Late Friday morning, the South by Southwest Festival officially kicked off here in Austin. It’s that crazy time of year when aspiring rock stars, film makers, internet strategists, and other hipsters of every stripe converge into the downtown Austin entertainment district. Being the brainiac that I am, this year I decided to arrive twenty minutes early, so I was one of the first in line. Moments after I arrived, the line was snaking around the corner of the wide convention hall. Wow, was I relieved to be near the front, so I could quickly get back to my office across the street.
For those of you attending the festival, check out http://sched.org/sxsw2008/. It’s a slick and interactive event marketing tool that allows attendees to quickly make their schedule and share it with others.
For instance, here is my schedule: http://sched.org/sxsw2008/steve_golab. If you want to meet me at the event, this will give you an idea where you'll be likely to find me. I doubt I’ll actually stick to the schedule, though, and also I may be changing it around as the event goes on.
If you are not heading to the festival this year, I still encourage you to check out http://sched.org/sxsw2008/ and http://sched.org/sxsw2008/steve_golab. This web-based scheduling tool is elegant and also brings high impact user experience of sorts. Try to use it, you'll see what I mean. From an event marketer’s perspective, the tool allows exhibitors, producers, and sponsors to measure participant interest in real-time and better forecast where the crowds will be. If I had more time, I could probably rattle off eighty other benefits possible with the right social media marketing strategy in place. The tool itself is an attraction for the event and I bet it wins honors this year for the Interactive Awards. Rock on!
