Well, I made it back but I am exhausted, so I’m going to bullet list this baby out.

I spent the last week in Austin, TX attending SXSW Interactive. It was a crazy time in oh so many ways.

Day 1 - Mar. 7

• Dallas got snow the previous day, freaked out, and canceled 200 flights. Rach & I experienced the backlash of this when we arrived in Austin, after an hour delay for de-icing and further delay as all the previous day’s bags arrived on the carousel before Rachel’s. We missed the whole first day of the conference.
• Encountered a front desk employee who thought he was Jack Black. “Hey, if you guys need anything, just call me” *cue phone hand to ear*
• Spent the missed time at Shakespeare’s Pub where I met the Motley Fool crew (shown at Geeks Love Bowling).
• Dinner at Iron Works. Hardcore bbq.
• Spent the evening roaming around Austin (already exhausted). We saw a Mark Zuckerberg look-alike at a bar. He said he usually gets confused with Bill Gates. *shrug*

Day 2 - Mar. 8

• Attended panels all day: AJAX & Flash Mistakes, Contextual Web, Elephant in the Designer’s Living Room, and A General Theory of Creative Relativity with Jim Coudal (my favorite of the week). The latter featured a short film from a series named Regrets which absolutely spoke to me: watch it
• Had my first cuban food experience, which was super tasty
• I can’t remember all the evening festivities, but we ended up at the frog design opening party, which featured fire dancers and a huge band. We were guessing it was a 6-digit party. Crazy.

Insert funny story: So on the walk to the frog design party, we realized the map was completely wrong so we just started following large groups of people. There was a moment of paranoia as we envisioned following the crowd off the side of a cliff. Anyway, this cab pulls up alongside us (we were walking in the street). I turn and this guy is hanging out the backseat window looking right at us. This was our conversation. All the while, the taxi kept driving & I was still walking.

Guy: Where are you all going?
Me: The frog party.
Guy: What is that?
Me: Well…you grab a group of frogs and place them in the middle of a circle. *slight pause* Then, you see which one hops to the edge first
Guy: *blank stare*
Me: *shrugs* I guess it’s all the rage around here *completely serious face & I just walk away*

Inside, I was dying. I had left this guy with just enough doubt to wonder if I were serious. I know this because some Motley Fool guys were behind me and so the guy in the cab asks them the same thing and they say “the frog party” and the guy says “damn, I thought she was yanking my chain.” LOL. Darren & Kevin were impressed. They thought I was gonna drop the ball half way through, but then I took it that extra step and explained how it worked. Classic. My favorite BS moment to date

I think we closed the night playing shuffleboard at Buffalo Bill’s, but it is honestly all a blur. If we did go there that night, I randomly met peeps from another company in Indy. I’d actually been in a meeting with them before but didn’t even recognize them. They happened to ask “Where are you guys from?” as we walked by.

Day 3 - Mar. 9

• More panels: Wireframing in Web 2.0, Responsible Web Design (horrible), Logos: Why They’re Irrelevant, two book readings (Some Assembly Required & Brazen Careerist), and DIY to Working for the Man
• I skipped the Mark Zuckerberg Interview which apparently may have ruined the interviewer’s career. She was boo’ed & apparently ripped apart by the audience.
• I got some delicious free food at the web awards pre-party. I ended up at a table with some random folks, one of which I ran in to a couple days later. He didn’t remember my name, but did remember he would introduce me to a Yahoo! recruiter, so I got the hook-up, all because I was really hungry & frugal. See kids, be yourself and good things happen
• The rest of the night was at GeeksLoveBowling. 52-lane alley. I went to watch but got recruited for the Refresh DC team (star player was cut off at the left), so I met some cool people there. I also got a free copy of Office ‘08 for mac and some rad t-shirts. This is also got filmed on my camera:
  
  
• Played some shuffle board & darts at Buffalo Billiard’s. Mo taught me proper dart form. Darren spoke philosophically to me for an hour.

Day 4 - Mar. 10

• Met a man walking from the bus to the convention center who has since emailed me about a job (he’s COO) and also forwarded my info to a friend of his with a company in San Diego after I let him know his company may not be a good fit for me. How awesome is that?
• Panels: Art of Self-Branding, Marketing of No Marketing, and 10 Tips for Managing a Creative Environment
• Sat in the front row for Frank Warren’s (Post Secret) Keynote. It was great. I filmed the whole speech, but I’ve posted an especially awesome excerpt:
  
  And I sent the clip to the guy in the video. Seems he didn’t have anyone film it so I’m sending over the footage for him. That makes me feel so awesome to get something like that for these folks.
• Attended the PhizzPop Design Challenge at Maggie Mae’s. A team from AKQA was competing. There were some incredible projects. Best part was I met the AKQA guys (pictured) and spent the rest of the evening hanging out. It was incredibly fun. We pursued venture capital at a costume bar, hung out at the Iron Cactus, and tried to crash the PureVolume party (failed).
• I didn’t encounter a single person I knew prior to almost 1am that day. Look at me being sociable.
• Ouside of PureVolume, Chip takes me up to a guy and says “Mindy meet Will Ferrell.” We shake hands & say hi & walk away. We don’t really know who it actually was.

Day 5 - Mar. 11

• I ran out of pretend energy for the last day so it was a long day, especially with toting my luggage around
• Panels: Advertising & Monetization with Social Media (also enjoyable, featured co-creator of Ask a Ninja), How Piracy Will Save the Music Industry (one of the panelists was verbally accosted), Building Web Apps Together, and Quarterlife: Internet to TV
• Waited outside Stubb’s almost 2 hours to try their barbeque with my new pals from Comcast: Jesse, Mo, & John. It was good times. They’re all very cool guys and I seemed to end up with them frequently throughout the week.
• Checked out the closing party for a bit. It was a nice venue with a rooftop deck looking on to downtown Austin. I was introduced to an Apple recruiter there. That was cool.
• Took off to Melissa’s place, my couchsurfer host. She was super cool. I was so happy to have finally tried out this community. Really empowering for an introvert like myself. She had 2 adorable long-haired dachsunds, too, which tried to share the couch with me. Kind of wish I could have stayed longer with her.

Great quotes from the week:

[in relation to experimentation] “When asked what has been my biggest failure, I like to reply ‘Oh, it’s a beauty, working on it now.’ ” - Jim Coudal

“It’s easier to fall in love than stay married.” [the explanation of seemingly unfocused souls] - Jim Coudal

[panel moderator] “Now, I’m going to out Jason….oh wow, I didn’t mean it like that.” - DIY to Working for the Man panel

“People don’t understand censorship. There’s a difference between preventing publishing and preventing publishing on my face.” [moderating blog comments] -  Margaret of wondergirl.com

“Marketing is the price you pay for creating a mediocre product.” -  Marketing of No Marketing panel

[response to use of social ads on facebook] “No one randomly emails you ‘hey, I rented this movie on Blockbuster.’ If they do, your friend is a fucking tool.” - Ask a Ninja co-creator

“Meat”...“Man, let’s go get some meat.”...“I don’t know if I can eat all this meat.” - we tried to use the word as much as possible during the time surrounding our Stubb’s visit. The guys each ordered a set of 3 meats/3 sides. The waitress snickered when they ordered. Only one of us had enough for leftovers.

This post is likely to be a work in progress. I have a few photos to upload and my peeps should be getting some more uploaded in the coming days. Plus, after my 1-week nap I’m about to take, I may awaken with a new level of clarity on the happenings. I know I’ve missed some stuff.