Matt Browne

South by Southwest is more than an interactive festival. They summed it well at the first panel— your first year you come to meet new people (network), the second year it’s like family, the third year it’s like a reunion. For us, the festival is best summed up by unforgettable experiences and the truly amazing people we met. For those of you who did not attend SXSW, some of my points are really esoteric. 

Experiences

Internet Famous: Our first panel was called, “How to Rawk,”  where some of the SXSW sherpas showed us the way by explaining why they ‘rawked’ in previous years. The panel kicked off with an accordion player singing Britney Spears, and the panelists drinking from a handle of booze. Each panelist was drinking straight from the bottle— at that point we knew what might be in store for the weekend. Somewhere between MJ telling us the story of how she corrupted Matt Mullenweg, and Rannie talking about his blog, we first heard the word ‘Internet famous.’  The phrase ‘Internet famous’ has a real meaning to us geeks, who live in a world where most people have no idea who we are or what we really do. SXSW, more than any other interactive festival, brings together renown figures on the Internet in a surprisingly casual, non-threatening environment; hence creating a perfect opportunity to meet the ‘Internet famous.’ For this reason, this phrase stuck with me through the trip as I encountered the ‘technorati.’

The Unicorn: For those of your not following the Unicorn’s twitter feed, what a shame. You missed real-time hilarity unfolding via RSS. Here is a little background. Again, one of the first  panels of the show consisted of drinking— only this time there was no accordion player or Britney Spears tune. This time the freak show was a boozing Unicorn that ended up being one of the funnier moments of the festival for me. As I would follow the Unicorn’s feed, there would be times I couldn’t help but burst out laughing… or interrupt someone to tell the Unicorn’s latest pun. The Unicorn was representing Unicorn Media— good job on getting your brand out there guys. 

Sarah Lacy: This has been written about ad-nauseum, so I won’t add to the parade of blog posts. I will say this— Sarah should be mindful of how much she tried to interject herself into the keynote. Promoting your book during someone else’s keynote,  bad etiquette. Trying to make the mutiny about you instead of the fact that the crowd couldn’t interject their questions, lack of tact. Either way, she didn’t deserved to be berated in public like that, I don’t think anyone does. Watch the Interview here and tell me what you think. 

Gingerbread Pancakes: There is a relatively famous breakfast house just outside of Austin called Magnolias. The Gingerbread Pancakes are a must. We ran into MJ, Jason, and Rannie on our way to get a 6am late night snack. Good times. 

Sending Out a Flare: I have used Twitter before SXSW, but I officially got bit by the Twitter bug while I was there. I was incredibly impressed with how efficient communicating and connecting with everyone was. In a matter of minutes you could post a message with what you were doing, and have an entourage of people come join you; Eston calls this “sending out a flare.” If you are Internet famous (say you have 1,000 followers) and you post a message saying where you are or what you are doing, you will be amazed at the social impact. You can see how these social technologies bring people closer and speed up the amount of time it takes to build a lasting relationship. 

Frank Warren from PostSecret.com: PostSecret.com is a site where anyone can create an artistic expression of a secret of theirs and put it on a post card. They anonymously send the post card to Frank Warren and every week he places them on his site. Since he started doing this, he has inspired thousands to confess their secrets and begin this unique healing process. Frank was an inspiration at SXSW, not only for his philanthropy, but for his vast empathy for all of these secrets he holds for others. The post cards show up on his blog, at museums across the country, and even in music videos such as “Dirty Little Secret.” I recommend buying his coffee table book— or at the very least checking out his blog. 

Epic Fail: We have seen ‘FAIL’ used throughout computer programs to let you know you’ve done something wrong. The term failure is so harsh that it caught the attention of the technorati and became a catch phrase when something is done wrong. The phrase Epic Fail, I believe was coined by Teresa, and has been the subject of many Twitter posts since SXSW. Consider it ‘Internet lingo’ at its finest. 

Icanhascheezburger - lolcats: I can’t really explain this one… other than by saying you need to head over to lolcats and check out how this guy actually made a business model out of Icanhascheezburger. We, of course, modified the phrase to fit whatever we wanted to have… Icanhazparty… Icanhazepicfailure… you get the picture.

Elitist: Try to avoid them if you can… elitists are abound at SXSW. It is hard to tell a self righteous designer from an elitist… but you should work hard to avoid either in my opinion. An elitist is someone you can’t share your ‘blind spots’ with, thus making it impossible to have personal development through networking—which is what Southby is all about (if you ask me). 

Blindspots: Which brings me to my final theory, blindspots. We all have things we don’t know about our industry that we should already know. This knowledge gap is called a blindspot. We all have them— and that is why SXSW is so great; because we help each other fill in any gaps in our thinking and refine our strategy. 

People: The people were just as memorable as the events. I made so many lasting memories because of the amazing people on this trip. The famed Internet friendly really lived up to their names. Thanks for a great experience at Southby!