SxSW 2006 Day 4

Monday morning was actually more like Monday afternoon after my 6:30am return to L’Auberge De Wellesley, so I missed the first few panels (which was unfortunate, since I really wanted to attend CSS Problem Solving and Microformats: Evolving The Web, but as it turns out I didn’t miss much: the general consensus seems to be that the CSS panel was a mixture of boring and not useful, and that Microformats are an interesting idea that just doesn’t seem to have a lot of practical use outside of the blogging universe at this point in time… I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on those guys though).

Thus my first session of the day was Craig Newmark’s Keynote Interview (for the 3 people reading this who are still living under that rock, that’s Craig as in craigslist). He’s definitely an interesting individual, and it was fun to hear him (and interviewer Jimmy Wales of Wikipedia) speak on all sorts of topics (both related and unrelated to craigslist), though Craig definitely bounces around a lot so it was easy to lose track of his train of thought. However, I thought it would have been nice if he crossed his legs or sat sideways or something (if you were in the audience, or at least if you are Scrivs, you know what I mean ;)

I skipped the next session, mostly because I wasn’t interested in any of the topics, but also for an attempted lunch date that never was… again, I don’t feel as though I missed anything, since the panel I would have attended (Designing for Community with “Zero-Advertising” Brands) wasn’t good enough to hold the interest of those I spoke with who sat in.

Next came Design Eye for the List Guy, a panel I was really looking forward to, not only as a user of craigslist, but also since Didier helped start the whole “Design Eye” concept. This is one panel I’d love to be on next year (hint-hint). It didn’t disappoint, though I felt the presentation was a little disjointed when compared with Holistic Web Design. Kudos to Andrei (who was “virtually” in the room thanks to iSight), Cameron, Paul, Ryan and Dr. Keith for tackling the most challenging Design Eye project yet.

The rest of the evening involved more partying (surprise), but most importantly it featured the 2006 Avalonstar Bowling Extravaganza — hands-down, this was the single most enjoyable and all-out fun event of the entire week. Bryan definitely hit one out of the park, and that opinion is shared by everyone in attendance (some people opted out in favor of 20 x 2 or the Blogger Party, but they missed out). Check out the pics. I didn’t know about it until talking with Bryan on Saturday night, so I wasn’t officially on any of the teams, but I did pinch-hit for Team Avalonstar, and later for Team Kurafire (thanks Faruk! — btw, the licorice was tasty :). The evening also gave me the chance to meet some more folks in person, like Ryan (congrats on the high-score of the night!), and hang out with Steve (who also filled in at the last minute for Team Kurafire).

The Buzznet party at the Red Bull House wrapped up the evening party-wise (that place is a trip — Steve and I rocked out in the “music room” for almost an hour), then Steve and I headed back to the Hilton with Bryan to help with his Day 4 podcast (check it out — it’s about 45 minutes long, and everyone was slightly inebriated, but there’s some good stuff there). Thus ends the penultimate day…