SXSWi Afterthoughts
I will skip the usual ‘long time, no post’ verbiage and skip right to talking about where I was from March 7 - March 12; SXSWi. They say it gets bigger and bigger every year. If that’s true, I can’t possibly wrap my mind around next year’s festival.
There was definitely a slant toward business and marketing this year, but us coding nerds were there in full force as the “Secrets of JavaScript Libraries” panel proved. It was GREAT to see some code on those slides after days of high level argument and theory. Don’t get me wrong, I find that stuff fascinating as well, but for me, I tend to get a little more excited when I can see the rubber hit the road and check out some examples. Since I know we’re all fans of lists, down below is my list of panels that I thought were really worth their weight in salt:
- Secrets of JavaScript Libraries
- Browser Wars: Deja Vu All Over Again?
- A Critical Look at OpenID
- Building Portable Social Networks
- The Art of Self-Branding
- Client-Side Code and Internationalization
I will not bother with a ‘worst of’ list because frankly, I didn’t see anything that was dreadful, which if anything, is a testament to how well the conference is put together over all.
That doesn’t mean that I don’t have a few gripes, however.
I think the layout of the Austin Convention Center is bizarre; who has ever heard of a building that has separate elevators to go the third and fourth floors? Why did we have certain panels and presentations in the massive ballrooms that were half-full and cram Mark Cuban and Mike Eisner into a 100 seat room? Ditto that with Browser Wars. I mean, we had the bloody creator of JavaScript in there, don’t you think at a festival of web-heads that might get just a little bit of attention?
But I really can’t bitch too much. I had a great time in The Live Music Capital of the World and got to meet some great people who all have a passion for the same things I do. How often do you get to say that?