Why I am not at South by South West Interactive #sxsw
There is this big techie, geek, music nerd conference called “South by South West Interactive” (SxSWi or for someone, SxSW). It’s happening right now and there are a number of friends of mine from Vancouver (about 80) who are there. Admittedly, going there and having more in-depth, intellectual conversations on technology, society, social media and the like would be attractive.
But, given that I’m trying to get more into the academic conference circuit (in public policy and environmental policy), and given that I’m not a tech guy, despite my strong ties with the tech world, I thought that it wasn’t really a fit for me. Also, it’s not an inexpensive trip (on the contrary, it’s rather expensive). Last year I was invited to cover it as media, but frankly, I wasn’t in a position to do so.
And this year, with my teaching and all my other obligation (primarily the missing class bit), going to SxSW would be insanely wrong. So that’s why I didn’t go. Of those of you who are there, why did YOU go? And for those of you who AREN’T there, why didn’t you? I’m curious…
Related posts:
- North by North East Interactive 2011 (NxNEi) June 13-19
- Ouisi Bistro (South Granville)
- SKIN: An interactive live art party
- Thoughts on South by Southwest Interactive 2010
- Restaurant review – Shin Ju (South Granville)
Sounds like you made a good decision for yourself based on your current situation!
I’ve never been, but it has always seemed like a great time. I sort of feel the same way about it that I do about all conferences, especially those in my line of work (GDC, E3, etc) … I can still enjoy it and read coverage from home… I don’t actually have to be there. With Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn etc… it’s still possible to network through an event without having to be there.
Since you do speaking events though, that’s a whole different ballgame! I’m just speaking as a spectator
I definitely think you made the right choice in not going. While it would be a blast for you, it’s not critical to your business.
I attend several blogging conferences and blogging events but they are the ones geared towards my audience of women and mom bloggers. While I do have many blogging friends at sxsw, it’s low on my priority list of events to attend.
Clearly we’d both have fun there and get some value from being there, but just not enough value to make business sense for us.
Perhaps next year I’ll go, but I’ll again look at it from a business ROI perspective.