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The [Late] Austin Wrap Up
Published on 17/03/07
by John Phillips
Due to the extreme circumstances that are my job, coming home from work at 11 and 3 a.m. have kind of left me very little time to write this blog that I usually look forward to writing, especially after traveling to new places. So here we are at Saturday morning with plenty of time to give my final thoughts on a bomb trip.
The SXSW conference overall was one of the best experiences I’ve had in a long time. Very positive atmosphere, tons of cool people, and very good inspiration. I can’t say how much of a boost it is to meet some of my favorite designers and realize that they are just as human as me. That was very inspiring.
The night life is Austin is pretty crazy, especially the time of this conference. You wouldn’t think a bunch of web guys know how to party, but, you would be very wrong in thinking that. One of the main streets in downtown Austin is 6th street which is insane. We’re talking about 3/4 mile, of bar after bar, right next door to each other. I’ve never seen anything like that. They actually close down the street on the weekend nights because there are just too many people.
On top of the many bars, all of the night events sponsored by big companies that attended the conference were open bar. So imagine a busy downtown 6th street, with open bars for 5 nights…..you do the math. Our craziest night had to be the last night in town, and we definitely went out with a bang. We decided that we wanted to get an early start on things so we started hitting the juices at about 7pm, and went pretty strong until around 2am.
Of course the next day was every bit of hell with having to check out, shitty weather, a flight delayed about 3 hours, and us not getting home til 2:30am the next morning. Oh and I had to get up and work too, but I’m not complaining or anything…
So that was the life for 6 days/5 nights. It was panels all day. Cocktails and networking in the evening. And though it was a great time, it was definitely exhausting, but I’m already looking forward to it next year. My goal holds strong to speak on a panel one year. It will happen.
Austin as a city………eh, I’ve seen better. It was pretty rugged looking though. It had a really old and liberal feel to the city, which isn’t a bad thing, and it was cool seeing a new place, but definitely not a place I’d want to live. The once a year conference is more than enough. It’s not exactly a paradise.
So that was the trip. I wish I would have taken more pictures, but I got some good ones. Seeing as though Andrew is a friend and business partner, it was a good bonding experience while being there. We’ll be dragging the last 1/3 of our company out there next year because I think we have a lot to gain from it……..good times.
Peace