The way home…
I’m on the plane ride back to San Francisco. SXSW for me ended around 3:20 Wed. morning when I took in a late night trip to Katz’s Deli after the closing party at Bruce Sterling’s house. In the fog somewhere between dawn and the middle of the night, a dozen of us ate french fries, laughed a lot, and promised to do it again next year, just like we had the year before that.
I love South by Southwest. Just plain love it. For five days each spring, just as winter is beginning to break, I come to Austin, my old home. I see old friends and inevitably make new ones. I stay up way too late and eat badly. I have ideas that I had never considered but seem here to spark of me like metal hitting flint. And by about day 2, “I” has faded, “I” has become “we.” “We” are my brothers and sisters I’ve grown to love, hundreds of bright, creative, passionate, warm people I get to keep company with, just as the seasons are changing and what is stale and routine in life now seems reinvented and shined up like new.
I’ve there’s a better way to celebrate the changing of seasons, I haven’t found it yet.
South By Southwest and I have been meeting like this for four years now, roughly paralleling my history on the web. Back then, Central Booking was in its infancy, I lived in Austin, and I was headed over to that big noisy Convention Center next door to see what all this web fuss was about. Now my professional life on the web is largely over and the strangers I once saw from afar, on panels and in the hallways, are old friends. Professionally, I’ve become more like them, speaking on two panels this year, and performing at Fray Cafe and 20×2. My friend Carrie called me a “rock star” and John Styn reflected on the last four years and noted that I’ve “exploded” onto the scene. They’re both exaggerating but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel more aware of my own evolution here than I’m yet comfortable with.
That’s part of why the conference felt different this year, though no less giddy and insane. I’m a bit older now, my headlong experimental days on the web largely behind me. My interest in technology now is largely intellectual rather than the key to my future plans. I know where I’m going professionally. Plus, with talk hanging in the air about how the conference is past its prime, how its got nothing new to say and nobody cares about new media anymore anyway, had me feeling a little less fancy free than in years past.
A word on that: South by Southwest, as a feeling, a happening, a state of mind, is only over when the hundreds of people who make room for it each year in their busy lives decide it is over. Obviously the conference itself needs money from festival passes and sponsors to survive and there isn’t as much of it around as there used to be. That’s for the organizers to worry about. Our job as attendees, as creative people committed to the spirit of the conference, is to A) maintain the energy of South by Southwest in our lives and work the rest of the year and B) if you were disappointed with the offerings this year, say so. Tell Hugh. He wants our feedback, our suggestions. If he can’t fit it on the schedule next year, do it yourself. Send out an email to everyone you met this year, saying “I’m doing a panel on Carpal Tunnel Syndrome on my weblog next year the first week of March because I never see one on the conference docket. Hope you can “attend.” Then do it.
I wasn’t around for the wild dot com ride that defined the conference in the late 90’s so I can only sort-of understand the longing for those days. But I also didn’t get involved with digital culture to complain that today is lame compared to yesterday. I got involved to dream about how tomorrow could be better than today. And then make it happen.
So I’ll be back next year, even if there is no conference, though I doubt its vanishing anytime soon. The time there, in these first days of spring is too good for my soul. And the people, most of whom I only see once a year and I’ll thank privately, are like a second family. I’d miss them too much.
What do we from here? It’s up to us whether we want South by Southwest to be five days long then stop or have an impact throughout the year and on into the next. That’s why I’ll be back, because to me it feels like it wouldn’t be spring otherwise.
See you, hopefully before then.
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20 Replies to “The way home…”
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i want to go
i want to go
i want to goooooooo
😉
i want to go
i want to go
i want to goooooooo
😉
Amen, brother. Well said.
Amen, brother. Well said.
Thanks for that.
Thanks for that.
Being new to sxsw I don’t see the big picture like you do – thanks for sharing your insights. It’s good to be reminded that we’re in this to dream about how tomorrow can be better…
Being new to sxsw I don’t see the big picture like you do – thanks for sharing your insights. It’s good to be reminded that we’re in this to dream about how tomorrow can be better…
Wow … that’s a great summary of your thoughts related to SXSWi! I especially enjoyed this tidbit: ” But I also didn’t get involved with digital culture to complain that today is lame compared to yesterday. I got involved to dream about how tomorrow could be better than today. And then make it happen.” Well said!
Maybe we’ll actually be able to meet next year. 🙂
Wow … that’s a great summary of your thoughts related to SXSWi! I especially enjoyed this tidbit: ” But I also didn’t get involved with digital culture to complain that today is lame compared to yesterday. I got involved to dream about how tomorrow could be better than today. And then make it happen.” Well said!
Maybe we’ll actually be able to meet next year. 🙂
Like most things in life, we only get out of it what we put in. Thanks for your contributions! I come away with something different every year and your exhuberance left a lasting impression this time.
I have been compiling a mental list of ideas and suggestions inspired by conversations like the one we had. And now I sit patiently and wait for the little feedback request to show up in my mailbox …
Like most things in life, we only get out of it what we put in. Thanks for your contributions! I come away with something different every year and your exhuberance left a lasting impression this time.
I have been compiling a mental list of ideas and suggestions inspired by conversations like the one we had. And now I sit patiently and wait for the little feedback request to show up in my mailbox …
This was only my second SXSW, but I did notice a different dynamic this year. Personally, though, I liked it better. That could have been because I was in a better place, myself — but I came away with more ideas, and some of my assumptions shifted. That’s to say nothing of the people I met and/or became re-acquainted with. I almost didn’t attend this year; but I’m infinitely glad that I did.
This was only my second SXSW, but I did notice a different dynamic this year. Personally, though, I liked it better. That could have been because I was in a better place, myself — but I came away with more ideas, and some of my assumptions shifted. That’s to say nothing of the people I met and/or became re-acquainted with. I almost didn’t attend this year; but I’m infinitely glad that I did.
Speaking personally, I certainly had a better time this year than last. Then again, I’m a lot better at talking to people I know than meeting people for the first time (as I was in 2002).
The panels struck me as uninspired (mine certainly included), but that’s not particularly different from last year. I agree with whomever I saw write online that they seemed too present-centric (“here’s how things are”) as opposed to future-centric (“here’s how things will be/could be”).
But in the end, look at it this way: We all know SXSW is Soylent Green. Soylent Green is people. Ergo, SXSW is people!
Speaking personally, I certainly had a better time this year than last. Then again, I’m a lot better at talking to people I know than meeting people for the first time (as I was in 2002).
The panels struck me as uninspired (mine certainly included), but that’s not particularly different from last year. I agree with whomever I saw write online that they seemed too present-centric (“here’s how things are”) as opposed to future-centric (“here’s how things will be/could be”).
But in the end, look at it this way: We all know SXSW is Soylent Green. Soylent Green is people. Ergo, SXSW is people!
“I wasn’t fortunate to be around SXSW in those halcyon days…” said Kevin somewhere.
Kevin, you are a part what makes SXSW special. It is a place of good vibes. It is a place of creative magic. It is a place of love and inspiration.
That has not changed at all.
“I wasn’t fortunate to be around SXSW in those halcyon days…” said Kevin somewhere.
Kevin, you are a part what makes SXSW special. It is a place of good vibes. It is a place of creative magic. It is a place of love and inspiration.
That has not changed at all.
Thank you Jon. Your spirit and good will is part of the reason that is so.
Thank you Jon. Your spirit and good will is part of the reason that is so.