UPDATE 25 March: I’ve uploaded my photos from SXSW 2004, not that I took many, but there you go … it’s better thana kick up the arse.
Now, with all good intentions I wanted to keep a more complete diary of SXSW2004i
(Or South By Southwest 2004 Interactive for those with acrophobia). But the
trouble with this plan is simple - it was doomed from the very start. Anyone
who has attended before will know that while there are numerous places that
you can get wireless internet access, and potentially blog away to your heart’s
content, it does kinda get in the way of the other reason (aside from the panels
and presentations - y’know the learning about stuff part) for being at the conference/festival,
that being the networking.
So, I didn’t sit typing out my experiences there, instead I just went along
with the ride. But the brain being what it is, there are so many little details
that either meant something to me alone or may may something to others who attended
that I thought I should retrospectively document some of my SXSW2004i highlights.
In no particular order - other than when I think of them - here are my favourites:
- Meeting so many WaSP members in meatspace
- and discovering that Molly was/is officially
the ‘Life and Soul of the Party’. A crazy woman who, when combined with another
crazy woman (Lisa Rein, I am referring to you) instantly guarantees that your
table will be the loudest in the whole darn restaurant. - Dave Shea’s immaculate comic timing:
after Molly had been enthusing to the whole table about why <well_known_AI_guy>
is so good at what he does for what seemed like a couple of minutes, Mr Shea
paused for a second then asked: "Just one question - who the hell is
<well_known_AI_guy>?" - Discussing the merits of a panel I were in with Eric
Meyer and then veering off course to come up with the concept of Smile
Sheets™ - The whole damn Rendezvous stroke of genius (for those not in the know, Rendezvous
is a Mac application allows anyone on the wireless network to see who’s nearby
in the room, automatically, and furthermore if you spot a ‘name’ that you’ve
been trying to track down, you can send a message then and there!) - The ludicrously over-the-top French/Japanese band/art/performance at the
Frog Design party. Strange? There are no words to describe just how strange
… - Jeff Veen arriving for his first panel
presentation literally minutes after getting on the plane (all the other panellists
had been introduced and he magically appeared right on cue) - … and then Jeff Veen bringing up Accessify.com
on screen during the presentation <gush /> - People asking me how Manda was/what she was doing while I was in Austin
(people who I didn’t think/expect to be reading
the travel diary) - John Halcyon Styn getting Punk’d at the 2004 Web Awards after the Paris
Hilton skit - Being at the Web Awards and seeing Accessify.com in print (as in the awards
brochure), as a finalist, and in a category (developer resource) so loaded
with such excellent resources <gush_again /> - Dave Shea winning the developer resource category after one of the biggest
cheers of support for a nominated site yet - Dave getting back on stage for the final award - the best in show overall
- The intern who had to accept awards for lots of people he didn’t know or
care about who, by the end of the evening, was almost a celeb in his own right
(and as for the ‘dog chewed my SXSW pass’ thing, just classic) - The awesome kindness of Jess, Kristen
and Ethan for letting me crash on the
sofa at their hotels, saving this travelling soul a few bucks and ensuring
that I didn’t have to negotiate the city’s crazies for prime park bench sleeping
locations of an evening - The discovery that Ethan (sidesh0w.com) is, somewhat ironically, cultivating
something of a Sidesh0w B0b ‘do under his woolly hat - Reading Dunstan’s painful poetry
about Jeff Veen during Veen’s session (Jeff, you weren’t being picked on,
it’s just that you were on stage as Dunstan was on AIM. I’d like to know what
Dunstan would have penned had Molly been on stage - not too many rhyming possibilities
with Holzschlag!) - Oh, and reading Dunstan’s ‘I’m not here’ status message in iChat.
- LaunchBar - without doubt, the coolest [little] app for OS X I’ve
seen/tried yet (it’s great to see all these things that other people are using) - Finding out that the W3C’s WAI people - Matt May and Wendy Chisholm - were
there to reach out to the web design community for help with WCAG2.0. A very
encouraging sign, and hopefully one that the design community can commit some
time to. - Joking about how I must win the prize for being furthest travelled at the
conference, having flown from Sydney and all that … and then doing just
that, winning a pack of Texan playing cards with bullet holes through them
and a leather holster at 20×2 - Meeting some really cool people at the Omni hotel in the two days leading
up to the conference who showed great hospitality: Colby Parker Jr (how’s
that for a cool name?) who was working at the Omni business centre
editing a Billy Bob Thornten film that had been shooting nearby, and Jennifer,
the waitress at the lobby bar who gave Colby and myself a lift home at the
end of the evening. - Finding the ‘Worst ATM in Austin’ just down the road from the Fray event.
It appeared to be ’securely mounted’ in a very shabby looking bit of fencing
; then I watched Simon Willison brave using it ("I had visions of me
putting my card in and it just driving away."). Keith
and Dave took photos, but not sure
if they’re online (yet/at all) - The bouncer at Fray, whose voice was a good two octaves below what would
normally be considered human, although it would be wise not to pass comment
within his earshot - he also looked like he ate web designers for breakfast
and shot Mac geeks just for the fun of it with a Colt 45 from the comfort
of his homeley shack in the woods - Spotting actor Robert Duvall in the Omni bar, just chillin’ with some firends/relatives
(and then getting cheered and whoops from the other people in the bar as he
got up to leave: "Yeah, go Bobby!" shouted one, like he was congratulating
the actor on still being able to walk despite him no longer being a ’spring
chicken’) - Finding out that, inadvertently, totally accidentally, I’d dissed Nick Bradbury
(Homesite, TopStyle and FeedDemon author). He walked past and introduced himself
at the Frog Design party, but I couldn’t catch what he said (very loud at
the time) and couldn’t read his name badge and said something like: "Yeah
whatever, it doesn’t matter" What he actually said was: "Hi Ian,
I’m Nick Bradbury" (we’ve conversed before by email) to which my "Yeah
whatever …" response must have seen a little, er, rude? The reason
it’s a highlight is that I saw Nick the next day, and admitted that I’d not
heard what he said but had been embarassed to ask again, hence the non-commital
answer combined with a smile. A highlight because I then realised how bad
it must have sounded, and was able to apologise … and then have a bloody
good laugh about it. Phew. Nick, we’re still cool, right? ;-) - The pizza slice vendor on 6th Street serving up the perfect budget-friendly
slice of delicious post-pub food ever. - Having all preconceived ideas about AOL proved wrong by an excellent CSS
presentation (OK, just some preconceived ideas) that showed they
are committed to a standards-based redesign. It may be the devil, but it’ll
be wearing well fitted clothes before the end of this year is out, all things
being well. Encouraging news indeed.
Well, that’s about all I can think of right now. I’m sure there are more things
to add, and I’ll be sure to add them as I think of them. So, au revoir to another
SXSW and here’s to the next one in 2005. Cheers everybody!