Okay, we’ve picked this one up with about eight hours left on the clock, but if you’re heading to SXSW, you’ll need some business cards, and the quick turnaround and fun of Moo Cards might be the answer. They’re offering fifty free cards to attendees (the catch being a small watermark that says “We met at SXSW” on the cards. That offer is open until midnight pacific time on March 4th.

So what’s the eight-hour timer for? Well you could pay postage to have the cards shipped to you, but if you make it snappy, the Moo team will bring the cards with them to Austin and you can save a little more!

 Save on shipping costs and time, by at checkout choosing ship to the United States (in the US store) or UK (UK store) and then event pickup at “SXSW” to pick up your cards at SXSW from the MOO Crew from March 9th-13th. To collect at SXSW, order before 11:59pm PST February 29th 2012. The offer expires completely at 11:59pm PST on March 4th. 50 FREE (all you pay is shipping/reduced event collection charge)

More on the offers at Moo.com.

We knew it would happen, but we’re surprised it wasn’t in the usual “super-duper-double-secret-special-wristband-and-secret-handshake” modus operandi of this type of mega event at SXSW.

In an upprecedented (and unexpected) twist, SXSW is holding a Lottery to determine who will get a cherished ticket to see The Boss perform.

The show will be “a special show in an intimate venue for SXSW attendees on Thursday evening, March 15th”, what that venue is will announced later.

From the SXSW website:

From Monday, March 12th through Wednesday, March 14th, eligible badge and wristband holders can go to any of the four Connection Centers in the Austin Convention Center to enter the drawing. Badges and wristbands will have their RFID tags scanned to enter each person into a random drawing.

After entry in the drawing ends on March 14th, the individual winners will be sent an email with further instructions at 10am on Thursday, March 15th. Those who are not selected will also be notified by email at this time. Winners will be instructed where to go to obtain their tickets for the show.

Connection Centers will be inside the Austin Convention Center at the following locations and will be open the following hours:

March 12: 9AM to 6PM
Level 1, 4th Street
Level 1, Trinity in front of Exhibit Hall 4
Level 1, Trinity in front of Exhibit Hall 2
Level 4, near Ballroom D

March 13: 9AM to 9PM
Level 1, 4th Street
Level 1, Trinity in front of Exhibit Hall 4
Level 1, Trinity in front of Exhibit Hall 2
Level 4, near Ballroom D (closes at 6PM)

March 14: 9AM to 12AM
Level 1, 4th Street
Level 1, Trinity in front of Exhibit Hall 4
Level 1, Trinity in front of Exhibit Hall 2
Level 4, near Ballroom D (closes at 6PM)

Those eligible to enter the Lottery are Platinum Badge Holders, Music Badge Holders, Artist Wristband Holders, and those SXSW Music Wristband Holders who have already obtained their wristbands online (any wristbands sold during the week of SXSW will not be eligible). No other credentials are eligible to enter the drawing. If you win, you only get a ticket for yourself, and it’s not transferrable.

So if you want to go to this show, make sure you get your credentials and enter the Lottery. Good Luck!

To be fair it’s more like “Nine things to do at SXSW… and our event” but I’ll let Edelman away with that one for smart infographic and item number seven – which is ‘buy some boots’ if you don’t want to follow the link.

Oh and I wonder just how text search engines (which is pretty much all of them) find nice graphical posts like this if other sites didn’t link to them? Ah well, best infographic post wins a badge, submit your links to The Baby! team here.

Hey, GSD & M (one of those pesky advertising agencies in Austin that love having SXSW in their own city and make me jealous until the Edinburh Fringe comes around) have put together www.sxsurvival.com. It which might be ahead of The Baby! in alphabetical order, but we don’t mind, because they’ve packed it with great advice on attending SXSW.

Driven by their own company blog, Twitter hashtags, and liberal use of Pinterest, it’s another bookmark for you all to collect and keep for March.

The smartphone is becoming a key battleground at SXSW, especially during Interactive, with start-ups, established services, and big corporations looking to get a foothold on the screen in your pocket (and in the column inches of the press). And then there’s the battle over organising SXSW. From shared calendars, group messaging, push alerts, there’s a fight for space (and your precious battery life) to be the part of the phone that helps you understand SXSW.

It’s time to add the official application into the mix.

Full details are up on the SXSW Go page at the main site, but all you really want to know is the cost (it’s free) and where to find it (iPhone, iPad, and Android versions here, here, and here).

I still don’t think it’s a substitute for a good diary (or a sharpie and the official paper program). Compared to my memories of last years application it feels a bit less polished and “we’ll show you everything and let you work it out” than last year. It’s still developed by Xomo Digital, so it might be better to blame my memory – and it’s not going to cost you anything to find out yourself.

Versions for Blackberry and Windows Phone users are expected to appear in the very near future, and we’ll let you know when they’re ready for download.

For some reason the press need to find a new service at SXSW Interactive and anoint it as “the chosen one.” It’s all rather silly to my eyes and ears, but never let it be said we don’t listen when the masses have spoken – which normally happens on Twitter.

But that’s okay, because the next web company that’s going to try to wrestle the mantle of SXSW success is based around Twitter. We’ve mentioned Lanyrd here before, but they’ve just launched their SXSW Interactive Session Planner over at sxsw.lanyrd.com. Punch in your Twitter name and  you’ll not only get alerts on your favourite sessions when they are about to start, but also see which sessions your friends on Twitter are attending, which have the buzz, and which will be attended by the TNW crew and Hermionie’s ever-present video camera.

I love that Lanyrd lets you export the data in a common format so you can pop it in your electronic diaries. Perfect. Seemingly they have more tools to come out over the next four weeks to keep the press hype going… the cads.

Willo O’Brien has got in touch with us at The Baby! (you can too) with details on her “CraftMakerCamp” at this year’s SXSW Interactive:

Are you a designer, maker, mover & shaker selling your goods online? If so, then stop by the first-ever CraftMakerCamp at SXSW to meet like-minded souls. With a full day of programming specifically developed for creative entrepreneurs, CraftMakerCamp at SXSW will inspire and educate you for a more successful and productive year ahead. Check out Schedule.SXSW for complete details on this all-new space.

Now this sound fun. I mean everything sounds fun at SXSW, there’s buckets to choose from, but I’ve noted it down in the diary and will swing by the sessions and spaces to see what’s going on. There’s so much buzz around hand-made and small run goods that I can see a lot of people swinging by to share ideas and learn something new.

You’ll find more details on Willo’s website.