My SXSWi 2009 schedule

Here's the beginning of my plan for South by South-West Interactive in Austin next week. (Yes, that's Austin, Texas!)

If you're there and you want to meet, borrow my extension cord or tell me about something good going on, I'll be on Twitter – @katchooo (though please note my Sony Irksome phone only picks up @replies not DMs). Alternatively try my mobile +44 7816 22 22 54.

Friday 13.03.09

PM: attending panels. There are hundreds of these. I’ve picked a selection I’d like to attend but as the schedule says: ‘everything subject to change’. Today’s panel titles range from: Spying 2.0 Can America Compete with Web-savvy enemies to My Boss Doesn’t Get It: Championing Social Media to the Man.

5-7pm Entrepreneur’s Lounge and the Austin Interactive Showcase, Fogo de Chao. Also 5-6pm 97bottles Happy Hour

Eve:

Saturday 14.03.09

Early AM: Social Breakfast with Ewan Spence, BAFTA-nominated kilt-wearing podcaster. Should be some SXSWM people there, too.

12.30pm: SXSWi Kick-off Press lunch: the skinny in a lunch hour! With a live Twitter hook-up with WXWM in Birmingham, UK at 1pm.

AM/PM: Panels: eg Emerging Trends of Mobile Technology, Future of Social Networks, What Teens and Tweens want in a website.

Eve: SXSW Interactive Opening Party. Also Dorkbot 6-8, The Bigg Shindigg til 2am, OK Cog'aoke from 10pm, Toobla AFter party from 11pm

Sunday 15.03.09

AM: Panels, eg Edupunk Open Source Education, Making Whuffie: Raising Social Capital in Online Communities, Twitter for Marketers.

PM: SXSW Block Party (NEW)
Trade show with 100+ booths.
Might make the keynote speech at 2pm: Stephen Baker of Business Week interviews Nate Silver of fivethirtyeight.com – a big political stats and analysis site during the Obama election.

Eve: 12th SXSW Web Awards
(20 categories). Includes People’s Choice Web Award, as voted by members of the public. And Best of Show. Facebook party follows.

8pm-12 frey Cafe 9 – Bring The Truth!

Monday 16.03.09

AM: Microsoft BizSpark Accelerator (NEW)
Showcase competition of most exciting web innovations with live demos. Attending 2 categories if possible: social networking and innovative web applications. Winners announced late pm. Guy Kawsaki and Brad King (tech journalist) are MCs.

PM: Panels, eg, Wired Antarctica: bringing science to the web, Sex Lives of the Microfamous, Grokking Bloggers: It’s about Love and Underpants. Bruce Sterling speech (sci-fi writer and instigator of the Dead Media Project). Keynote speech if possible at 2pm: Virginia Heffernan of the NY Times interviews James Powderly of FAT Lab, political acitivist and open source art evangelist.

Eve: Mashable party. Also Plutopia, Great British Booze Up 7.30-10pm, SXNW party 10.30 on.

Tuesday 17.03.09

AM/PM: Panels, eg: New threats to New media: Fair Use on Trial, Is Aristotle on Twitter?, Secrets of Successful Food Blogging, Who will check my email after I die?

PM: Keynote speech: 2pm Chris Anderson (Wired magazine and The Long Tail author) interviews Silicon Valley venture capitalist and creator of Alltop.com, the web’s ‘online magazine rack’.

Eve: teh bar!

Have probably over-reached massively. Asking SXSW veterans, I’ll make 2-3 panels a day but looking forward to the serendipitous party and socket-sharing element.

One follow up idea that occurs is: interested in how a cutting edge web festival operates and the tech it uses to succeed. Twitter is an obvious one but there is also the social network set-up for attendees, the formalisation of corridor chats, the new YouTube channel and will see what else. At the same time, a conference will never be so blogged and documented both in the moment and afterwards, that it will be interesting to see how it plays out.