SXSW Bound: Rookie Style #SXSWi

This will be my first year heading to SXSW and I have little clue of what to expect.  I’m fortunate in that I have a few friends who are veterans of the sport and willing to let me tag along.  Even with that network it’s certainly an intimidating event – everyone seems to be “in the know” or the “who’s who” of tech.

In full disclaimer, I probably couldn’t care less about the music or film festival aspect of it.  I’ve been to three concerts in my life and the last movie I saw in the theatre was probably Titanic.  That’s not a joke – the joke is that my concerts were the Lemonheads (twice) and Tori Amos.

Everyone posts “First Timers Guides” but they all seem a bit cryptic or simply too esoteric to learn much from.  I’ve found a few (listed below) that have some good, digestible advice.

While it may be the anti-culture of SXSW, many threads seem to ignore, or even shun, the topic of illustrating an ROI of SXSW.  Most companies will have a hard time justifying an expensive trip to Austin in the name of ‘personal branding’ or ‘networking’.  To offset this (and my own concern that the party:work emphasis is off) is to create a Google Doc of events.  I’ve color coded the events to make sure I have a mix of sessions, events, and parties.  I don’t expect I’ll be able to maintain the schedule once I get there but, so far, it has helped in keeping me focused on what I should be looking out for.

Here’s the best practical advice I’ve been told or found out;

• Book your hotel early and get it as close to the Austin Convention Center as possible – most hotel review sites(Like TripAdvisor or Kayak)  allow you to sort by proximity to the center.  Also check out VRBO.com.  If you’re going with a group, this might be a great bet, even though pricing increases 2-3x for the duration of SXSW.
• Cell phone reception is spotty as AT&T’s network gets crushed by the tech mob.
• Connect with your friends on Foursquare and/or Gowalla.
• Buy a cell phone battery extended.  Jim Storer mentioned he uses the $22 Kensington Mini Battery Extender, which I also ended up buying after some comparison shopping.

If you’re looking for more details, also check out;

1. Aaron Strout’s Field Guide to SXSW
2. Quora thread on “Must Do” SXSW Activities
3. http://austin2011.sched.org/

The single best advice I’ve read yet was Dave Delaney (via Aaron Strout).  It’s quick and concise and has some great information.  I particularly like the idea of saving a #sxsw Twitter search within 15 miles of Austin.  The full slide show is available here: