As this year's South By Southwest Interactive festival approaches, I find myself reflecting on the lessons learned from last year and sit in anticipation of what is to come. Truth be told, I got much more out of this than I contributed. There is just so much to absorb that it's difficult not to.
The Takeaway
The common themes had to be quick iteration and starting small. Every speaker I listened to had a similar story when it came to application or community development. They started something, usually on the side, and developed it over time. This sounds like common sense I know; but when you are developing a project, it is easy to forget that.
A few years ago, I unfortunately dug myself into a hole by trying to do too much, because I knew how to do too much. Meaning that I over-engineered every aspect by responding to scenarios that we'd be lucky to ever be in. Regretfully, I let myself and my friends down by never being able to take that first step and let the application grow into something. You end up with nothing.
I mentioned it in my relaunch, but I'll say it again. I was afraid of going down the same path with this website. There is so much that I want to do, but the regular job, freelance work and life gets in the way. So I launch with what I have and grow into it. Outside of you and me, no one really visits anyway; so I have time.
Choosing Sessions
I realize that a review a year after is sad, so I won't get into a play-by-play recap. There are a ton of great presentations to choose from; it is inevitable that you end up in the wrong one at times, or get pleasantly surprised by others. This is an oversimplification, but my advice to myself is to be wary of the ones of a technical nature. I don't mean to say to avoid these, but take precaution.
If a session is titled "AJAX" and you are a web developer, it is perfectly logical that this may be of interest. These are 50 minute sessions so there is likely to be a 15 minute history of how the name AJAX came about. This session is a perfect fit for the manager or the curious, but not the developer. On the flip side, I attended a DOM Scripting session, given by Jeremy Keith and Aaron Gustafson, that was very inspirational. A little bit technical, a little bit overview and a little bit of a showcase; this shows the true spirit of SXSWi.
About the panels, these are often hit and miss, with little to go by other than the topic and the speakers. In general, I'd say the fewer speakers the better. The panel covering mapping was one of my favorite sessions. If I'm being honest though, I would've preferred to hear Dan Catt for the full 50 minutes – no offense to the other panelists.
Bottom line is explore. Make sure you check out the topics that you know little about, you may be surprised. Pick out some familiar names and hear what they have to say, but be sure to check in on the people that you haven't heard of, you will not regret it. The good thing is, you can always switch mid-session if you bought a lemon.
I don't mean to sound cynical, because I absolutely loved SXSWi 2006. I'm thankful that my employers were able to send me. It is definitely worth it. Talk to a couple of people around you and you really notice the quality of the audience. There are so many ideas going around; something is definitely wrong if you are not inspired. Oh, and the nightlife is not so bad either.
If you go
Say hi. I'll be the nerd with the laptop.
