10 Tips to Surviving SXSW Interactive as a Newbie

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).

Weaver Firm Video

I have a lot of hobbies, and one those hobbies is called work. And though work may be more of a required hobby in my life than a volunteer one, at least it can be fun... most of the time.

For two years straight I've been assigned to manage what I think might be one of the most fun things we do at our firm - the annual Weaver "fun" video - a corporate culture video entirely devoted to being silly and letting folks know that these straight-laced accountants actually can loosen up their ties.

Tour de Tiny Rent House

Can you believe we've been back in Austin for almost an entire year already?!? And that means that we've lived in our little rent house for half the time that we lived in our first home in DFW. Time flies. Crazy.

We significantly reduced our living space when we moved to Austin (I think by about half or more when counting garage and shed space), so arranging furniture and decor was a little bit of a challenge, but alas, we did it, and if we're going to be living here, we're going to call it home. And thank goodness for some art to help us with that. Here's a mini, not all-inclusive tour of the house.

Bonnie's Ice Cream Birthday Party

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!

Our niece turned three this summer, and we celebrated with an ice cream pool party. It happened to be very convenient that Kitsy Co had the perfect invitation template to set the tone.

Sample Invite

Five Fave Fitness Tools

Active lifestyle... with a little motivation... because we all know that getting fit ain't always that easy. #gymlover #fitnessclassjunkie #workoutvideoqueen - whatever you want to call yourself. We all have a few tricks of the trade that boost our buns to get off the couch and add a little exercise into our lives. And once you find a shtick, if you find that shtick, you gotta SHTICK WITH IT! So here's a few boosters that have helped me move and groove lately.

Greetings from Austin Part 3 - Adventures Thus Far

My life since February 12th, my life back in Austin, has been drastically different. I feel so free and renewed and... young again! I feel like I've done more things and seen more friends in the past few months than I did in all of 2013. Seriously, it's amazing. A few of the 2014 goals I set for myself included living a more active lifestyle, exploring Austin and enjoying life in general. Well hello 2014, jump aboard the happiness train!

Eats and drinks. I can't. stop. eating. I've cooked a little less for myself and have let others take over the pots and pans. Not only has it been amazing, it has been delicious. We've hit up many of our favorite places, indulged in happy hours and brunches, tried some new spots, taken full advantage of grab-n-go and have spoiled ourselves with some Ben E. Keith Austin food and bev perks. Here are a few shots that I took (imagine Jeff shunning me while snapping these photos):

Greetings from Austin Part 2 - A Few Differences between Austin and Dallas

I've officially been an Austinite (for the second time) going on a month and a half now. The first day I drove down I was a little weirded out being in a "new" place, but it only took a day or two to feel right back at home. It's funny how your navigation and knowledge of a town can return so quickly. My love for Austin, however, never left.

So what's the big difference between where I'm at now (Austin) versus where I was (Dallas)? Well, there are lots of things, including both the obvious and not-so-obvious.

Eating. People LOVE to eat, and everyone seems to be a foodie. Places are crowded with a line out the door on a Monday night because food is everything - culture, adventure, social time, etc. And when you hear of a good place to eat, YOU HAVE TO GO! Not to mention, there's tons of good food everywhere to meet every budget possible, and you don’t really have to spend much to get a lot.

Greetings from Austin Part 1 - We've Moved!

The news is out, we're moving to Austin!

Ok, lie, the news has been out... and we've already moved.

New Year. New Beginnings. Welcome 2014!

Welcome everyone to 2014 (as is if your life has not already been pulverized by Happy New Year posts and pictures in the past couple of days by both yourself and others)! Another day, another dollar. Another year, another recap blog post. Let’s take a look at 2013 and lay some ground work for a new year.

Top 5 Favorite Pinterest Recipes

1.  Roasted Brussels sproutswith a balsamic reduction (make this all the time now)
2. Ham and cheese sliders (ridiculously crave-worthy)
3. Turkey meatballs in spicy tomato basil sauce with fresh mozzarella (best spaghetti sauce)
4. Baked buffalo chicken rolls (have tried them in a pulled pork version too)
5. The best steak marinade (posted in 2014... but actually made it in 2013, so it counts!)

Top 5 Most Popular Blog Posts

Brain (and Life) Overload

A horoscope break down once described Pisces as "overwhelmed by the enormity of the universe." Well, as I lie here in bed unable to sleep, I feel overwhelmed by the enormity of the universe. I'm a hobby hopper, idea junkie, daydreamer and everything in between. I think, I brainstorm, I do and do and do. Then repeat.

I've spent the past two days at the Dallas Digital Summit. The conference was (for the second year in a row) great. I met Siri (yes, there's a human behind the voice and her name is Susan), got great tips and advice from Randi Zuckerberg (Mark Zuckerberg's sis), and was lucky enough to hear THE Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, speak.

I also heard many other great speakers and walked away with... brain overload (as if digital overload at a digital summit isn't enough).

Dog Disasters, Dog Run, Dog House

My two terrors called dogs have pushed about every limit possible lately. They do things like eat our shed door...

Or maybe even eat our shed wall...

Or eat anything they possibly feel like eating, such as the electrical wiring for Jeff's trucks's tow package. It's bad enough we had to start shutting our garage door so that half of our garage wouldn't end up in the yard (or get eaten), but now we can't even trust the dogs in the yard.

Summer Projects... and Life

This household had been quite busy all summer, so busy I'm having a hard time featuring it all on the blog. While I do have some awesome projects to showcase soon, here's a recent life recap:

4 More Feet Added to the Fam

I love my dog to absolute death, but he might be one of the most annoying dogs ever, seriously. So what did we do to solve the problem? We added four more feet to the household.

Because that makes sense, right?

Life Lately

Oh goodness, these past few weeks have been absolutely wacko - too much going on at work and too much going on outside of work - hence the reason I'm blogging in my bed at midnight from my iPhone (forgive any errors). I had (have) some fresh posts in the pipeline for the blog, including my 7-day detox water, a not-so-out-of-the-ordinary impulse Ross shopping trip, and my first visit to Canton, but I just couldn't quite get to them before vacation (yehaw, only one more day)! Soooo, instead, here's my life lately.

Quarter of a Century Thus Far

I've officially been a quarter of a century years old for over a week, and I've survived… I guess… I think. I can't say that 25 has been any more adventurous than 24, so far, but I had a blast making the transition. Since I didn't give much attention to my last few birthdays, I found a 1+ week long celebration more than appropriate.

Day 1 festivities actually started with my mom's birthday (1 week before mine) at one of our fave restaurants ever, Pappadeaux. We gorged with fresh french bread and scampi butter, gulf coast oysters on the half shell, shrimp and crawfish fondeaux, crispy salmon, jumbo crab and shrimp, and classic bread pudding with bourbon sauce.

The next day we followed our cajun dinner with a dual-birthday crawfish boil at our house.

First Annual Crawfish Boil

My husband's Cajun family hosts a plethora of crawfish boils, and I've been to many with him and elsewhere, but for the first time, we hosted one of our own at our house.
 

Jeff’s Birthday and Sinful Chocolate Cake

In celebration of one year closer to 30, we enjoyed Jeff's birthday with an infamous Germenis cookout. On the menu: beer-can chicken, smoked pork loin, jalapeño snackers, homemade mac-n-cheese, caesar salad and sinful chocolate cake.

Jeff handled the meat on our beloved longhorn smoker. He outdid himself on the chicken and presented the pork perfectly.

2012 in a Nutshell

Happy New Year everyone! To celebrate the past year and the onset of 2013, here's a few 2012 highlights and a small dose of what's to come.

Top 5 Favorite Pinterest Recipes

1. Cilantro Lime Rice
2. Grilled Pesto and Goat Cheese Pizza
3. Weight Watchers Taco Soup
4. Creamy Grilled Chicken Piccata
5. Chicken Enchiladas with Avocado Cream Sauce

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1. The Ugly Bookshelf Makeover
2. A Willingham Wedding Road Trip: Part 2 – Buck Wild at Buc-ee’s
3. DIY Floating Mantel
4. Cute Patterned Target Melamine Plates
5. Art for Baby Jameson’s Chic Blue and Gray Room

Kapavik Family Christmas Reunion

My MeMaw is one of seven, and that equals a lot of family. To keep in touch and catch up with everyone, we do an annual Kapavik Christmas Family Reunion at the local KJT hall. We've been doing this for as long as I can remember.

This year it was my MeMaw's side of the family in charge. We dressed the hall with traditional Christmas decor. The kids crafted away on holiday projects. We played fun games. We feasted on tons of holiday and Czech food, and Santa even brought presents for the kids.

     

     

Addition to the Family

No, we're not pregnant. We got a dog!