Thursday, March 6, 2008

Navigating the ACC: Put On Your Walking Shoes

Ever been to SXSWi? Ever been confused by the layout of the place, especially since the conference changes every year? Well, thanks to the SXSW 101 video, and the Pocket Guide preview, we have some more insight as to where things are gonna be this year. The Interactive conference is all over the map this year! There’s a map of the Austin Convention Center on page 2 of the Pocket Guide PDF.

The main levels used for SXSW are the first, third, and fourth.

Keynotes and Opening Remarks will be on the first floor of the Convention Center, not the Hilton where they were held last year. Ballroom A looks like the place to be for keynotes, and other panels will be in B and C. The catch: if you’re entering from the Fourth Street entrance (with the Hilton to your back), you’ll want to be on the far side of the Convention Center. All the way on the south side of the ACC. Uh oh! I’m guessing this means you’ll have to go in a “U” around to the other side, following Trinity Street, and then make a left when you see the Cesar Chavez (First Street) side. So: be sure to allow enough time to get to the other side. Or, just enter from Cesar Chavez side to start with.

The fourth floor contains registration and rooms 12, 18, and 19 as well as Ballrooms D (Tradeshow) and E (Core Conversations). It’s a little strange that as soon as you enter from Fourth Street you go up two giant escalators and are on level four, but once your get there, the fourth floor is pretty easy to figure out. Note: Film and Interactive share this floor, so don’t go busting in on the Film panels section. All joint Interactive/Film panels will be in room 12. Interactive only panels will be in 18 and 19.

The third floor is the floor of mystery! Its use as SXSW conference space is fairly new, and the awkward connection to the other floors caused a lot of complaints last year. The third floor contains rooms 5, 6, 8, 9, and 10. Getting there is a little interesting, and last year, lots of people got lost.

The third floor is accessible the via the following ways:

• From the fourth floor: If you’re coming from a Interactive or Film panel in rooms 12, 18, or 19, you want to be roughly catercorner from where you are right now. So walk past registration, past the Tradeshow, go past Ballroom E, and take the elevator or the stairs down to the third floor. Make sure you allow enough time to get to the third floor. The stairs are probably the quickest way there. You pop back out right by room 10, I believe.
• From the first floor: If you’re coming from the 4th and Neches entrance (with the Hilton to your back), make a right past the first set escalators, and then a left when you hit the other set of escalators, and keep walking until you see the Trinity Street escalators, about half way down. There’s also elevators in front of the ScreenBurn Arcade, but that will probably take longer. Take the escalators up to the third floor and it’ll let you off right in front of room 8. If you’re coming from Ballrooms A, B, or C and need to get up to the third floor, there’s an escalator just outside Ballroom A. This set of escalators drops you off right in front of room 5.