SXSW 2009

If you’re going to talk about SXSW, the discussion will inevitably revolve around three topics: presentations, parties and people.

Presentations

This year, whether due to incredible content or the broadening of my interests, there were multiple presentations I wanted to see each session. Thankfully I feel like I chose wisely, as I can honestly say I enjoyed every presentation. Not equally necessarily, but each presentation had value that I could glean from it, and each held my attention.

Parties Events

As always, the parties were a fantastic opportunity to let loose and mingle with fellow web developers and designers. I always hesitate to call them parties though. For one, to be able to attend the last two years, I’ve needed funding from my employers, and it’s harder to sell a conference where the word “parties” is frequently used.

More seriously, I hesitate because they aren’t parties in the typical sense. These are parties geek style. Like most parties there is beer (Shiner Bock if you’re doing it right) involved, but conversations are about things like Javascript performance and new CSS techniques. In general attendees are intelligent, and the conversations reflect that.

People

That’s the beauty of SXSW – the conversations. You meet fantastic people from all over who are interested in the same kinds of things that you are. I’d heard people say that each year they come back it feels more like coming home. While I’m not ready to go that far, I will say that it was great to catch up with people I had met last year, and to meet new people to catch up with next year.

I’m hoping to make the AJAX Experience this year, but as of right now, SXSW is the only major conference I’ve attended, so I don’t really have anything to compare it to. However, it’s safe to say that the rewards of going greatly outweigh the costs of doing so, and SXSW should be one of the conferences on your yearly radar. If you can get to Austin next March, I highly recommend it, and hopefully, I’ll see you there.

So fantastic, in fact, that thanks to the generosity of my employer and a little good luck, I am going to be attending again this year. There were a few lessons I learned while attending last years conference that I’m going to keep in mind this year, to hopefully glean even more value from SXSW.

Plan Loosely

Last year, I made the attempt to plot out, hour by hour, every panel that I was going to attend. The truth is, of all the panels I attended, maybe 50% were those that I had planned on. The rest of the time, whether due to how I was feeling at that particular instant, recommendations of people I met, or interests kindled by earlier conversations, I attended panels that in some cases, didn’t seem like they would have interested me earlier. The result, was that I attended many panels that did a great job of pushing my knowledge in some areas that I really hadn’t explored before.

I do think there is some benefit in going through the panel listings and identifying some that really are must-attends. There were a few from last year, Secrets of Javascript Libraries comes to mind, that I had considered absolute musts to attend, and was sure to keep those time slots set aside. This year though, other than identifying this year’s must attends, I’m going to keep the rest of those time slots subject to change.

Be Ready to Network

One of the most amazing, and inspiring things about SXSW (and I would imagine other conferences as well), is being surrounded by so many people with similar interests, who are also passionate about the web. It should come as little surprise, that these people with a passion for the web are almost all hoping to strike up conversation with interesting people throughout their time there. With very few exceptions, this was true of everyone I met, regardless of any kind of pre-conceived ‘internet fame’.

I met some fantastic people with some great ideas, several of which I have kept in contact with throughout the year. Some of these people are attending again this year, and I am looking forward to meeting with them again. I am also looking forward to meeting a whole new flood of people, and hearing about their opinions and ideas for the web.

The value of these conversations and networking cannot be overstated, and in many cases, this networking can become even more valuable than the panels themselves. The added benefit is that networking, combined with continued conversations with these people throughout the year helps to maintain that ‘SXSW high’ that otherwise runs out all too soon.

Soak It All In

Five days seems like a long time for a conference, but it goes by quicker than you’d think. Once it’s done, you have to wait another year for March to roll around, and you never know whether expenses and circumstances will allow you to attend the following year. So, I’ll make every effort to soak up each day that I’m there…the panels, the conversations, and yes, the parties.

I believe I’m still young enough that I can attend panels all day, stay out at the parties and social activities till late at night, and still have plenty of energy to get up for the next morning’s first sessions. Seeing as how there’s plenty of Starbucks stands set up in the hallways, I can also rely on my good friend caffeine to help out a bit. I can’t imagine experiencing SXSW in any other way than cramming my days full of as many inspiring conversations and informative panels as possible.

Getting In Touch

If anybody else is going to be down in Austin for SXSW this year, feel free to look me up. I’ll be getting down there the morning of the 13th (Friday) and heading back the morning of the 17th (Tuesday). The best way to get ahold of me while I’m down there will be via Twitter, so feel free to ping me if you want to meet up. The conversations are half the fun, and I’m looking forward to meeting more people this year.

I can only imagine that being surrounded by that many people who are passionate about the web for 5 days will be quite inspiring and reinvigorating. While this is the first conference I will be attending, I hope that there will be many more.

In fact, ideally I’d like to go to several each year. Listening to the presentations and having the chance to mingle with other web-minded folk seems to me an incredible way to keep in tune with the trends of the industry, and an effective way to find new techniques or skills to pursue.

After having looked over the panels roughly 100 times, there are several that I am particularly excited to check out.

Secrets of Javascript Libraries

I was excited for this back when I thought only John Resig, he of JQuery fame, would be presenting. Now that I hear people who either created or contributed other major libraries like Dojo, Prototype and Scriptaculous are also going to be there, this panel has really shot up to the top of my list.

Browser Wars: Deja Vu All Over Again?

Finally, a question I have long wondered about will be answered: What happens when you stick major players at Firefox, Opera, and IE in a room together? Cage match anyone?

Design Eye for South By

I’ve heard nothing but great things about this panel from year’s past. Can’t wait to see what they come up with this time around.

Everything I Know About Accessibility I Learned From Star Wars

Honestly….Derek Featherstone had me at Star Wars. The fact that the presentation covers such an important topic like accessibility is really just gravy.

Design is In the Details

Actually not sure what to do here. Naz Hamid’s presentation sounds fantastic, but Slideshare is also talking about the lessons learned about AJAX and Flash while creating SlideShare.net during this time. Decisions, decisions.

I could name many more that sound great, but then you would just get bored and move on if you haven’t already.

In addition to the panel programming, from everything I hear, the networking opportunities are amazing at SXSW, and I am quite excited to have the opportunity to meet some people in person for the first time. I always enjoy running into another passionate web developer or designer. The discussions are always interesting.

I am amazed by the amount of social events currently scheduled. Should be a good time, but I am quite curious as to how people actually manage to stay at these things the whole time and then be ready to go again in the morning? I hope there is a Starbucks near by.

For anyone interested, I did break down and sign up for Twitter recently, in no small part because I hear last year it turned into quite an essential tool to stay in the loop as far as where to meet up with people and such. So, if any of you are going to be at SXSW, you should follow me on Twitter so we can meet up some place. I’d love the opportunity to meet some of you in person.

And for those of you who aren’t going to be there, but want to follow me anyway, feel free to. I’m going to do my best to keep up with the updates there and I may even have something interesting to say from time to time.