Thursday, March 11, 2010
SXSW Tips: What To Do Upon Arrival to Austin
1. BREATHE: in that sweet Texas air! Mmmm.
2. LODGINGS: Go check into your hotel as soon as possible. Drop your bags off.
3. REGISTER: Go stand in line at the Convention Center to get your badge as soon as possible (lines will get long, heinously long) and bring a pen or something to fill out the registration form.
4. GET THE BAG: Get the Big Bag of conference materials (this is heavy, and filled with swag), go back to the hotel, and empty it out. I usually take out the conference guides/schedules, the Austin Chronicle, and party invites, and leave the rest for *cough* later. The pocket guides are key to SXSW survival. Don’t lose it! Platinum badgeholders, note that the SXSW Music pocket guides and materials sometimes aren’t ready until a few days into the Interactive/Film conferences.
5. BREATHE AGAIN: Take a nap or grab a quiet beer before the insanity starts. If you have time, of course.
6. GET THE PAPER: Going to SXSW Music? No music badge? Find a copy of the Austin Chronicle (Austin’s free alt-weekly) as they’ll have the entire showcase schedule printed up inside as well as a free map. This can easily be removed, and folded up. Also don’t forget to cut off the dangling tail of your wristband.
7. GET READY: Expect exhaustion. You can sleep when you’re dead, right? Cancel all appointments for the day after you get back.
8. GO: And most importantly be ready to: have fun, introduce yourself to strangers, to sleep too little, eat far too well, listen a whole bunch, think so hard your brain hurts, get way too excited, mix and mingle with tons of fascinating people, trade business cards, put names to faces to URLs, take a lot of photographs, drink lots of Shiner or Lone Star or Red Stripe or what have you, rock out, smile until your face hurts, make bundles of new friends, expand your blogroll like nobody’s business, fill up your brain with all sorts of new ideas, talk too much, see a lot of exciting and cool and inspiring things, have a ton of fun, network and party like you’ve never done before.
