SXSW State of Mind
March 16th, 2009
South by Southwest, the annual Super Bowl of Web design, is underway in Austin, Texas this week. If you dropped a bomb on the convention center you’d likely vaporize 80% of the world’s top Web design talent.
It’s a great place to meet the cream o’ the crop. I attended “South By” in 2007 and 2008 and had the chance to meet and converse with Jeffrey Zeldman, Dan Cederholm, Andy Clarke and Ryan Carson, among others. I also kindled new friendships with other designers from the New England region with whom I’ve often been able to bounce ideas around from time to time.
You always hear about the latest and greatest at SXSW. I first heard about Twitter, which has exploded into the mainstream in the last three months or so, at the 2007 event, just a few months after it had launched.
That’s usually how it is with SXSW. One year it’s blogs, the next, online video, then social networking. What’ll be the new wave in 2009? I recommend keeping an eye on innovations involving the mobile Web.
This year I opted to do other things, but now, as I follow the Tweets (SXSW has been the most-popular-tweeted-topic for the last several days), I’m wishing I was there.
