The online playground of Andrea Schwandt-Arbogast: web design, university web development, animals, books, and other slices of life.

SXSW 2007 in one paragraph

Published 15 Mar 2007

I heart Glenda, Veerle, Geert, Anton, Snookums, Derek, Craig, Craig, Jeremy, Chip, Faruk, Rob, Matthew, Ralph, Fatty, Stuart, Pixeldiva, Matt, Darren, Sitepoint Orange, the posse that rescued me from that creepy guy in the bar, and flathicks. I wish I spent more time with Jeff, Nick, Dan, Richard, Jake, Dylan, Lachlan, Patrick, Bryan, Aarron, James, Barce, Lisa, Cameron, Cindy all the pMachine guys, and everyone in the first sentence. I wish Chris, Elaine, and Jon were there. I don’t heart VIP areas at closing parties, United Airlines, panels on two floors, or long lines to get into crowded bars. I wish I met everyone I didn’t meet. I wish I didn’t meet only about two people that I met. The highlight, if I had to pick just one, was telling Jeremy that I keep his book in the bathroom. Which is true. I’m glad to be back home in the piney-wood hills with my little family, and I can’t wait to go back to the wonderland where I can party all night with geeks from all over the world.

Filed under SXSW

Commentary

Jeff Croft writes

Mar 15 at 01:06 PM #

Damn you. I’m in the middle of writing a very long wrap us right now, and now I see that you’ve pretty much summed it up perfectly in one-tenth the words. :)

Was it Mark Twain that said something like, “if I had more time, it would have been a lot shorter?”

Anyway, I also wish I spent more time with you! It was great to meet you, though. I also don’t heart VIP areas at closing parties. No offense to the guys who were in it (lots of them are my friends), but that really set a bad tone for the whole evening. I know a couple people who actually left the minute they saw that. Just kind of against everything SXSW is supposed to be all about, if you as me.

Andrea writes

Mar 15 at 01:22 PM #

Yeah, it was a drag to not be able to say goodbye to some folks due to the VIP thing. I feel that there are enough imaginary lines that are hard for folks to get up the courage to try to cross. Making them physical is just a bad idea. I don’t think the folks that were in it are to blame, I just think that maybe MediaTemple doesn’t realize that this is really a conference for us and not a festival— and the vibe has aways been inclusive.

We’ll have to catch up next year— and I’m looking forward to your writeup. I realized that I would never get anything posted if I tried to write too much… :)

ralph writes

Mar 15 at 04:00 PM #

I heart you, too, Andrea, and also wish Elaine had been there. I got to spend some quality time with Dylan; nice guy. Talked to Lachlan a couple of times, once at the frog design party and then again at the British Booze Up. Great guy, amazing haircut. :-)

Elaine writes

Mar 15 at 11:01 PM #

I wish I’d been there too. :( My one consolation was helping to make a few connections among the people I consider internet-friends.

2008!

Darren Ansley writes

Mar 15 at 11:56 PM #

It was great meeting up with you again. I’m also really excited to see that someone as accomplished as yourself has taken over Byte Size Standards.

You’re totally right about the VIP section at the closing party, even though I got invited into that area, I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. The whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth. As Jeff said, that just goes against everything that SXSW is supposed to be about.

Anton writes

Mar 16 at 08:51 AM #

And we all heart you too, Andrea!

Andrea writes

Mar 16 at 09:04 AM #

Aww.. you all are too nice. I miss you already.

Matthew Pennell writes

Mar 16 at 05:32 PM #

It was great to finally meet you, Andrea — thanks for keeping me company at the WaSP meeting. :)

dw writes

Mar 17 at 04:06 AM #

Nice meeting you too. As SXSW went along it played more and more into my high school insecurities, so I’m kinda surprised anyone would want to spend more time with me. But, yeah, I wish we had.

So jetlagged right now.

Lachlan Hardy writes

Mar 18 at 10:33 AM #

It was great to meet you too, Andrea! Especially when you pointed out we’d already met online via emails from Derek ;)

I’m only sorry we didn’t get to chat for longer. Expect an email this week or the next as I catch up on everything

Same goes for you, Ralph. I want to hear more about Ukrainian rockabilly bands!

Geert Leyseele writes

Mar 19 at 08:00 PM #

It’s true we all heart you Andrea :) But we also hate you a bit because of your six weeks off :p

Veerle Pieters writes

Mar 19 at 08:05 PM #

You were one of the persons I was really looking forward to to meet again and hang out with. I really enjoyed your company. Hugs, V.

goodwitch writes

Mar 20 at 03:25 AM #

You are one of the best friends I have. Seeing you once a year at SXSW is wonderful. Having you to inspire me, encourage me and brainstorm with 24/7 is priceless.

I heart Andrea 4ever!

Chip D writes

Mar 23 at 01:02 AM #

I heart the Interllectual!

Great way to summarize – I’m glad to be in Denver again, but already looking forward to next March. SXSW08 is less than a year away!

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In: Margarita on the Rocks

This section contains all the rants and most of the fun posts. It’s the kind of stuff we would talk about if we went to the bar for a drink. I may be full of it when I post things here, so take it with a grain of salt.