South by South West is not a conference, nor a festival. It is a vast, exhausting attention vortex that wields global influence and remains unlike any other event I have experienced.
Unlike most other authors of posts like this, I have not been before. In fact, if you’re reading this, there’s a high chance you’re like me.

Every year, I would watch as peers from all corners of the globe would descend on Austin, shriek-tweeting their delight of endless partying and seeing big-name panelists duking it out over buzzwords we see in our RSS clients on any normal day of the week, but live. And at the same time you sit there at your desk, wondering how on earth they managed to squeeze it out of their marketing and events budget, since no dot com or old school agency MD worth their salt doesn’t know the stories of SXSW. The tales of booze and BBQ. The sporadic, perspiring schedule that engulfs an entire town. The jolly to end all jollies.

Sick of not going, we bought the earlybird tickets back in September. If I have to take holiday, pay my own expenses and profit for myself and not my employer, then so be it. Now I’ve had a few days recuperating in Los Angeles, I can say in retrospect I don’t regret the time and expense one little bit. SXSW ticks all of my boxes – amazing, exemplary American cuisine, the chance to rub shoulders with people you normally see in virtual print (in aforementioned feed reader), live music everywhere and enough free booze to sink an aircraft carrier. Not to mention hometown folks I don’t see nearly enough of, and the chance to feed off tangible creative energy; the prospect of contagious creativity, coming home with the desire to Make Stuff for yourself as well as servicing your existing clients and colleagues better.

But then it’s so irritating, right? I would selectively unfollow people at this time. Envious of their budgets, the sunshine, the knowledge, the vibe. It’s the ultimate party that you forgot about until it’s too late, and all the latest is being ploughed straight into your desktop twitter client as you sit at work promising to yourself you’ll go next year. In fact I’ve returned to colleagues apologising to me for temporary unfollowing. I completely understand.
Well, damn it, we did go. And I don’t think it will be a one-off.

UX content

Straight off the bat, I’d like to say that there is absolutely nothing content-wise that was new at SXSW. If anything, it was reassuring to hear techniques and processes that I’ve been subscribing to for years being wheeled out once again. And the audiences at these UX sessions were considerable. I get the feeling we are at the cusp of more and more money being shifted towards strategic UX in the future. It’s good to know that Trammell’s user testing lab at Twitter consists of a few Macs running silverback. It’s great to watch Hoekman Jr rant about the lack of clear customer experience strategy among his clients to a full house. It’s brilliant to see Khoi Vinh present a deck that consisted mostly of wireframes. It’s now up to us to not balls it all up, and do some decent work.
But none of it was new. At The Team we’ve long practiced the Holy Trinity (designers, developers and UXers working together as a unit, preferably harmoniously). Not only was this sexed up as Voltron at SXSW, it was presented as being a new and innovative working methodology. Perhaps I have my agency blinkers on, but this is not new to me. Am I lucky? Have I really forgotten all that client-side heartache so quickly? Plenty to reflect on, but reassuring to know that those who are considered The Authority do what you do already.

Wood panelling

The panel as a format is a horrendous thing.

After day one I swore to not attend another panel. It’s painful to see people you’ve enjoyed present before reduced to a formless, stuttering mess. What’s worse is the content is so potentially juicy too. Game design vs UX was weighted too heavily towards the AAA game designers, where the one guy who was supposed to stand up for the web barely said anything and was totally unprepared when asked to comment.

The role of panel facilitator is something else that often went horribly under-looked as blithe statements were left unchallenged, often to confused audiences. Having to listen to tired, derivative examples wheeled out (the Amazon homepage is ugly! We don’t have time for user experience due to project management timelines! Other tired project management cliché!) literally had me bouncing up and down in my seat.

I have come to learn therefore, that there is no closure in the provocatively titled panel session; only more confusion, group ego massage and a slightly bitter aftertaste when time’s up and you can’t ask any questions. Actually, sod closure, there isn’t even a payoff. Next year: more impromptu corridor chats, fewer superstars and more sessions miles away from my professional comfort zone.

The sessions I did enjoy most largely had nothing to do with design or making websites. Seeing Robert Rodriguez talking about the challenges of adapting Sin City from graphic novel to the screen was fascinating (not to mention the anecdote about writing the Predators script at Arnie’s behest in the mid-90s). The Ain’t It Cool News panel was the only good panel I saw. Having read and listened to the AICN guys for over ten years, hearing them recount the stories from the internet’s best movie site was electrifying. Pure geek joy. Only available at SXSW.

It is what you make of it.

Summer camp without any councillors. You have to find this weird balance of being super-organised about which speakers, sessions, parties and freebies you want to see, but then go with the flow and not be annoyed if serendipity leads elsewhere. This is ultimately key to having a good time; and we were blessed to have a healthily large group of friends, colleagues (both past and present) and brand new acquaintances to share it all with. Everyone experienced the joy and excitement of SXSW individually and as a group of Brits Abroad, and it was rollicking good fun to catch up and compare notes over a few Shiner Bocks at the end of each day. Foursquare was enormously helpful to track whereabouts and plan impromptu meet ups for a cheeky mid-afternoon hamburger. Yes. It was actually useful.

You can’t be everywhere at once.

I think Monday’s late afternoon session was the worse, with at least six sessions I wanted to see happening simultaneously. The agenda is so dense and confusing that not even the organisers themselves can provide anything particularly helpful to plan your day. The iPhone app is cluttered and hard to browse and the paper version has the heft of an Argos catalogue.

I can only extend enormous thanks to the Lanyrd folks for providing a free, unofficial and well thought out site to make this Herculean task a bit easier. But yes, I missed so much. Shan’t dwell on it though since the plus side of the things I did mange to see will stick long into my memory and provide inspiration for many months to come. And there’s plenty of video I hope to get round to at some point.
Even the expo is pretty good. It’s nice to meet the people behind the stuff you use every day (massive double take when Scott Berkun handed me a WordPress tshirt, and also amazing to meet Tim van Damme who is lucky enough to be working for Gowalla), and you can indeed collect more schwag than you’ll be able to stuff into your luggage.

Serious eats

The food, ohmygod the food. It’s everywhere. It’s often free and for a connoisseur of dirty American cuisine, it’s heaven on earth. This trip was as much about the food as anything else, and the BBQ is to die for. We had amazing meals at the Moonshine Patio, Frank, The Salt Lick, Casino El Camino, Jo’s Coffee, Gourdough’s, Austin Java and so many more. You’d think the extra influx of people would degrade quality, but nothing was bad. There Will Be Writeups.

Austin

The town. It’s well laid out. It’s sunny. It’s full of tattoo parlours, independent stores, great restaurants and dive bars. Most of the homogenous American crap is out of town, unlike the rest of Texas. Like the best bits of southern California squished a bit and shoved a thousand miles or so west.

Tips for next time

Only projects and budget will keep me away from SXSW for the next few years. Now we know the basics (good coffee, good breakfast, how the cabs work, where all the venues are, which local beers are best) I only expect things to improve for next year.  We are also lucky to have family in Houston to visit beforehand which really helped zap the jet lag. Arriving the night before might just kill me. None of us are prepared for the drinking, cholesterol intake and sleep deprivation that is par for the course. And hopefully they’ll liberate the Content Strategists from the Sheraton. It’s just too far away.

So if you’re considering it, or if you’ve always been on the fence, or maybe if you hate the whole thing and wish it would just go away, this is what’s stayed with me since getting back to London a few weeks ago:

Balance & Perspective

If you’re a digital professional (especially one that makes stuff on the web), it acts as a barometer for your own work. You’ll see cool demos. You’ll try new apps. You’ll quickly realise your own strengths and shortcomings. I’m not sure any other event can give you as much raw perspective of where Interactive is at that point time, and where it’s going for the next twelve months.

Culture Clash

It’s one of the few events where agencies and startups mix. In fact, agencies tend to sponsor with startups all vying for attention. This helps with the aforementioned perspective, since us agency-bound big-budget designers need to have our eyes opened to what can be put together without six figure budgets. And we all know who generates the most buzz. Sobering.

It’s really in the hands of the organisers and interactive participants to submit an exciting and relevant programme, hopefully with a few less panels. Old timers have remarked on the changes, which is something I’m ill equipped too comment on. Roll on 2012. I cannot wait.