Here's me putting OtherInbox's Mr. Spam in a headlock. This is what I want to do to Mr. AT&T.

Here's me putting OtherInbox's Mr. Spam in a headlock. This is what I wanted to do to Mr. AT&T, but he was a no-show at SXSW.

We did it! Team Newman survived the fifth and final day of South by Southwest Interactive. Not to be confused with the music portion, which starts today. Many of you emailed, Facebooked and Twittered me with great SXSW Music folks to check out…unfortunately, our geek lanyards don’t get us into those music venues. Sorry!

Anywho, Day 5 was great and included everything from getting work done, to tacos, to watching intoxicated dudes attempt to ride the mechanical bull. I managed to sneak in two SXSW panels, which is tough to pull off on the last day of any conference. I even wore red on St. Patrick’s Day in hopes of winning Gowalla‘s Flip Mino HD. No, (sigh) I didn’t win.

I really enjoyed the “Non-Profits: Be the Web You Wish to See!” panel with Stanley Jones of Diligent Creative. I was quite underwhelmed by the “Surviving Scandal” panel though. I think the gal knew what she wanted to say, just couldn’t find a way to say it. Her awkward struggle with public speaking made me very sad/uncomfortable/sorry for her so I had to get up and leave.

The Media Temple closing party was fabulous though; easily the most fun party we attended during our six days here. We had free grub and LoneStar and had a great time giggling at the bull riders.

All in all, it was a great experience. Though, this was the last SXSWi trip for Team Newman for a while.

When we first attended SX three years ago, it was much more intimate (say, 3,000 folks) than the SX of today. I love to think about 13,000 geeks in once place, but I don’t enjoy what a mass o’ tech-addicted laptop lovers does to AT&T and my iPhone. And it certainly wasn’t good for our hotel internet connection either. We always try to work, blog and write while we are here. With the massive internet and iPhone failure, we simply couldn’t do any of that. And that sucks.

Of course, none of that is the fault of the SXSW organizers. We’ve no issues with the festival itself. Still, we’ll be looking for the next, slightly smaller geeky gathering for 2010. Suggestions?

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