SXSW – Days 3 & 4

DAY 3 (Sat 22^nd March 2010)

The day began the same as everyday …. BACON

Then the fun started, we headed into Austin for a quick game of Kickball, yes you heard me right Kickball.

A very energetic way for geeks to spend the morning, the event included free tacos and coffee, and loads of running. I would recommend to anyone going to SXSW next year to be sure they make the kickball game.

OFF TOPIC

(not to mention food again but I also recommend the Iron Works BBQ)

With sore feet and sweat on the brow we headed back to the convention centre. I spent most of the early afternoon walking around the trade show room. The first thing I noticed was the Varity of stands, from software, hardware, to beauty products and beer.
I had a “strange” man walk up to me ask “I’ll give you beer if you let me take your picture?” at any other place on earth I might have thought this was weird, but hey I was Austin. The result: SXSW 2010: A Haven for Geeky and Techie T-Shirts! (check out number 36)

I also had the chance to experience the Panasonic 3d TV Theatre, which was awesome, I really am going to have to get myself one of those setups when they get release onto the open market.

I noticed that they didn’t have many mobile stands. I saw a few stands with iPhone software, but not much more than that which was a bit disappointing.

It was then time for the keynote by Danah Boyd titled “Privacy and Publicity”, in a hall that held an easy 5000 people(did you get the swarm badge). Danah really spoke with a all empowering voice, she was captivating and thought provoking, she really lived up to the hype that some of the SXSW goers had built up about her.

I honestly look forward to going to any other talks that she may do in the future. I won’t go into the details of the talk, but lets just say the group of Google guys sitting at the back must have felt there was spot light on them when Danah started slamming Google about the launch of Buzz.

It was then time to head back to Fogo de Chao for some more networking.

(Wish I had tried the food here).
Once again @allaboutgeorge and @MsJen stepped up with awesome recommendation of going to the Happy Cog’aoke which turned out to be one of the many highlights.

Basically it was a massive party (700 people only open bar) all there to listen to the karaoke finalists. Some of the geekists I mean artists really went to town and others crashed and burned, but all in all it was an outstanding show from everyone evolved.

DAY 4 (Sun 23^nd March 2010)

We woke on Sunday to some pretty awesome and exciting news. The WOMWorld guys gave us all very cool booklet bags.

Then on top of this they lent us all, DC-11’s (nokia extra portable power charger) , and the beautiful Nokia 3G booklets.

This was not the end of it, we then got dragged down town for our next surprise, which was a morning full of ovi maps voice navigation.

The first event was going around town on segways(must get myself one of these).

I had to post this video of @Whatleydude doing his segway training, keep your eye out for “bum drop” emergency stop.

We all had Nokia N97mini’s(white) docked onto our steering wheels, and around we went.

I must admit that the Routing is very precise and if you don’t go to the exact location of you waypoint your route may get confused. I would imagine that if you did it while walking it would less of a problem, none the less it worked for us after a few tries and off we went.

Second on the list, perhaps A LOT more physically demanding but was still loads of fun. An eight wheeler bicycle?!?!? I can’t describe it so you going to have to see this site (http://notyourusualbikes.com/) and look at the pictures below…

(A note to any company’s travelling to Austin, take the bike as it draws a lot of attention in town, and perhaps ask if you can fly your corporate flag)

P.S Group two on the bike did doe 18mph and we have a video to prove it …

After all the morning exercise, it was time for food and we had a truly unique experience at the Boling pot.

You eat off the table. Yes that’s right, the food is dumped on the table and you simple pour your hot sauces onto the table too. No knives or forks, just hands and good food.

The days fun didn’t stop their. Once again we headed off to another event at Fogo de Chao. This time the WOMWorld guys had organised a competition of GUESS WHO on Nokia 3g Booklets, the winner becoming the lucky owner of one of these sexy devices.

If you missed the first massive Guess Who game by WOMWorld/Nokia, check this out …

I decided that because this was my last night it would only be right to something Cowboy style. Myself and few of the crew ventured into the world of Bull riding, it hurt but man it was fun.