I've been here since the 10th, the conference started on the 12th and it is not 5pm on the 15th. I don't have much time to write this because I need to meet someone in 10 minutes, but I just finished deleting a full blog entry because I realized that I was listing things off completely out of order. There are so many web sites and panel discussions just focused on "your first" SXSW and I can see why. The entire event is a blur & I'm only half way through (although the music part should be a lot easier to navigate). The panels are pretty straightforward. The biggest thing is deciding which one to go to in each time slot. There are easily 20-30 seminars that you can go to each slot (every 1.5 hrs) and often you get stuck in something that seems great on paper but is a huge disappointment, and then you get out and hear that the seminar down the hall was fantastic. We stood in line to see Quentin Tarantino speak, and never got in, and there are similar missed opportunities to see a hero speak. But I also got to see some interactive 'gurus' speak... Evan Williams, Gary Vaynerchuk and John Gruber among them. The best speaker I've seen so far has been Clay Shirkey, who I might post about separately when I have some time. I also went to a great discussion about the psychology of design. I might post about that too. Ubiquitous, community management, location, and augmented reality are the buzzwords.I've met & hung out with founding members of some great companies (some are even local), and it is amazing how down to earth these people are. We've gone to 1 party and avoided the dozens of others due to hour-long lineups... but we've been drinking and eating and enjoying sunny patios and crazy nightlife basically non-stop. I haven't seen a single film yet, so have to get on that.