| Why SXSW is awesome: - Discovering a lot of up and coming talented musicians - Seeing artists like Arcade Fire, Beirut, Muse, Ben Harper, and Tom Morello play at small bars. - Catching the world premiere of a film where the director and all of the stars are in attendance - Free day parties with free beer - Seeing Ice Cube, Public Enemy, Talib Kweli, and Del tha Funkee Homosapien perform for free by the lake. - Having some drinks with a bunch of business guys at some startup-of-the-month's party - Making new friends - Making business contacts that lead to jobs or business opportunities I live here in Austin and SXSW is my favorite time of year. Yes there are some sucky tech panels, but there are a few gems. I saw a few great panels such as "Beyond LAMP", discussions on location based services and mobile advertising, and talks by DHH and Jason Fried. Best of all, I got to do all of this for free by volunteering, and got a free music badge for doing so. Here's my music schedule: http://my.sxsw.com/user/schedule/larrykubin How exactly does it suck to go to hundreds of concerts, see dozens of movies, and party with thousands of technologists and entrepreneurs? The author should rename the article to "why SXSWi sucks" at least, because SXSW is a lot more than a tech conference. |