Rousing Review SXSWi (the is for interactive!)

Rousing Review SXSWi (the is for interactive!) Oh youse guys, SXSW was super dreamy last week, and it was such a mistake to arrive on Sunday when Friday was the first day! But thats OK I absolutely made the most of my time there, especially since I had a 7:30a flight the same night we moved our clocks forward, and didnt stay out past 11p some nights! Im such an old lady. So starting at the beginning, I landed on time on Sunday, and had a familiar face waiting for me at the airport! Although Caitlin and I have known each other for about 2 years thanks to Blogging Your Way as well as working together in group sessions last year (she applied for my scholarship, and you can too!) that was the first time we met in person! In typical Austin style, we went to a super authentic Mexican restaurant where I had the Austin specialty, queso. I also learned that chile con queso does not mean chili with cheese its just liquified cheese with some veggies and sometimes meat in it. We both got a laugh that it was part of a light lunch along with a taco and guacamole salad, but it didnt stop up from ordering it! It was then off to the Life After College and The Personal MBA book launch party, where I kvelled over one Jenny Blake and, to my surprise, she kvelled right back! Mutual fans and fast friends, we made time for a mid-day drink at my new fave place, Frank (come to Brooklyn, Frank!), pre-presentation on Tuesday. Its a tough life. from l-r: Jenny, me, and Caitlin. Im not usually this shrimpy, but I was wearing flats! Caitlin then dropped me off at my hotel so I could check-in and drop my stuff off. I did a quick freshen-up and headed over to The Awesomest Journalism Party. Ever., where I knew nobody but didnt care I got to listen to Quiet Company, who had me dancin with myself. Seriously, take a 5 minutes dance break right now and play this song. Such funness! Quiet Company at The Awesomest Journalism Party Ever, taken with my Instagram, which automatically makes me a good photographer. Then it was off to meet my PR Rep Extraordinairre, Shennandoah Diaz of Brass Knuckles Media. We headed to another book launch party and Shennandoah let me tag along by her side, introducing me to everyone she knew and those she didnt! I mean, I thought I was outgoing, but Shennandoah put me to shame! Love her and the obvious passion she has for her company, her clients, and her contacts. When that was wrapping up, we headed over to Etsy in Austin just in time for the Fashion Show, which was amazeballs. Such talent, and so varied, too! Everyone was such a rock star. And even though I was crashing and quick, I got my second wind when The iPad DJ took the stage. I took over the dance floor with some of the Etsyans and a dude who would not stop cartwheeling. After that, it was so time to crash. Monday went by fast and furious, but some highlights were: the discussions  Stop Working Nights/Weekends and Get a Life (I tweeted my take-aways fast furious, which you can see here) and Career Transparency: Why Personal Branding is Bullshit (you can find the twitter feed for that one here) my first vegan and macrobiotic lunch (together or separate!), thank to my lovely client Joanna. It was such a nice break from all the queso! the Connection Revolution meet-up,which lived up to its name! I got to finally meet ones Pace and Kyeli, Skaja, Ali Luke, Kelly Kingman, and other amazeballs revolutioners. Cant wait to meet up with most of em at the World Domination Summit in June! Dinner with Shennandoah (she could not get rid of me!), my former clients Lisa and Bryce (who was also my co-presenter!), and some lovely #UsGuys peeps who I was introduced to (even though I still dont really know what #UsGuys is)! Of course, Bryce, Lisa, Shennandoah and I went for a drink post-dinner at Frank (yes, no apostrosphe s I got corrected by the bartender!) because we heard wait for it there was a bacon-vodka bloody mary. Oh Frank, please come to Brooklyn. The hipsters would eat you up. Literally. from l-r: Pace, me, Bryce and Kyeli at the Connection Revolution meet-up And Tuesday? Well, Tuesday was all about our presentation, DIY Online Workshops: Best Practices and Worst Mistakes. It was tough waiting the whole day for our time slot (it was in the last group of sessions before the end of the Interactive part of SXSW) Id always rather go first than last! but it was worth it. We took the morning to practice in front of our audience of one, the lovely and talented Cheryl B. Engelhardt, who gave us such great feedback and put our nerves at ease. And when we got to the green room an hour before showtime, we couldnt help but nerd out over our signs! We had a great room of people who took notes fast and furious, and gave us such positive feedback post-session. We put together some take-aways for them in terms of a Resource List and a Best Practices Punch List, and if ya head on over to our SXSW page, you can listen to the audio of the session right there! Im kinda wishin I indulged my desire to talk about Schweddy Balls into the mic. It was so tempting! And how much fun was it to spend the night celebrating with my other presenters (whose sessions ran at the same time as mine blurg!), Amanda, Jordan and Christa, jammed into a booth at Moonshine and drivin the waitress bonkers? Also, Im so glad I tagged along with em to the Nerdin Out comedy show, as Eugene Mirman always makes me wet my pants and Aziz Ansari showed up all surprise-like. He didnt talk about Harris as much as I wanted, but it was still amazeballs. And Wednesday? Well, getting to the airport was, oh, the biggest nightmare ever thanks to the devil known as Super Shuttle (never before, never again), but Id hate to tell you more and leave this on such a down note. All I can say is that I abso-freakin-lutely cant wait for SXSWi 2012. Ill be there with bacon-infused queso bells on.