SxSW 2010: Best of
Written by Nicole Braseth Monday, 22 March 2010 16:14
Well, the Idea Market team has returned from Austin, Texas where for 5 days we soaked up the Texas sun, drank whatever was offered, got smarter (we hope) and probably gained 5-10 lbs each (thanks a lot BBQ). Carson and Nicole showed newbie Graeme the ropes at our second run at SxSW , aka the nerd conference.
Like last year , we wanted to bring you the highlights of our trip...
Graeme:
- Paul Boag talking about making the design process easier and smoother for clients to contribute to and collaborate with the design team
- Learning about other professional workflows and in-depth planning processes specifically with wireframes and prototypes with Will Evans and Fred Beecher
- Teaming up with Dries Buytaert (creator of Drupal ) to school Steve at table soccer (that's foosball to Canadians) at the Mashable party
- The who's who environment of successful people from all over the industry and how easy it was to talk with some of them
- Taking part in an inspiring session about going beyond the desktop keyboard and mouse to design things that are interactive on new levels, with a great panel of speakers including Johnny Lee
Carson:
- Happy Cog’aoke! A karaoke contest of the highest level. Costumes! Backup dancers! Panda judges!
- Paul Boag’s session about Pain-Free Design Sign-Off . Just really good info.
- Devo’s session about... well I’m not actually sure what they were saying, but it was entertaining.
- Old friends, new friends and lots of food. Beware the nuclear taco !
- Bonding with the Idea Market team. Awwww...
Nicole:
- Heading to the Veer meet-up, winning a Kern zip-up and chatting with the lovely Veer/Corbis folks!
- So many great sessions: Kristina Halvorson's talk on content strategy, the already-applauded Paul Boag session on getting design sign-off, Happy Cog's panel on failing and why failing can be a good thing (or at least an opportunity to make the best out of a bad situation), 8 Ways to Deal with Bastards (thank you Bryan from Typekit! )... the list goes on and on.
- New friends! Old friends! Food! Muppet dances!
- Line-ups. Okay here's where I lose you. I met all kinds of great people in line-ups, all bonding over: first, the ridiculous line-up (around the block for the Mashable party... yes I stood in it) and then over experiences at SxSWi and our concurrent industries and the issues we face. In fact I told someone who I was in line with, that I didn't even care about the party... I was going to get to the front of the line and turn around and go right to the back.
- Austin, in general. What a great, warm, friendly city ... Austin , you always exceed my expectations.