Blog Post: SXSWi Survivor

The short story is that SXSWi 2010 was an amazing conference this year and brought back some truly invaluable knowledge to CCA, but getting it wasn’t easy.

The problem for many is that because the conference is so big, there are so many different things happening.  From the expo floor to multiple hotels filled with panel presentations and focused group discussions to networking events to late night sponsored parties, SXSWi can be a lot to manage.

The good news is that there is something there for just about anyone working in the web. While the show was once very technically focused, much like the web, it has gone more mainstream. Attendees are coming from a much wider range of backgrounds, which makes for a much more diverse group, but is much more representative of the population that is shaping the future of the web.

In an industry where job titles and responsibilities that didn’t exist six months ago are bubbling over with demand and only a few thousand other people in the world are experimenting with the same tools and processes as you, having a good portion of them in a single room to share experiences is like a bomb of innovation and genius just waiting to go off. In a good way of course.

That is one of the reasons why many of the content strategy sessions were so popular. A good portion of attendees didn’t even know that there were so many others grasping to manage the same new challenges with web content out there in the world.

So now that I made it out of SXSWi alive with a head full of ideas and a notebook full of scribbles, here are some tips on how I did it all.

Plan

There is so much happening at the show that the best you can aim for is hitting 10% of what is happening at any one time. Make a plan a week ahead of time based on your priorities at the show, review it the day before, and always have a plan B and C. Sometimes after plan A and B failed, plan C was a real gem.

For example, I had grandiose plans of live blogging some of the sessions that I was most looking forward to attending. The simple truth was that I was way too busy taking notes for myself and the agency to also focus on creating content for this blog in tandem. While I kept my twitter stream pretty active, I had to put the live blogging on hold for the week and focus on retaining information rather than simply channeling it to all of our faithful readers here.

Sleep

Surrounding yourself with some of the smartest people working in the web and sharing ideas is useless if you don’t retain any of it. Sleep. Rest. Recover. Resist the urge to fill your schedule from 9:30 am until 2:00 am when the bartender kicks you out. (I can only speak for myself, but I was very well behaved.)

Socialize

SXSW is about the people as much as it is about the content.  Meet new friends, and then meet THEIR friends. While the priorities between content and relationships seems to shift based on how many times you’ve returned to Austin in March, meaningful  relationships are always invaluable.

Prioritize

Because there is so much going on, SXSWi is different for everyone. It is important to decide what you want most out of the conference before you even book your flight and plan your activities to support that purpose.

Working to emulate a knowledge sponge? Focus on the presentations.

Promoting your startup? Make regular rounds between the blogger lounges and expo floor and make connections with those that matter to your company.

Take notes

I sat in on far too many presentations, discussions and panels to absorb even half of everything I learned in Austin. Write everything down. Review it on the plane. Share it with the office once you are back in town. Execute based on your new found wisdom with your favorite clients.

Learn to love Gowalla/Foursquare

While in the “real world,” my friends who don’t work in the web haven’t caught on to Gowalla or Foursquare yet, just about everyone in Austin was constantly updating their friends with their location. It created a great opportunity to see what the (GPS social) world might look like if this trend catches on and goes mainstream.

It allowed for some fun spur of the moment meetups and gave some great alternatives to spend my time when even plan C failed me.

Up next: thoughts on exactly who is driving innovation on the web….