SXSW 2005

Just returned from my first SXSW conference in Austin. A few highlights/lowlights:

• Had to put up with a lingering cold. Four to five times a day I'd get into a coughing spell where I thought I'd have to leave the session because I could not stop.


• Since I felt crappy most of the time I was there, I didn't get to any of the parties or traipse around much. Only thing exciting was visiting the Velveeta Room for some stand up comedy. They stood, I sat.


• Did get most of the book I was reading, Mortal Fear, by my new favorite author, Greg Iles, finished. Second book I've read by him, and I'll probably buy his newest which is now on the NY Times bestseller list.


• Was nice to see in person the many web design bloggers that I read on a regular basis. People like Jeffrey Zeldman, Doug Bowman, Dan Cederholm & Dave Shea. These people are like rock stars to the web design community. Zeldman's keynote on the first day was overflowing with people, and he really didn't have much to say of any importance.


• First conference I've ever been to that showed a film clip of some yahoo talking about the advantages of masturbating to online porn vs magazine porn. You had to be there.


• Jalapeno Pork Chops at the Iron Cactus. To die for.


• Never been to a conference where so many people brought their laptops to the sessions. Either live blogging or taking notes or visiting the web sites being talked about in the session. Ninety percent of them were Macs.


• Bought the new Zen of CSS Design book by Dave Shea and Molly Holzschlag and had them autograph it. Beautiful book to accompany the beautiful designs on the CSS Zen Garden.


• Organizers need to realize the conference has gotten too big for where they're having it. Half the sessions I attended had all seats taken and people sitting in the aisles and standing in and out of the doorway.

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