This year was my first at South By South West and I had a blast!
Making it a real success though required more than just showing up. South by South West is all about community and living on the Internet, as well as meeting up in person. If you couldn’t bring the right tools along, neither of those would happen.
I’d have considered myself very prepared. Laptop, check. DSLR, check. P&S camera, check. Flip, check. Money, check. It turns out both yes and no.
A laptop seemed like a great choice for an online/offline event. I chose my 15″ MacBook Pro. It’s not huge. Let me tell you, it was about too much, besides holding one of the things I hadn’t thought to check, a battery.
A 15″ laptop doesn’t sound like it’s going to get in the way. That’s until you see how little table space there is to be found. Often your laptop literally ends up on your lap. Not a good choice for anything awkward, hot, or needing more space than you have. A great alternative, and much seen this year, are netbooks
Canon, Nikon, Sony and more make great DSLRs. The problem? They aren’t something you can stick in your back pocket, shirt pocket, purse, or want to wear around your neck all day. (Well maybe if someone is paying you to.) My Canon XTi quickly wore out its welcome with me by Tuesday of the conference.
A great alternative is a good quality point and shoot camera. I brought along a simple 5 megapixel Nikon, but even it was a bit bulky. If you don’t have a camera that slides into your pocket and doesn’t weigh much, consider getting one for your next conference, especially one as heavy duty with picture opportunities as SxSW. The addendum to this note is about batteries. Bring spares. By spares, I mean at least two, and charge them up at night.
Video cameras were another great thing you’d think would be great to have along. Again, a common mistake is to bring a full blown HD video camera. The storage and carrying will kick your tail fairly quick.
One word answer:
Flip
Now, about the money. Lots of folks brought cash. Cash is a burden. It’s a pain to dig in your pockets for. It’s easy to lose. Someone will always want to borrow it.
Bring a bank card, a charge card, or both. Use them exclusively. It’s both easier to track expenses, and easier to spend. There wasn’t any place I went that didn’t take a charge card as well as cash.
I covered everything in my small list in a bit of detail, but there’s a couple of other essentials.
Shoes – two pair – alternate them; bring three if you plan on dressing up
Hat – buy on site or bring
Business cards – 100 or so minimum – readable, interesting, easy to reach
Spare shirts/tops – BBQ
Last but not least of my recommendations can replace all but the money from the original list. That would be a smartphone.
Smartphones, essentially hand held computers, provide for Internet access, photos, video recording, and can even work for contact information exchange. The most common models I noted were the Blackberry and iPhone. Note that if this conference were in other parts of the world, likely it would have usable for charging purchases as well.
Some of the items in the short list, such as business cards, require a more in depth post. Those alone are probably worth more than one. Just bring some please.
So I came prepared this year and perhaps overly so. Next year my checklist will be shorter, lighter, and easier to carry.
What’s on your must have list for SxSW?
Yours,
Todd, @tojosan on Twitter
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Tags: Austin, Blackberry, Blogging, computer, Conference, smartphone, Social Media, Social Networking, South by South West, SXSW, sxsw09, sxsw2009, Texas
