Earlier this month, Team Clearleft headed up to London for a day of design related exhibitions: Bauhaus: Art as Life at the Barbican and (after a ride across the city on a ‘Boris Bike’) British Design 1948-2012 and Heatherwick Studio: Designing the Extraordinary at the V&A.
Once again, I’m in Austin for SXSW Interactive; the forth time I’ve attended an event I find easy to disparage. Yet this is the first stop on a trip that will take in several hundred miles of Interstate highway between here and San Francisco; two points of familiarity on an itinerary that promises to be anything but predictable.
This years SXSW Interactive saw 1,041 sessions presented by 1,648 speakers, growing to such extent that its size now rivals that of the more popular music festival. Yet bigger doesn’t necessarily mean better.
I’ve decided to attend next years SXSW Interactive festival followed by a tour of North America. The details of where I’ll be visiting and for how long remain undecided, but I imagine my itinerary will be varied and involve much travelling by train.
Once again, I feel the duty falls upon me to remind those attending this year’s SXSW festival in Austin, that you really need not pick up that big, heavy, cumbersome and frankly useless bag of marketing junk.
Friday saw the start of this years SXSW interactive, film and music festivals in Austin Texas, and once again they highlight the scourge of swag: the ‘stuff we all get’ that soon becomes the stuff we don’t want.
On Monday evening I took the plunge and made my debut speaking engagement at the 20x2 event at SXSW.
Before leaving for the airport, I sat in an isolated part of the Convention Center and felt a huge part of me not wanting to leave. I have been to a few conferences now, but SXSW is a stand out favourite.
Just a quick post (at 4:45am in the morning) as I can’t sleep due to anxiety about this evenings 20x2 performance.
In just under a months time I will be turning my trousers brown before placing myself upon a small stage and speaking for just 2 minutes at 20x2, a small event that takes place during SXSW.
They say change is as good as a rest. With early morning commutes, a ‘distinctive’ uniform and interaction with the general public, volunteering at the London 2012 Paralympic Games couldn’t have been further removed from the desk-bound job I’d become weary of.
Last week I was invited to Responsive Summit, a face-to-face discussion about Responsive Web Design. We talked about what we’ve learnt so far, the problems we’re continuing to face and things we’d like to change. And no, I didn’t get the Dr. Strangelove reference either.
Over the past few years, I’ve often meant to write about the location-based social network Gowalla. Recently acquired by Facebook and with closure imminent, now is my last opportunity to do so.
.net Magazine asked a group of experts what they find most delightful and most despicable about the social networking giant Facebook. This was my response.