Newbie tips for SXSW

Ben Silbermann (left) from Pinterest interviewed by Christopher Dixon at SWSWi.

Do: Mentor Sessions
The most secret thing about SXSW is the mentor sessions. It's really too bad since this is a great opportunity to connect with people 'who made it'! The mentor site was quite difficult to find since there was no link on the website, so I had to figure the url out myself. It was a goldmine for a newbie like me and I'm happy that I got to meet people like Lori Schwartz from McCAnn Worldgroup. Such an inspiring person!

Do: The unexpected
I like to plan things, so what I did was to add events that caught my interest to my calendar before the conference. But at the same time I was expecting for all by plans to go up in smoke - and so they did: I got inspired to go to another talk, I met someone interesting and wanted to talk to them instead and I ended up drinking an ice cold beer in the sun with my colleagues meeting a lot of great people.

Cooking Channel Beer Garden with Cynthia and Mads

Do: Learn

Since you're already an expert in your field, don't go to talks within your field. What I experienced, was that I did not learn anything new. Instead you should try and aim for talk about something you want to learn more about.

Do: Meet and greet

For me SXSW is all about networking. I'm from Denmark and don't get to meet up with fellow Community Managers / Social Media Evangelist so often, and SXSW is a great opportunity to meet up with people. Either check out SXSocial before you go or find people on Twitter. Some people you can set up meetings with beforehand and other people you meet at the conference. Make sure to bring a lot of business cards and maybe some freebees.

Do: RSVP
In connection to the interactive conference, there's a lot of parties. To get in to the parties, you have to RSVP to the events. Follow the SXSW Party list on Facebook and Twitter to get updates on official events (if you forget to RSVP you should always try to get in anyway. You can do it!). You wont be able to attend all parties, but choose one that you would really like to attend and go there.

Some of the wristband I got as SXSW.

Don't: Panels
My recommendations is to not attend too many panels. My experience with the panels is that they're very unstructured and often is a chit-chat between the panel participants. Instead you should choose the solo or dual talks.

Don't: Stress
There's a billion guides like this one, but don't stress! Don't over-plan what you want to do and don't think you'll make every talk, every party and meet everyone. Go with the flow and enjoy getting input from the most unexpected sources!