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.  Miniature notebooks of all brands on hand, running a variety of operating systems.  These little gems provided both a low footprint, low weight, and were easier to stow and carry than a full size laptop.  I’m so convinced of this that I’ll be purchasing one for next year.

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

     This was taken in the BigTop Candy Store on S. Congress in Austin. Just wanted to share the goodness with you.  Click on the picture to find more shots from the candy store and from our vacation in Austin.

Austin made me feel welcome in more ways than one.  Heck, they even named a store after my son, Randall’s.  Throughout the week folks were courteous and welcoming.

That and they kept apologizing for the weather.  Yes, when it’s below 70 something or the least bit clowdy, they think the weather is bad.  Heck, it was flooding in our neck of the woods when we left and cold too boot.

Austin brought Nanna J and I opportunities for dining experiences, cultural discoveries, and making new friends.  Simis, a photographer friend,  hosted us for the entire week. My favorite shot of her.

During our visit were were able to not just meet with Simis, but with several other contacts of mine from Twitter. We had lunch out with @Orchid8.

We had breakfast with @mikeneumann:

Dinner with Simis:

And then a whole dang tweetup hosted by Kim Haynes.

Several folks turned out for the meetup and made us feel quite welcome. We didn’t just talk about Twitter either. No, we talked about blogging, social media, photography, and social networking. But beyond that, we had opportunity to talk about each other, Austin, and food. You know that last one is dear to my heart. Ha.

As you can see, just meeting folks was a busy week. I’ll have to do another post about the cultural stuff I guess. Expect a post just about the food as well.

For a visual recap of our week in Austin be sure to check out Flickr. I’ll be adding more pics to that set over the next several days.

In summary, the trip to Austin brought me closer to folks in my network than just being virtual friends.  We talked, we laughed, and we broke bread together.  Those are the makings of a lasting friendship.  Heck, in all the excitement, I made some new friends too and so did our friend Simis.

What are you doing with your next vacation? Seeing the Grand Canyon, or closing the loop with friends? Can you manage both like in our Austin trip?

Flickr support groupOriginally uploaded by .simis.

Simis is hosting the first Austin Flickr Support Group right here in her house! It’s tough with all of us cruising Flickr and commenting at the same time. Lots of fun, and great shot Simis.

Man, do they ever!

Actually what you are seeing is a giant iron wrought butterfly.  This is one of three at the Zilker Botanical Garden in Austin, Tx.

My wife and I had a great time taking pictures at the garden.  The butterflies are just a bit of the unique things to see there.

Of course there were flowers as well.

And of course fairies…

All in all, a magical place to visit. Cheers.

supermodel SharonOriginally uploaded by .simis.

Portrait of my Sharon, aka Nanna J, by Simis.  Simis is one of my favorite photographers on Flickr and this week she is hosting us in Austin, Tx.

This was taken at the Loop 360 bridge on the outskirts of Austin. We did a whole photo session at the bridge. You’ll see some shots of that later. Look forward to more pictures of hers and ours to be posted here.

20080323 .Sharon and me. day147 Originally uploaded by .simis.

Two sweet ladies meet for the first time. Simis is hosting Nanna J and me in Austin this week. It’s hard to tell who is more excited.  Ha.

Look forward to more pictures of us all over this week. Please click through and show Simis’s pictures some comment love.

My wife and I are alive and well in Austin, Tx.  We had some twists and turns getting here.  Photos to come shortly.

Currently visiting with our host, Simis, from Flickr. She’s both a computer geek and talented photographer.  Please do check out her link.

Yours from Texas,

Todd and Sharon

To the left is the driving map from St. Peters, MO to Austin, Tx with a stop in Texarkana, AR.  Total estimated travel time is 14 hours 20 mins.

Our expectation is to do most of that trip on Saturday, March 22nd, stopping in Texarkana.  This drive should be fairly relaxed as we’ll be taking off before noon and make stops along the way.  Most likely we’ll stop around Memphis and around Little Rock.

My wife and I have never visited Little Rock, so we hope to stop and grab a few pictures there.

We plan to stay in Austin through till Saturday morning.  Plans may change as weather conditions change, and/or other things develop during our stay.

Do feel free to invite us to breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, photography, or whatever.  We are going to staying with a friend, and spending some evenings with her of course.

Some recommendations from friends:

Bob Bullock History Museum

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

Zilker Park Rose Garden

Threadgill’s

Salt Lick BBQ

Alamo Draft House

Botanical gardens

Stretch of South Congress between the river and E. Oltorf

Guero’s Taco Bar (shrimp fajitas FTW)

Mars Bar

 If you have recommendations for eateries, hangouts, favorite tourist attraction or whatever, please leave a comment here, DM me on Twitter @tojosan, or email me tojosa/gmail.com.  If you want a postcard, email me or DM with note saying POSTCARD and an address.

Thanks so much for the recommendations so far.  Can’t wait to be in Austin, see the sites, visit with friends, take some pictures and eat at some interesting places.