Blog
03.15
Live from SXSW Interactive: 15,000 Nerds Walk Into a Bar...
The bar at the Hilton is packed. Dinner is soon and the conference is winding down. I'm sitting here and just thinking... who the hell are all these people?
Word on the street (by which I mean CNN) is that conference attendance is up 40% this year from last year's 11,000 registrants. It's been argued that, like so much in Austin, or like Coachella, or like Woodstock, the mainstreaming of SXSW has killed the soul of the gathering. The industry party lines are certainly enough to justify murder. But that begs the question, again, who are these additional 40%?
I'm not prepared to say this attendance represents a paradigm shift in the crusade for a better Web. Based on the conversations around me, I'm actually inclined to be pessimistic and worry about some kind of unholy homogenization. If I'm right, in the face of 15,000 registrants who may or may not represent a depressing direction in Web standards, how do we, as a team, stay inspired to continue to champion standards?
The short answer is I have no clue. Possibly to the dismay of those at my agency who are sales-focused, I don't write this blog with the intention of hocking our wares. I do know, in all honesty, seeing this kind of attendance and contemplating the mediocrity that may be inherent within, I feel our team becomes that much more special, that much more "worth it."
Has SXSW jumped the shark? We have one more day to find out.
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