & reconnect with people. I've started a set on Flickr, SXSW 2008 People, from shots out at parties. I'll upload the real photography later of random crap around Austin, but this is good to get started on the fun party photos. I'll have another batch of em up soon as well. And maybe some amazing videos.
Food
Austin had some awesome food and I took it all in. Probably did too much Mexican though. Moonshine was probably my favorite. And iHop was the worst. Although I did get to witness some Portuguese doorstop which I have to say was pretty extraordinary.
Travel
If you haven't caught my previous blog, getting to Austin this year was complete hell for a lot of people, and I got the worst of it. I'm praying for a far better experience on the way back. I'm connecting through LAX later tonight so we'll see how it goes. Wish me luck! At least this time I don't really care if my bags don't show up for 3 days.
The End
That about rounds up SXSW for this year. I'll still be posting videos & photos throughout the week so keep up on Vimeo & Flickr. I had a surreal time, but I do miss my wife & boy terribly and am insanely excited to get back to them later tonight & further decompress.
Life time.