So I’m going to #SXSW

Which I am SO excited about! I have a gold pass (for the purpose of getting into the overly popular talks) so I will go to some film talks as well as the interactive ones. No music for me, but I hear there are lots of free concerts so I’ll line up for those.

The highlight for me of the lineup so far is Amber Case, who if you haven’t heard is a cyborg anthropologist. She says interesting things like Steve Jobs’ death was an example of us coming closer to a singular conciseness. At the exact same moment in time millions of people around the planet were feeling the same emotions. This is Ms Case at TED:

It’s probably no surprise that I’m interested in a lot of the Branding and Marketing panels, just a few of the ones I’ll go to are:

- Building Digital Products with Passionate Users
- Creepy? Captivating? Ads in the Personal Data Era
- Don’t Just Sell Things: Change the World
- Hacking YouTube: Science & Secrets of Viral Videos
- How Your Data Can Predict the Future
- Skynet vs Mad Max: Battle for the Future
- We Made This, And It’s Not an Ad
- Why Ad Agencies Should Act More Like Tech Startups

There are a few alumni speakers who I hope to see return for 2012; Louis Theroux, Christopher Poole (of course), Felicia Day, Merlin Mann. I see Frank Warren is returning so I might have some luck in the keynotes yet to be announced.

I should also note this is my first time going to real America (Honolulu doesn’t really count). Bring on the delicious burritos, cheap makeup and oversized everything. After the conference I’m planning to head to San Francisco to see our friend David, Boston to see our friend Sophie and then NEW YORK to see what life should be like.

So awesome. See you there!