Day 2 SXSW Actually in Austin This TIme
Inauspicious start with 2 hour flight delay in United's ghetto of a gate B22a. Met a very nice young man, from Austin named Jorge, an accountant with Hilton Hotels who spent a week in Scranton and was eager to get back to home and open to the idea of spending time with the crowds at SXSW.
Finally arrive in Austin only to be brought by cab to very nice looking but wrong hotel. (There are several Doubletrees in Austin). Find correct hotel, not so nice looking but featuring a retro-glowing Denny's in the parking lot. Newly renovated interior makes up not so cute facade and sketchy semi-college hood.
Another cab to Austin Convention Center (ACC) and the conference begins! I watched the video and am well versed in going to 4th street entrance to 4th floor for badge pickup. Badge pickup successful now off to SODA UnConference Meet and Greet on level 7 Mezz. Find nearest map looking people and ask where this might be. They have no idea what I am talking about. Review map for myself. There is no level 7, escalators only go to levels 1 and 4 - where is level 7?? I am confused..thus begins my SXSW walk-about. Entirely miss SoDa meeting in walk about, I was late anyway, but catch the end of today's keynote - some crazy stats guy who predicted Obama would win by landslide - yeah sure. Get 2 tweets from friends at the event. Can't find them either. Go to next event - "Your Personal Blog is Dead". Actually find room on level 3 which requires going down long unmarked hall to outside stairwell packed with smokers and other lost souls tramp around in a square for several minutes find whole new set of 20 meeting rooms. Find meeting room 5a - no one is there. Correction 4 lost looking blogger souls all waiting for a host. I can't take the uuumm...silence and leave this intimate cabal. Find Design meets Agile Development. Plays to a packed room. So packed in fact that most of us end up sitting on the floor in a semi-circle around speakers feet. I try and take in the crowd and am sure I am the least technically astute person in the room, wow are these the geeks that geeks dream about....this is like geek heaven, my comparatively non-geekiness pegs me as a manager. Several people tweet the seesion...must figure out what # twitter is... we begin.
"What is Agile?" -- "What is waterfall?" Which is better....
Finally arrive in Austin only to be brought by cab to very nice looking but wrong hotel. (There are several Doubletrees in Austin). Find correct hotel, not so nice looking but featuring a retro-glowing Denny's in the parking lot. Newly renovated interior makes up not so cute facade and sketchy semi-college hood.
Another cab to Austin Convention Center (ACC) and the conference begins! I watched the video and am well versed in going to 4th street entrance to 4th floor for badge pickup. Badge pickup successful now off to SODA UnConference Meet and Greet on level 7 Mezz. Find nearest map looking people and ask where this might be. They have no idea what I am talking about. Review map for myself. There is no level 7, escalators only go to levels 1 and 4 - where is level 7?? I am confused..thus begins my SXSW walk-about. Entirely miss SoDa meeting in walk about, I was late anyway, but catch the end of today's keynote - some crazy stats guy who predicted Obama would win by landslide - yeah sure. Get 2 tweets from friends at the event. Can't find them either. Go to next event - "Your Personal Blog is Dead". Actually find room on level 3 which requires going down long unmarked hall to outside stairwell packed with smokers and other lost souls tramp around in a square for several minutes find whole new set of 20 meeting rooms. Find meeting room 5a - no one is there. Correction 4 lost looking blogger souls all waiting for a host. I can't take the uuumm...silence and leave this intimate cabal. Find Design meets Agile Development. Plays to a packed room. So packed in fact that most of us end up sitting on the floor in a semi-circle around speakers feet. I try and take in the crowd and am sure I am the least technically astute person in the room, wow are these the geeks that geeks dream about....this is like geek heaven, my comparatively non-geekiness pegs me as a manager. Several people tweet the seesion...must figure out what # twitter is... we begin.
"What is Agile?" -- "What is waterfall?" Which is better....
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