So, 4 days out of 5 in and I think its time to reflect on how to get the most out of SXSW - this is what works:
Firstly, most of the panels I've attended are fairly mundane - in my experience the panellists either won't, or can't, say much that is new in this instant feedback world. The frustration with this is part of what I think drove the Britpack to do 2
impromptu UnConference sessions, and twice I've seen audiences start to question/heckle. All is not lost, however - the tricks are:
- Listen to the smart questioners (not the ones who get up to pimp their companies or deliver a rambling diatribe) and either chat over Twitter or even better chat over coffee - people who ask smart questions know whats going on
- go to the Discussion groups instead - you get a lot out of these as there the people with the smarts start to contribute, the gasbags are shut up fast and you get some amazing conversations afterwards.
- there are a number of special interest group breakfasts etc that are not too hard to get onto (the VRM one in my case), for example
- If you think they are a**holes on the panel, Twitter it - you can get good conversations zipping along off the backchannels
Secondly, the Evening Parties - it seemed to me that there was an entire self-promo crowd at SXSW who never went to any talks but camped out in the blogger's lounge writing about the stuff they weren't attending by reading the Twitterstream (or if attending, it was for but a few minutes so they could twitter they were attending such and such an AWESOME talk by some Web-Sleb), and then in the evenings spent the whole time trying to find and then Twitter about the AWESOME party they are at.
The truth is that all the parties are much of a muchness, the trick is to get enough space/time to talk to the really smart people who are doing interesting stuff - and the best way to do this is to grab lunch or dinner or a drink in one of the quieter bars.
What you are trying to do is get enough time to actually really talk to people about the Real Stuff (assuming, of course, that you are here to learn). Its hard to get to the A listers through their coteries of acolytes, but if you do they are surprisingly genuine - if they know their subject and are not just mediahogs. I'm sure you can identify which are likely to be which.
Thirdly, make your own SXSW - want to know about X, go and find people and talk to them.
Also, go with the flow - some of the most interesting conversations have been totally serendipitous - in a taxi, at a table while typing stuff - there are a lot of smart people doing interesting things here.
To an extent one can say "and how does this differ from any other conference" but I think the less structured nature of the talks is a strength if one can make it work for you. The BritPack unconference is an extreme example, but many smaller scale sessions are do-able. Also, its is more fully immersive than any other conferences I've been at except maybe TED.
