SXSW Summary
There’s been much talk of this year’s SXSW and how overwhelmingly huge it was. I don’t have a whole lot to add to that, really. I thought last year was out of control. This year left it standing.
Without question, the best panel I saw was “How to Convince Your Company to Embrace Standards“. This was not due to the topic, though that was good too, but because the panel was tightly assembled and packed with good information. Most panels are a collection of folks who sit onstage and leisurely toss out assorted thoughts for an hour; I should know, having been on many such panels in the past. For this one, everybody had specific points to make and made them concisely. There was a lot of preparation, and it showed. It very much raised the bar, as far as I’m concerned, especially since I’m thinking of proposing a panel or two for 2007. Kudos to all involved.
Also:
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It was interesting to sit on the “How to Roll Your Own Web Conference” panel with Jason Fried and hear his experiences. You may recall that when I wrote about event pricing, I said one way to find an event’s optimum price was to run it over and over and keep raising the price until you stopped selling all the seats. That’s exactly what’s happening with the “Getting Real” workshop. It will be interesting to see where they level off. Assuming they do.
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John Allsopp’s presentation during the WaSP Annual Meeting was an interesting experience for me. It also covered a bit of the same ground I plan to cover in my keynote for @media.
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In two different lunches, I told people from computer book publishers that their whole business model is in danger of collapsing. Interestingly, both (more or less) agreed. Sadly, it seems that only one is working for a company that’s aware of this fact, and it isn’t the company you’d probably assume.
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I’ve decided I much prefer El Sol y La Luna to Las Manitas when it comes to the food. Las Manitas, of course, wins on the basis of proximity. Also for not deafening its patio patrons.
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No joke: I got into our rental car in Austin and the Avis Preferred hangtag said “ETA: CSS“.
Good times.
