Yev's Musings and Reviewsings: South by Southwest

I flew in to Austin for South by Southwest Interactive and just like CES, it was cupcake time! The night I arrived at South By Southwest, or “South by” as it was referred to by more than one person in Austin, I went to a house party, and boy was it full of bearded people. When I heard stories of hipsters and beardos (it’s a word) living in Austin in numbers that rival San Francisco, I was skeptical, but yea, there's tons. One of the most interesting encounters I had was a conversation that went a little something like this: “Are you here for South by?” “Yea, I flew in this afternoon” “Oh cool! Where are you from?” “San Francisco.” “Don't move here...”. OK, I won't! But I can see why people flock to Austin (a chamber of commerce member told me it has grown by almost 1 million folks in the last ten years or so), especially from San Francisco and the bay. It's clean, the weather is nice, the people are friendly-ish, and there's tons to do. Plus it doesn't cost an arm and a leg to live there. So yes, Austin is nice. I liked it.

I think SXSW is something that is best experienced. You can read or hear about it, but until you're actually there none of it really makes sense. I heard there was going to be lots of music, lots of parties, lots of lounges, and lots of people. All that is true but the way it all comes together is actually pretty spectacular. The bars and clubs around downtown Austin get skinned from the outside and are branded with company logos throughout. The streets get blocked off and stages are set up. Bands come out and “festival babes” fill the streets giving out fliers, chapstick, and trinkets, trying to get folks to tweet and mention their companies.

The tweeting thing is kind of interesting. I was approached by a very pretty lady, and asked to tweet about something, in exchange for a set of Logitech 500VM headphones. That struck me as odd, usually you have folks tweet in order to be eligible to win something or other, but to give out something that costs $60 for one tweet seemed a bit like overkill. Granted I was probably “lucky” and not everyone got a set of headphones, their cost was quite surprising. Also, it's a good thing that I'm not a member of the press so I could accept them! The amount of swag that you could get on the streets was staggering. It made me wonder if companies put aside $5 Million for “SXSW Swag” in order to burn through their left over budgets. The answer is, probably.

One of the things I found most strange was the exhibit hall itself. It felt almost like an afterthought. Granted, the focus of SXSW wasn't on start-ups and tech when it first started, but it seems to be headed in that direction now, and the exhibit hall left something to be desired. Maybe I was a bit spoiled by CES, but it seemed a bit cramped. The nice thing though, there weren't many iDevice and phone cases! Those seemed to dominate both CES and MacWorld, the last two large tech events that I attended.

But SXSW isn't about tech (not really) it's about music! And there was lots of it. One of the most interesting bands that I saw was called rdgldgrn (red gold green, but without the vowels). Rdgldgrn is a DC band that mixes rock and rap, I dug it. I also met Theolodge which is a neat name, not sure if it’s a play on “theology”, but he’s a Florida rapper, and he’s quite good. Check out his song with Imogen Heap “First Train Home”. Pretty much ever genre was well represented and you couldn't walk around downtown Austin without hearing bass coming from somewhere.

SXSW was a blast, and I can’t wait to go back there. I liked the vibe, I liked the city, I liked the food, and I liked the people. I always had a soft spot in my heart for Texans (I lived in Dallas for 3 months), and Austin is filled with interesting folks. I’ll be looking forward to my next Austin trip, and hope to see you there at the next South By…just make sure to get your hotels books a year in advance.

*EDIT/UPDATE* -> I realized that I said to book your hotels a year in advance but I didn't say why, here's the financial breakdown of why you should plan way ahead:

My plane ticket from San Francisco to Austin on the days that I wanted to be at SXSW would have cost $1300 round trip, whereas a few days prior it would have been $350. I decided to fly in to Dallas instead for a more reasonable $400 and then rented a car to drive down to Austin from Dallas (I recommend flying in to San Antonio or Houston if you need to, they are closer to Austin). Renting a car in Dallas and then returning it in Austin after 5 days (the duration of my trip) would have cost $1600 (returning a car to a different location costs more money). I decided to rent a car in Dallas, drive it to the Austin Airport, return it, and get another one for the remaining 4 days. This worked out to $250 for the car from Dallas to Austin (essentially a 4 hour rental), and another $240 for the 4 days that I had the car in Austin. So it was less expensive for 4 days of renting than just the one-way trip. In conclusion, plan ahead! But if you don't make sure to play around with different transportation options so you don't get screwed!

And here are the pictures: