SXSW 2006: Panel News and Plans

Originally published on: 2/10/2006 10:48:58 AM

There's been a lot going on behind the scenes for the BeyondFolksonomies panel that I'm a part of for SXSW Interactive 2006.

Quick Summary:

The actual hour-by-hour schedule of panels came out. I and several others were dismayed to notice that the presentation from the "Wisdom of Crowds" guy and our were scheduled at the same time. Given the harmony of our topics and the fact that I personally wanted to see his presentation, that seemed a problem. However, before I'd even had a chance to complain about it, David had already gotten Hugh to change the time and we're now in the absolute first slot at 10am on Saturday, March 11.
David and I had a 2 hour phone conversation about the topic and tried to work out some strategies for how you cram a topic that includes metadata, folksonomies, artificial intelligence, machine learning, RSS, tagging, etc. into an hour. He recorded it, but 2 hours of audio is still pretty cumbersome and he's processing it for use outside of "gee that was cool, let's put it on a shelf".
Part of the results from that discussion are that we're planning a lunch that follows up the presentation itself to continue the discussion. The gap between our slot and the next makes for a MUCH better arrangement for doing this than our previous one, so I'm excited.
I'm going to be putting up an online schedule of panels I intend to attend, and am also looking to plan out some of my meals and some scheduled conversations. I'm particularly interested in taking advantage of the time between when I usually wake up at 5:00am and the 10:00 am start of the conference day. I'm looking to set up a series of breakfast conversations. If you're interested in having breakfast with me on any of these days, let me know.
The site for the panel is featured today on the SXSW official site, which is pretty cool.
I'm planning on carrying recording equipment and recording conversations whereever I can. It's often said that the benefits of conferences are in the conversations more than in the panels. IT Conversations usually does a good job of capturing the panels and speakers, and I want to capture some of the genius in the room. So, if you run into me, you'll likely hear me ask, "Can I record our conversation?". What I do with it once recorded is still up in the air, but I want to capture a LOT if I can reasonably do so.
If you'd like to schedule a chat with me, let me know what you'd like to talk about and we'll set up some time.
I'm planning on coming home exhausted. I'm not working at all the following day, so I'm preparing to make the absolute most out of the time I've got.

OK, maybe not so quick of a summary. It is still a summary though, so now you know. And knowing's half the battle. Or is that "I have the power"?

Comments

Robert Nagle
commented on 2/14/2006 You are very ambitious and organized!

Your expectations are probably accurate. My only prediction is that you'll be way too tired to plan any breakfast events. It can be exhausting!

I frequently hop from one session to another depending on what's going on. That's half the fun; I've discovered some great (though sparsely attended) panels.

BTW, look for the evening literary events. Fray Cafe and 20x2. Really fun and lots of talent.

The frustrating thing about this kind of conference is that there are way too many geniuses in the room. I once bumped into 20 year old computer prodigy Aaron Schwartz and we made small talk for about 5-10 minutes, then I felt the irrepressible desire to move on to the next genius.

I'll be recording some of the sessions I miss, and suspect other people will be doing so too, so you probably won't need to worry about missing too much.

I'll email you privately about getting together, although I have to say I wouldn't be surprised if you end up changing your plans at the last minute and blowing me off (don't worry--I won't take it personally).