Wow, my body hates me. Between the lack of sleep, TexMex, BBQ, late-night cheesesteaks, beer, and walking from one end of Austin to the other, my muscles, bones and joints ache. But my mind… blown away. This being the first South By Southwest (SXSW) Interactive conference we’ve attended, we had unknown expectations. Would the panels rock? Would the keynotes inspire? Would the lines be long? Would there be any good coffee? The answer to all these questions (and plenty more) is a resounding, “hell yes” with an occasional “um, no” thrown in.
We have so many people to thank for the amazing conversations and activities in Austin. There’s no way we’ll remember all of them, so as not to offend anyone we’ll just say this: you all know who you are, what makes you special, and how you contributed to our time at SXSW. It wouldn’t have been the experience it was without you. So… thank you thank you thank you.
There’s also no way we could cover all the ideas and topics of discussion from SXSW in one post. Instead, Erin and I will be writing individual posts on some of the key thoughts we brought back to Substance World HQ, things like client relations, the need for wireframes, the concept of spec work, the relation of gaming prototypes to brand design, company culture, piracy as an engine of development, the future of visual storytelling, the art of the segue, humility vs. arrogance, and the importance of courage. And that’s probably not even the half of it.
Can’t wait to share all this with you, as well as an idea on how others can share their SXSW lessons, but that will have to wait a few days. For now, we’re back with the team doing what we do: doing better. There was plenty of inspiration in Austin, but we find the most inspiration here at the long table. Glad to be home.
Have a comment?