South by Southwest Interactive–the geeky stepchild of the acclaimed SXSW Music and Media Conference held each March in Austin–is just around the corner. By this time next week, we’ll be neck-deep in geek swag, product launches and free parties. The Team Newman system of taking every-other-year off seems to be working out quite well.

Scan me!

There’s a lot I’m looking forward to at SXSWi 2011: talking to strangers, karaoke, random Guy Kawasaki sightings, stickers, morning Yoga, and learning more about new stuff like QR code marketing, #hashable and Quora.

Fortunately, the actual conference lineup looks great, too. I’ve already got Offline America: Why Have a Digital Divide; Social Policies and Company Culture; and Nonprofits and Free Agents in a Networked World on my schedule.

If you’re headed down to Austin, too, let’s connect! If you’re not, take heart: if you follow the #sxswi hashtag on Twitter, you’ll be hearing and seeing everything we’re seeing in real time. Then, you can go online and watch the podcasts of each session. It will be like the real thing, only sans hangover and outrageous hotel bill! Read More…

Woo Hoo! Team Newman is just three days away from descending upon Austin for South by Southwest Interactive.  Although it’s not a total vacation (we’ll still be working on the road) we are ready to get out and about and learn something new… an expectation that makes me a little nervous.

See, SX has traditionally been a predominantly male, Apple product lovin’, geek haven. As attendees, we’d feast our eyes on new technologies, books and ideas that would debut there. And here’s the catch: the stuff really was new. Three years ago, Twitter launched at SX as a way for festival peeps to keep up with each other as we moseyed about Austin. It fell off the radar for a while and then suddenly, about 16 months ago, Twitter popped back up to the surface. And now CNN and MSNBC are hailing Twitter as a “new” social media site. But, you see, it’s not new. At least not to SX-goers.

Which brings me to my point about this year’s SX — there’s a lot of social media stuff on the slate and I just PRAY there is something new, something fabulous, for me to learn this year. I will just DIE if I get there and sit through six days of “How to use Twitter” or “Social Media 2.0″.  What if I get there and instead of the geek crowd it’s nothing but normal people? What if the “new” stuff is nothing more than the popular/mainstream stuff? I really think I’ll cry.

So, I’ve got this little bit of fear going on; that said, I simply can’t wait to touch down on Austin soil, stand in line for two hours to get my prized lanyard, drink free beer, meet fabulous new friends, find my online peeps, hold hands with my hubby and learn new stuff.

Oh! And I’m sure I’ll also do something completely random this year like dance at a goth bar and put temporary tattoo on my forehead just to get a free t-shirt (a la SX 2007). No worries, I’ll be blogging, taking photos and rolling video from SX so you’ll totally feel like you are there for every odd and geekish thing we do!  Stay tuned!

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