So here it is. This is the last installment of the Lessons From SXSW series. Check out Part 1 and Part 2 if you haven’t yet.
- Artists love to see you wear their merchandise. I’ve gotten to meet a lot of artists such as Pharoah Monch, DJ Premier, The Artifacts, Questlove, J-Live and many more. I was actually wearing my Blind To You, Haters shirt I bought from last year’s Collie Buddz show. I rarely wear it. I was just chilling at the Pepsi Max party and some short white dude tapped me on the shoulder and said “I like your shirt. Thanks for wearing it“. It took me a second to realize that it was him! Collie Buddz! Then he personally invited me and my girlfriend to his show that friday. And yes, we did go and it was great to see him perform again.
- SXSW is one huge marketing party. Of all of things going on during the festival, most of them are sponsored by some company. This year Red Bull and Pepsi had a lot going on. Pharoah Monch and Snoop performed under the Pepsi Max banner. Diplo did his thing with Nikon and Vimeo.
Kanye and Jay-Z showed up for VEVO. What we get from all this? Open bars all day and night. Free Red Bull. Packed parties and a good buzz. What do we remember? That Coca-Cola was not there for example so I guess their marketing strategy worked. - You do not need a badge to experience SXSW, a wristband is enough. Unless your company buys you a badge or you have $600 to $1200 to spend, by all means get it and do it all. I just bought a wristband for $100 something and it really did the trick for me. I got to skip lines so I could leave and come back to a show freely. After a while, some venues only let people with badges and wristbands in. RSVPin’ is great if you show up early but waiting in line really sucks because you could be checking other things while you are just standing there for hours.
- Your cell phone will die during the festival so bring your charger with you. You could stop at any given point during the festival and look around. Chances are 90% of the people around you are using their phones. Checking in. Tweeting. Updating their Facebook status. Texting. On the
web looking for the next spot to go to. Batteries on smartphones do not last that long, especially if you use it every minute. I saw a lot of people looking for outlets in bars and venues to charge up. My iPhone 3G kept crashing and the battery would be drained. Trust me, SXSW is not the time to be disconnected from the world. I ended up buying an iPhone 4 halfway through because I couldn’t take it anymore.
Well, that’s it for my lessons from SXSW 2011. As always, feel free to post some feedbak (pun intended). Now let’s wait another whole year until the madness begins all over again.[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]