It rained in Austin about half the time I was there. But for me, 80 degree weather + rain = paradise.

Spent the majority of the conference sitting in my hotel room working on a project dropped in my lap 2 days before I left for Austin.

Met Ze Frank.

Learned a lot of interesting advice on publishing and reporting from Dan Rather.

Was honored to attend the SXSW Award show as a finalist even though I didn’t win. Ze Frank emceed and was absolutely awesome. The guy is hilarious.

Scored two Firefox shirts(corrected), two Google shirts and a bit of good swag.

Attended a couple very great sessions and a few worthless ones. Too many panels I attended were not well thought out with unprepared speakers and I walked away learning nothing.

Met a ton of online friends I had never met in meatspace and many more I met for the first time.

Ate some awesome food. I love Austin.

Honestly thought I was going to die in an airplane crash after some massive turbulence from Austin to Denver. The kind where the women on the plane scream.

Overall, attending this conference was an opportunity to get a perspective of the future of the Internet and spend a few days really soaking it in and looking at it from outside my typical workday. I spent many hours discussing where technology and the Internet is at today and speculating where it’s all going.