Vote For SXSW Panels
South By Southwest (SXSW) is the one conference I consistently hear great things about. I have never been because it comes at a particularly difficult time of the year for me, right as our family is getting ready to go on our kid’s spring break. I keep telling myself that I’ll go, but I just haven’t been able to make it work with my calendar.
The great thing about SXSW is its really three conferences back to back, it starts with interactive (tech), then film, and ends with music. If that’s not a great set of things to talk about, I don’t know what is.
Another great thing about SXSW is that you get to vote for the panels that they end up doing. Voting has started and you can place your votes here. They’ll close the voting on Aug 29th, so don’t wait, go vote now.
If you need some inspiration, here are some suggestions that I voted for:
Strong Personal Online Brands: How to Develop and Maintain – Gary Vaynerchuk
Blurry Networks: Friends, Contacts, Followers and Professional Me – Charlie O’Donnell
Think Globally, Post Locally: The Emerging Power of Local Voice – Chris Tolles
I particularly recommend Charlie’s panel. He’s the best internet networker I know (close second is Howard Lindzon). I’ve learned a lot from Charlie and you can too.
Comments (Archived):
I attended SXSW last year for the first time and loved it! I’ve lived in Austin for quite some time but never made it until last year.I even submitted my own panel idea this year called “Building a Web Business After Hours” http://panelpicker.sxsw.com…I hope you make it this year as I’m sure there are many folks here who would like to meet you.
I know a lot of people who have been to SXSW and loved it, and an equally large number of people who want to go every year (myself included) but for whom it never quite works out. I’m planning on at least attending the interactive portion next year, although I’d love to stay for the music as well.If you want a good conference during this time of the year, you should checkout Gnomedex, which is next week in Seattle. I’ve been twice, and although it is small and single-tracked, it is very interesting, with a good crowd, and a lot of fun.
Blurry networks…that is worth at least an hour of conversation or an entire conference in itself. It’s an ongoing process of negotiation, I think. The borders between areas of our lives are rather porous.