Sunday was an interesting day… after my last post, we headed on over to the Convention Center and went to see various panels. The first one I attended was about Security on Servers, etc. Pretty interesting, but a bit too techno for me. After that I went to one called “The Revolution isn’t Dead” where we discussed what are the up & coming internet technologies, where we could see the web going over the next 10 years. After that was a fabulous keynote address with Jeffrey Veen & Kevin Lynch of Macromedia. Kevin demonstrated Flash MX, soon to be released as they just finished it up Saturday night. Working for a Cold Fusion shop which is already known for their Flash work, this was really exciting for me to see. The fact that they have simplified some of the functionality is wonderful too because what that means in turn for my clients is that it won’t cost as much to develop their projects. Works well all the way around. After that I attended one of the Independents Day panels about creating buzz about your website. (I still say it’s all in the links…)
After the panels ended we headed back to the room to change for the EARL awards (2002 SXSW Web Awards) and then went over there. It was … well … rather interesting with the Cocky Bastard as the host. But interesting in a good way! I really enjoyed it.
After the awards ended I decided to stop in at the hotel and change clothes so I was a bit more comfortable before heading on over to the Fray Cafe. I also needed to check e-mail and so forth, so I did that and handled some very minor issues that had come up. Right as I finished sending my last e-mail I got an e-mail message from a cell phone – and a long distance number that I didn’t recognize. You have got to love us geeks, we are so wired. Mike had e-mailed me from a bar on 6th Street through his cell phone to let me know that Fray Cafe was so packed they were turning people away at the door. I called him up to see where he & Robert were going instead and they were heading down Congress towards my hotel to go to Threadgills. They were meeting up with John from All My Life for Sale. Note to anyone visiting Austin the future, Threadgills closes at 9:30 on a Sunday night. Oops! So we waited there for John and “Neighbor Ben” (his friend Ben) and all headed over to Guero’s Taco Bar to eat. Yummmm. It was really nice to just sit down with a small group of people like that and talk instead of being in a crowd – I discovered that I really needed that break even though I didn’t know it beforehand. John’s story of selling everything and then traveling across the country to meet the people who bought his stuff is really interesting. Ben is also quite an interesting guy with his film and photography background. Mike & Robert are just really nice guys. It was a good relaxing evening – I really enjoyed it. After we ate we headed across the street to the Continental Club where there was a great live band playing. We stayed there for awhile, but decided to call it a night early – it’s been a long 4 days!
I have a lot of thoughts about the time I spent with Mike, Robert, John & Ben last night, but they’re not quite ready for words yet. I’m still formulating them in my mind. I feel challenged though now, challenged to tap into my creative side and grow. It’s a good feeling.
This post brought to you courtesy of BoingBoing who was wonderful enough to bring the WiFi connection to Austin! Yes, I am sitting on the Convention Center floor outside of rooms 8B and 8C typing away. I love wireless! I thanked him in person about 10 minutes ago when he walked past and asked if everything was working for me, but he deserves a public thank you too – THANK YOU CORY!
