SXSW Interactive is coming up again…. next year. But by the time next year rolls around, I’ll have forgotten the survival tips I learned this year. Oh, did you miss it? I attended SXSW Interactive for the first time and had a blast, an exhausting blast.
Yeah, those two words – exhausting and blast. They come hand in hand for SXSW. And they’ll get ya really good if you aren’t prepared. You’ll have a blast on day 1, day 2 and maybe even day 3, and by day 4 you’re either sick, blistered, bloated, brain dead, bags under your eyes, living on energy drinks, pushing through as though you’re still 21 years old and can work hard and play hard all at the same time, or if none of the above, just crazy. But there’s hope! There is too much to do and see and learn at SXSW to miss out due to bad preparation.
Here are my 10 tips to surviving SXSW as a newbie. Some I followed, some I figured out, and some I learned ahead of time but completely ignored (my bad).