If you’ve been following our blog posts over the last couple weeks, you’ll already know that we loved the SXSW (South by Southwest) Interactive Festival. Here are a few more pictures from our trade booth on the Exhibition Hall floor:

Our friend Jared Spool of User Interface Engineering stops by to chat with Lance Loveday, joined by Jessica Hagy of ThisIsIndexed.com.

We held a drawing for a magnum of Silver Oak Cabernet wine, and the lucky winner was Dave Dauber, pictured here holding the prize bottle (front, 2nd from left). He’s joined here by the CLM team and his friend Gene Rodgers (far left). Dave and Gene produce The Gene and Dave Show, which is “a glimpse into the lives and lifestyles of people with disabilities through entertaining, interviewing, and informing.”

John Evans and Amy Greer talk with Nikki Silva (far right) of The Kitchen Sisters - “offbeat, original, award-winning storytelling.”

Lance greets David Glenn (right) of Small World Labs, and enterprise social networking provider.

OK, We Promise That’s It For SXSW

All in all, a terrific time was had at SXSW! Next week we’ll get back to our regular, informative blog posts on topics pertaining to online marketing.

Wow.

I have heard time and time again about how great, awesome, cool, mind-blowing SXSW is. The part of me that is the cynic (90%) was deviously hoping to dispel all the hype by attending SXSW and then giving my own point of view.

Well, I just got back, and I’m sorry to say all of the hype is well-founded.

The Conference

I was not able to attend very many sessions, but what I did attend was eye-opening, and there wasn’t even standing room. The CSS3 panel I checked out was so packed I had to sit in the aisle, and yes, it was worth it. I won’t go into what’s on the horizon with CSS in this post, but let’s just say my jaw dropped. Oh, and by the way, the latest IE 8.x release is finally fully CSS 2.1 compliant. What year is it? But seriously, kudos to Microsoft for this. Now we can all actually start moving forward….

The Music

I play guitar. Well, I thought I did before checking out the local music scene. Friday and Saturday nights I saw guitar players that are truly world-class, and they were playing in local bar bands for tips. If you ever get the chance to take in Austin’s local music scene, take it. I still get chills thinking about it.

The People

The people at SXSW Interactive just seem to get it. I really enjoyed talking to everyone who came by our booth. It was refreshing and very motivating to talk to such forward and positive thinking professionals.

Conclusion

Don’t miss SXSW next year. Don’t miss the top minds in our industry, inspirational people, and nonstop entertainment. It’s a motivation machine.

One of the best parts of any conference is meeting new and interesting people, with the added bonus of discovering synergies along the way.

At SXSW, the number of cool and interesting people is exponentially higher than at virtually any other conference I’ve attended.

But since I can’t mention them all here, I’ll just pick my favorite one from today.

Being a long-term NPR fan, imagine my excitement at meeting Nikki Silva, one of The Kitchen Sisters this morning. She was here at SXSW, promoting their new book Hidden Kitchens Texas and looking for online insight for their website.

And even more interesting is the fact that she and Davia Nelson published this most recent book using Blurb, one of CLM’s clients.

How cool.

Speaking of cool, I’m popping off now to head over and see Lance’s SXSW session: Kick Ass or Suck: Escaping Internet Mediocrity, starting at 5pm in Room 19B. If you’re around, come on over and say hi.

Greetings from Austin, Texas! The Closed Loop Marketing team has arrived, ready to meet, mingle, and have an overall great time at the SXSW Interactive festival. So far we’ve…

• set up our trade booth. Stop by and see us! 
• gone out to dinner
• seen a super hero in a green cape walking down the sidewalk.

A few photos from today:

Laura gets us all organized, Roger offers support

Scott gets a UK update from Amy

Lance and Amy try to figure out the “Table Guac”

Sandra and John plot behind innocent smiles.

Google’s trade show booth arrives!

We check out our new trade show booth - #616

If you’re at SXSW, we hope to see you either at our booth or one of our other SXSW events!

In two weeks the SXSW Interactive Show begins and we at CLM couldn’t be more fired up. This year we’re taking the entire company to the show and have a whole range of activities planned. I’m not normally one to hype things, but if you’re thinking about attending SXSW Interactive, consider this a plug to go. It’s the single best conference I’ve ever attended. And if you’re going to be there, please stop by and see us at one of the events listed below.

Why We Like SXSW

Last year Sandra and I attended SXSWi for the first time to promote our book and we walked away completely hooked. You can check out Sandra’s summary of our experience at last year’s event here.

We didn’t know what to expect when we landed in Austin last year. We were vaguely aware of the SXSW Music and Film festivals, but SXSW Interactive hadn’t even been on our radar prior to then. But after only an hour at the show, it was clear there was something radically different going on here. The programming made you actually think. The panelists were truly interesting people who had something valuable to say. And yes, there were a number of famous people. But what made the biggest impact on me was the other attendees.

I can’t completely put my finger on it, but there was something different about these people. The open-mindedness, the passion for the Web, the desire to make a difference. These people had all that. But I also had the sense that these people could – and would - actually DO the things being talked about, instead of just talking about them. The people and the nature of the event itself created this hum and buzz wherever we went that was just intoxicating. Having done the event/speaking circuit for a number of years, I don’t know that I’d point to any show as being so good for business and the soul as SXSW.

What’s CLM Doing at SXSW?

As I mentioned in the beginning, the entire team is going (we’re not into doing things halfway). In a way, this is the annual company meeting, only with better music and no conference rooms. Yes, we’ll be attending the panels during the days and partying down during the nights. But we’re really going to help promote the company. Here’s a snapshot of our participation:

#1: At the SXSW Film + Interactive Trade Show
Austin Convention Center, Level 4, Grand Ballroom, Booth 616/717

• Saturday, March 14, Noon – 6pm
• Sunday, March 15, Noon – 6pm
• Monday, March 16, Noon – 4pm

For the first time in CLM history, we’re exhibiting at a Trade Show. As skeptics of exhibiting, we’re looking to make this fun, interactive and valuable to visitors. So stop by our booth for a free, no-obligation one-on-one SEM Assessment or Conversion Consultation. Or just enter to win a really nice bottle of wine.

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