South by Southwest 2014 – My Journey to Austin, TX #sxsw

South by Southwest. Until recently, I\’d only heard word of mouth about this massive 10-day event focusing on music, film and interactive in the progressive city of Austin, Texas.

Tales of tens of thousands of people descending on Austin for what was said to be the hippest and coolest place to be early March of every year were all I knew. Of course, people in the know abbreviated the title to \”SxSW\”. And if you were really hip, you\’d just call it \”south by\”.

I often speak of the importance of attending conferences, seminar and other live events. It\’s all about \”showing up\” and seeing what happens. Since I like to practice what I preach, I signed up to attend the interactive portion of SxSW March 7-11, 2014. Interactive focuses on emerging technologies and is in line with my interests.

I honestly didn\’t know what to expect with the exception that several of my friends and associates would be attending and that there would be no shortage of parties to go to. Now I\’m not exactly the partying type, but I do enjoy checking out different venues and people-watching.

So with press pass in hand, I flew to Austin on the 6th of March. I was greeted at the airport by TaggedWheels.com, a service provided by Tagged for certain VIPs. Thanks TaggedWheels.com!

I should have known this trip would get interesting when I ran into Gary Vaynerchuk at the airport. I saw a limo driver holding a sign with his name and thought it might be funny if I took his car. I couldn\’t bring myself to do it.

I had the opportunity to hang out with a number of great people during this event. Below is my friend Andy Grignon. Andy worked for Apple under Steve Jobs and was the guy who coded both Dashboard and iChat for the Mac OS. Also, he was one of the ten original team members who worked on a little project known as the iPhone. Here he is holding one of those popular devices demonstrating one of the apps that became famous on the iOS platform.

Andy is currently working on a very cool platform for iPad called Eightly. I\’ve had the opportunity to see this product and it is powerful stuff. Watch for more on it coming soon.

While the convention center is the main home for SxSW, expos, events and parties take place throughout downtown Austin. I managed to do a lot of walking in the downtown area. The Samsung Blogger Lounge was home to a number of events, including a live interview with Dan Harmon, the creator of the television show Community. (Certainly one of the funniest and most clever sitcoms on network television.)

Before Dan did his interview I grabbed him for a selfie.

One of my projects while at SxSW was to help promote a new iPhone app called Zarfo. Created by my friend, Andrew Cunningham (in center of photo below), Zarfo allows you to record or stream live video via the app or to Facebook. Chris Voss (pictured left) and several others had fun using Zarfo on the show floor, at meals and at various events during the conference. You can download Zarfo in the iTunes Appstore.

Some of the others I had the opportunity to run around Austin with included the ubiquitous (and always fun) Robert Scoble, his wife Maryam (she\’s awesome!) and Kristi Trimmer of Orange Dragonfly.

Perhaps my favorite photo from the entire event took place at some historic hotel in Austin. I can\’t recall the name of it, but it was really the company of others that made it so fun!

Here\’s a selfie from the expo floor.

And a pic of Chris Voss from The Chris Voss Show.

The two-day expo featured dozens of booths from various vendors. There was no shortage of tech toys and new apps being promoted. But the funniest had to be a new iPad app called \”Log Log\”. Their tagline was \”When it comes to #2, we\’re #1\”. Yes, it is exactly what you think it is. And the mascot on this guy\’s head? Let\’s just call him \”Poo\”, shall we?

Mark Fidelman, creator of Raynforest.com, asked to interview me for a series he was doing with IBM. So we got to spend some time together chatting about life, the Universe and everything.

After hours of walking around the convention center, this hammock was a welcome sight. I think I must have spent 30 minutes or so relaxing and watching people go by. Would it be wrong to say this was one of the highlights of my day?

Technology aside, SxSW was more about the people I was with than anything else. Experiencing the event alongside friends made for a much better time. Below see from left to right, myself, Jason Nunnelley, Andy Grignon and Kristi Trimmer.

And the best shot of the crew that spent the most time together, from left to right, Jason, Sam Levin, me, Kristi, Chris and Andy.

I didn\’t take any time to sit in on the dozens upon dozens of sessions that took place at SxSW. I guess I just can\’t sit still for very long! With so much to see and do in Austin, I may go back again to see the city. Or perhaps just to hang with my buddies.

Have you ever been to SxSW? What was your experience? Please leave your comments below!