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I’m thinking about attending. Can anyone tell me what I can expect? What kind of topics are covered usually in the interactive portion? I really don’t care much for the music portion or anything else and if I go, had just planned on getting an interactive badge only.

Not sure if that will be worth my while or not? Or if you need the all access badge to get into the “cool” stuff?

Can’t quite give details yet but EllisLab will be at SXSW. Saturday March 8th is the main day for us. Details in the new year most likely (meaning I don’t think we’re making an official announcement before that).

Last year we hosted a community party and had a blast!

To answer your question the Interactive Badge is the one for all the web design/dev stuff. I went to several panels last year and found them, for the most part, enjoyable. The big draw for me is meeting people that I only know by email address or screen name.

I missed last year, but will not miss out this year 😊

Yeah I would like to meet everyone in person too so I can put a face with the name.

I probably will go with just the interactive badge. How long do the sessions last each day?

I’m local. It makes downtown packed. I don’t attempted to drive north of the river the entire week instead taking my bike. Beyond the absurd amount of people that Austin needs to host some of the music is pretty damn good. The last few years I’ve avoided the big shows instead going to the smaller venues. I haven’t been disappointed by this switch.

I highly recommend having a game plan with alternatives. More than once you’ll be turned away from a show you want to see. Also I really recommend getting the hell out of downtown when you can. There are many jewels in Austin that shouldn’t be overlooked. Please be polite. Life is chill here, but rudeness isn’t tolerated.

I recommend joining and reading the archives of the (Expression Engine-powered) community weblog SXSW Baby!.

/gratuitous plug

There’s a list of SXSW Interactive panels by category here:

http://2008.sxsw.com/interactive/programming/panels_by_category/

Most of the people who come to Austin for the Interactive Festival are in an “interactive” business, however you want to define that. Web developers, social networkers, designers, bloggers, animators, entrepreneurs, etc. People come from all over the world, but it’s an urban, relatively young crowd—with an occasional grayhead like me.

The previous comment about the music part of the festival doesn’t really apply to the Interactive Festival because they don’t overlap. The Interactive Festival is crowded at the Convention Center, and a few panels get close to full, but the city in general is not affected much by the Interactive Festival, the way it is by the music portion of SXSW, which starts the day after the Interactive Festival ends.

There’s also a film part of SXSW, which does overlap with the Interactive Festival, and the past couple of years there has been a new game section too, called ScreenBurn.

It’s a fun event, and the Ellis Labs party was great this past year.

First time attender here, and looking forward to it!

We’re actually booked into a cabin at a RV park 5 miles out of town…hoping it works out well as I hate staying in hotels.  I’ll also have my family with me - we’ll be visiting family in South Texas before heading up to SXSW.

Gonna be a looooong drive from W. MI though… :grrr:

There’s a list of SXSW Interactive panels by category here:

http://2008.sxsw.com/interactive/programming/panels_by_category/

Most of the people who come to Austin for the Interactive Festival are in an “interactive” business, however you want to define that. Web developers, social networkers, designers, bloggers, animators, entrepreneurs, etc. People come from all over the world, but it’s an urban, relatively young crowd—with an occasional grayhead like me.

The previous comment about the music part of the festival doesn’t really apply to the Interactive Festival because they don’t overlap. The Interactive Festival is crowded at the Convention Center, and a few panels get close to full, but the city in general is not affected much by the Interactive Festival, the way it is by the music portion of SXSW, which starts the day after the Interactive Festival ends.

There’s also a film part of SXSW, which does overlap with the Interactive Festival, and the past couple of years there has been a new game section too, called ScreenBurn.

It’s a fun event, and the Ellis Labs party was great this past year.

Thanks for that helpful information! Thanks for the link to the panels by category too! I hope to get to attend! Looks nice!

Yeah I would like to meet everyone in person too so I can put a face with the name.

That’s the best part! The forums have been a ton more fun this last year now that I’ve met so many of the folks here. Looking forward to meeting more of you this year.

I recommend joining and reading the archives of the (Expression Engine-powered) community weblog SXSW Baby!.

/gratuitous plug

Sw-ee-ee-t nice plug, I try to keep up with the spin on the festival, never had the chance to attend. There’s so much music, but a lot of great presentational info comes out of the interactive track.
There’s something about Austin music-wise, maybe it’s the blues texas-style sound connection. SRV had some big shoes that will never be filled. There’s still some fine guitar slingers down there though.

I went last year for the first time and will be attending again this year. Most if not all of the sessions were very informative, some very entertaining, and a few that tried to cram too much info into a short time frame and I left wondering “what the heck was that”.  All in all it was well worth the trip. A relative newbie to EE, I am looking forward to this conference and finding out more stuff that I should be doing 😊