Are any of you readers on the way to SXSW in Austin, Texas, next week?
I’m headed out and also speaking on a panel called How to Rawk After SWSW: Staying Inspired in which we are going to be discussing how to take all that you learn and are inspired by while at SXSW and bring that back to work and home and keep it moving foward. Based on the calls I’ve had with the other panelists, I’m very excited about it.
This is my first time going to the conference. What has been fun to realize is that I’m entering into a close-knit family of people who go year after year. The minute I mentioned that I was going, I began to get advice from friends and strangers on where to stay, the best little-known places to eat and the must-not-miss parties. I had no idea that while the conference itself is huge and full of great opportunities to connect with interesting people, outside the conference there is just as much (if not more) going on.
If you look at the upcoming list of events, you can see that there is plenty happening. But there are many other, smaller gatherings happening off the grid where old friends and like-minded individuals will come together over a meal, drinks or a park bench on the street.
As part of some work I’m doing with one of my clients, I’m going to be documenting my trip under the banner of SXSW For Newbies. My goal is to collect the pearls of wisdom from this growing community so that next year it won’t be as scary for newcomers as it is for me this year. Scary isn’t really the right word. I think a better one would be overwhelming.
If you are attending or just want to find out more, I reccomend checking out the SXSW Insiders Guide, which currently has more than 700 members and was independently set up using Ning. If you go there, you’ll see how a community can come together to help out one another.
All this feels like a powerful community, and I look forward to sharing my thoughts when I get back about whether the reality lived up to my expectations.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 4th, 2008 at 7:45 am and is filed under Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.One Response to “South by Southwest Conference”
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March 4th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
I think I am the only person on the web that is not going to SXSW. I have been asked so many times if I am going that I really feel like I am missing out on a really great web community gathering.