My 2008 SxSW experience

[The following was written for the 2008 post-SxSW survey.  I'm posting it here not only because many people I talked to echoed the same sentiments but also because it exceed the form's maximum allowed length.  Yes, I'm verbose about things I'm passionate about. Go figure.]

This year was probably the worst SxSW for me in the many years I've been coming since 1989.  Most of it, I think, can boiled down what seemed to be massive awkward sudden growth in attendance which had two marked effects:

• Overcrowding and "denial of experience"
• Dilution of the serendipitous, memorable and opportune encounters and experiences from past years

In previous years, even the most packed panels had room for you to stand or sit on the floor.  Official parties were filled with interesting people and you could get to the bar.  And the best part, you could sit in one of two places and see within a fairly short time everyone you wanted to see.  Previous years were very much about unplanned social, business-related and educational serendipity.

This year, you had to plan things out well in advance, get into panels and parties as early as you could and then hope like hell that you were in a spot where you could hear or that you knew anyone.  And unlike all previous years, there was no central place to go and "be".  You could wander through the convention center for hours without seeing a single person you knew.

So the drastic increase in attendance, combined with the geographic dispersion of the conference rooms created what felt like a significant dilution of the entire experience and all of the things that made SxSW a must-attend even in the past.  At the same time, the massive crowds made any official party or must-see panel a "better off doing something else" event.  And that's really a shame.

So though there was little we could do about what happened inside of the convention center, we adapted outside of the convention center. The biggest success, in my opinion, this year is the same as last year: Twitter.  Thanks to Twitter, we could easily connect with friends, colleagues and others, know where the people we cared to see were and know which parties to avoid like the plague because the line was too long or the bar was out of Shiner. :-)

The most rewarding thing that fell out of all of the negatives this year was that we discovered the power of Twitter for creating our OWN parties, meetings and core conversations outside of the convention center. It only took a tweets from a handful of people converging on the same place for an unplanned party to immediately form where the bar was easily accessible, you didn't feel like you were in a cattle run and you didn't have to scream to hold a conversation.

Ideas for improvement

As far as solutions go, I can only offer a few possible ideas that would have made my experience better:

• Concentrate the locations of the panel rooms

    I've now seen parts of the convention center I never knew existed. That's not a good thing.  And if you can keep them on one floor, all the better.

• Create and/or promote a centralized space for people to gather

    This usually just falls out of a centralization of panel rooms since lots of people sit on the floow in the hallways, but you may want to go even further next year in creating and actively promoting a comfortable free-space (one indoor and one outdoor) for geeks to hang out, talk and meet one another.  It should either be central, close to high-traffic walkways (for high circulation and exposure) or be very attractive for one reason or another.  Creating a isolated space in the far corner of the convention center won't be used as you would expect unless there's something that draws people there.

• Lose the "core conversations"
  

    Originally, I was going to add "or make them work".  However, I'm not sure that that's even possible.  The conversations we used to have in the hallway were great just as they were.  It's impossible to have a conversation with 250 people who are straining to hear and that problem certainly contributed to the beyond-capacity regular panels as people would leave and camp out at the back door of a regular panel.  In the end, there just seemed to be less viable options when it came time to go to a panel.  (Again, I will readily admit, I am late to everything, but that was always fine in past years as you could still find room in the panel if not a chair).

• Station volunteer "ushers"

    I am quite sure that a number of the overflowing panels actually had room inside but people tend to stack up at the entrance in a standing-room-only situation.  To counter this, station a voluteer right inside the door for 15 minutes or so at the beginning of the panel to nicely ask people to migrate inwards and find a place to stand or sit.

I'm sure I will come back to SxSW next year not only because it's a hard habit to break but also to see if, perhaps, things change and the magic returns.  However, I have to say that if not, I am afraid that SxSW may lose its status as a "permanent holiday" that gets blocked off whenever I buy a new calendar.