SXSWi 2006 Wrap-Up

Published 2 years ago, at the end of April under Design, SXSW

South by Southwest I’m even later to the SXSW wrap-up game than Faruk, but I wanted to post my thoughts on my first South by Southwest. I decided to attend the conference at nearly the last possible moment - two weeks before it started. Yet despite my scramble to get registered, book a flight, and score a room, I still managed to have an amazing time.

Many bloggers reporting back from SXSW Interactive thought the panels were sub-par this year, and although I have no baseline to compare against, I must admit I was not impressed with most of the panels I attended. Rather, the best moments of the conference took place outside of the presentations - meeting people in the hallways and at the parties (or, the ones I weren’t bounced from).

I attended far fewer panels than I had planned thanks to my inability to wake up before 11 AM over spring break. Thankfully I can now recover these lost panels due to the SXSW podcast, but I did manage to physically attend quite a few. There was a big emphasis on business rather than tech, but thankfully both ends of the business approach were thoroughly covered. The opening conversation between Coudal and Fried of Coudal Partners/ 37 Signals preached the anti-VC, small, lean, self-funded message, but of course the other side was represented with plenty of talk about buyouts, VC valuations, and marketing buzzwords.

One message I heard loud and clear from the panels was ‘be passionate‘. Good products, services, designs, and businesses come from passionate people - not from those looking for quick money. It’s painfully obvious to me why the dot-com bubble burst when looking back in hindsight. Business goals got ahead of themselves, businessmen flung bullshit around, and the technology got lost in the financial noise. These web companies need passionate technologists behind them if they are to succeed, not bloated financial wet-dreams and guys in suits. Looking at the present environment of the web, I see a stark contrast. Namely, technologists are at the helm of these small web businesses, not businessmen.

People like Jeff Veen, Shaun Inman, Mike Davidson, and other designers/ programmers are building products and services without allowing the financials or funding to take priority over the products.

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