This was my 6th year attending the SXSW Interactive conference in Austin (maybe 5th? I’m not sure). The show has gotten bigger and bigger every year, to the point where it’s now almost unmanageable, like the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. No available hotel rooms, no available cabs, pieces of the conference happening in scattered locations around town, and lots of waiting in line to get into very crowded parties.
Still, I have fun every year. The best part for me is seeing my circle of SXSW friends expand and mature. My first year at the show, I fell in with a fun group of junior reporters, editors, bloggers, PR people, and developers. I’ve largely stuck with the same tight-knit group of friends; we only really see each other in March, and every year we expand the group just a bit. And each year, we’ve grown up just a bit–we now own companies, run magazines, launch startups, and have the skills to create really interesting things. And instead of working the doors at parties, we’re hosting our own.
The other great thing about SXSW this year is it was my first year not being responsible for writing anything about the show. No one was expecting copy out of me, so I could actually enjoy the panels and talk to people without rushing to file a story.
This whole not-writing thing suits me, because the really fun news at SXSW is the stuff that can’t be written about. Stealth startups, budding business partnerships, not-yet-announced financing rounds, alpha apps that totally suck right now but have a ton of potential…seeing that stuff is what pulls me back to Austin, year after overcrowded year.
