SxSW 2006 Day 1 and 2

So my first experience at SxSW has been terrific so far. The chance to meet the personalities I’ve known only as names until now is more fun than I expected.

After arriving in Austin, checking into my hotel (the just-shy-of-decent-but-too-far-away-from-everything Wellesley Inn on South IH35 (see how far away I was) and registering at the Convention Center (I’ll be honest, I walked around the entire south side before I figured out I was on the wrong side of the block… stop laughing…), most of Friday was spent walking around Austin with Garrett, Wade and some guy named Carl (both are on one of Monday’s panels), and eventually meeting up (and having a few drinks with) folks like Eris, Matthew, Mike, Mike, Keith, Scrivs, and a bunch of other insanely cool people (apologies to those I can’t quite remember, after the two shots of “moonshine” sometime during the afternoon, things started to get a wee bit hazy…)

Many cool discussions were had, some about our industry of choice, others about everything else (there’s something else?). Foosball was played, drinks were had, women were admired (and in some cases, ogled), and in all, for a day with no planned conference events, it was a great start. Except for the whole “getting up in the morning for the actual panels” part. Oh, and dodgeballis a must for figuring out where everyone is at any given time.

Day 2

And speaking of panels, Stan, Khoi, Mark, Toni and Liz did a nice job to start the day with Traditional Design and New Technology. Short version: the panel mostly advocates more “classic” art direction in web design, though their individual ideas of how/when/who differ slightly. Always interesting to hear varied opinions on reaching the same end result. Sat next to (and finally met) Dave, and met Stan, Jeff and Chris Mills from Apress/Friends of Ed after the discussion.

Next up was Andy and Andy, the “dynamic duo” with How to Be a Web Design Superhero. Mostly fluff, but fun fluff, and of course anything presented with an English accent just sounds more important and official to begin with.

Next up, after a quick lunch, will be Jason and Jim’s opening remarks, which I’m definitely looking forward to.