Category: sxsw

The Boys Are Animated

Last year, we met the Browns at Threadgills on Thursday night before SXSW began. This year, the crowd got bigger, with the addition of Kevin Smokler, George, Tim and Neil. We had a great time!!! I got to play with the kids, we talked about all kinds of things, I installed Movable Type, Instiki and Sogudi on George’s laptop, and we laughed… a ton. Oh yeah, I think I set the new land speed record for installing and rebuilding MT – three minutes from beginning to first post posted and site rebuilt. Can you beat that?

One of the things I loved about SXSW was all the stickers. I came home with too many, and a lot of them were free. Granted, this is a little thing, but it was fun. I got one of Matt’s XFN Friendly stickers, one of Leia’s stickers, and a bunch more from the folks at Un-American Activities (those I paid for, and they made my I BUY LOCAL stickers).\
To add to the fun this year, I’m bringing a bunch of my stickers to hand out. So, if you see me, be sure to ask for a sticker!

I just asked for approval from work to attend SXSW next year. Are you goin’? I am (I hope).

There are forty-one people on this list. I met them all, and had at least one conversation with them. The conversation may have been short, silly or mundane, but it was a conversation. If I talked to you and your name isn’t on this list, well, I’m a jerk (my bad memory is a jerk anyway). Let me know, and I’ll add you.

• Michael Brown

• Ari Brown (Sorry!! Told you I was a jerk)

• Kevin Smokler

• James McNally

• Mike Wasylik

• Alison Headley

• Brad Graham

• George Kelly

• Jay Allen

• Chuck Olsen

• Brent Gulanowski

• Paul Kyte

• Esin Salter (you need a blog too)

• Debra Keneally (ditto)

• Zack Rosen (from DeanSpace)

• Matt Mullenweg

• Rannie Turingan

• Jason Schneider

• Jessica Teeter

• Josh Benton

• Dave Weinberger (in line for the bathroom, of all places)

• Paul Walhus: I have a great story about meeting him I’ll write about later.

• Dave Shea

• Chris Smith (again, must get blog)

• Don Turnbull

• The sexy cow… good gravy, I can’t remember your name for the life of me, but that was a great story.

• Jeff Ryder (long live the back porch meeting)

• Dan Budiac

• Jennifer Hanen

• Joey Trimyer

• Nikolai Nolan

• Betsy Devine

• Scott Andrew (of Walkingbirds fame)

• Simon Willison

• Wes Felter

• Dave Thomas

• Robert Brochu (he got balded for a short film, and loooooves trucks)

• Leia Scofield

• Kate (OK, I knew Kate already, but it was like meeting her all over again)

• Wes Jenkins

• Griff

• Colin Mutchler

SXSW was too much fun. It was so fun, we even had fun in a bathroom! How we got everyone in there, I’ll never know. I think I met and had at least a cursory conversation with all but two of the people in the picture. I was going to post my gigantic list of folks I met, but it’s been a couple weeks now, and, I don’t know, I just haven’t done it.

All packed, unfortunately. I started coming up with a list of all the people I’ve met this week, and it’s unbelievably long. If I just counted the people I had a conversation with, the list is still incredibly long. For those long-time Me-Knowers, you know this is a big deal. I don’t do this kind of thing very often. I’m very uncomfortable with small talk, with big groups. This was different, somehow. I didn’t feel like I had to explain myself. The people here “get it”.

Before I actually write down the list, I want to do some thank you’s. There were a few people who really made me feel welcome right off the bat, who included me in the “gang” and were just the best. Michael and Ari, James, Brent, Paul (gotta get a blog, man), Mike, George, Esin, Debra and Smokler were all just fantastic. I can’t thank you guys enough for helping make my first SXSW experience better than I could have imagined. I loved hanging out with all of you, and can’t wait till next year, so we can do it all over again. I’m working on a list of people I met that I had good conversations with, or at least ate a meal next to. It’s really long, so it’ll probably get finished sometime after I get home. But, I loved everyone I met, and had a great time.

Now, it’s time to go back home, hug my family, and get to work on the Next Big Thing™.

So, last night, I found out that I know someone who was in this picture. How cool is that?

So, SXSWi is over. Tonight was the big party at Bruce Sterling’s house. It was bittersweet for me, the end of one of the best weeks in recent memory. I’d go into it more, but I’m very, very tired. The back porch meeting took a lot out of me… I can’t wait to get home to my family. See why?

I love SXSWi. It’s the most amazing collection of creative geeks I’ve ever seen, and I’m drinking it all in like a chocolate shake. I’ve met some of my blog heroes, heard some of my design muses speak, hung out with cool people who do and think wonderful things, and made more new friends than I can list here.

If you live on the web, are passionate about self-expression and technology, then I can’t recommend SXSW to you enough. It’s like spring break for geeks. I listened to Howard Rheingold speak about smartmobs today. Yesterday, I learned a little about emergent democracy, got a tour of how Google works from a human perspective, and went to Fray, where I heard funny, touching and true personal stories told by the same people I’ve been hanging out with all week.

For me, SXSW is a way to get out in the world, show the world who I am, and see who other people are. We speak the same language here, and it’s refreshing. There’s no explaining the benefits of web standards, there’s a vibe here where everything is cool. Everyone is open to you. I’ve never met more people interested in meeting each other in my life, and I love it. I’m sure I’ve annoyed a lot of people, because I feel like more of myself here. I think I’ve been a little too much of “me” this week… but I’m not sure I can do anything about that.

And it’s not that this is all goofing off. It’s not. The days are full of interesting panels, where new ideas are thrown around like they’ve existed forever – because they just make sense – well, OK, some of them make sense. But, we’re all here just talking about our passions.

I’ll try to come up with a list of all the people I’ve met here, and all the people I’ve hung out with, but I’m not sure I can. There are so many very cool people here. And now, I can’t wait to get back to work to share all the new ideas that have sprouted, all the great things I’ve heard and seen, and the joi de vie I’ve rediscovered while being here.