I arrived in Austin, Texas on Friday, March 7 for South by Southwest’s (SXSW) Interactive Festival. It is an opportunity for me to be part of a professional conference geared towards people involved with designing, developing, producing, and distributing interactive media content. A large portion of this crowd are web designers/developers. As part of my graduate degree at Fuller Theological Seminary, I am working on a thesis project this Spring. Because I in the school’s Brehm Center, an endowment focused on theological education for artists, my thesis must integrate my art and my theological studies on a practical level. Thus, it is no surprise that I am developing a web site to complete this requirement. My adviser rightly recommended that I attend a professional conference to get up to speed on the latest research and trends in web/communications technology. I am glad that SXSW so perfectly fit what I needed. The conference even offers a significant discount to students.

So far, the experience has been even more tremendous that I imagined. Lots of relevant and thought provoking content to soak in at the panel discussions and keynote presentations. But the real benefit is living in an environment for a few days with thousands of other people passionate about the same things. It is inspiring. I’ve made a conscious effort to be more outgoing than usual and put myself out there to interact with strangers and hopefully turn them into acquaintances, network contacts, friends, or potential colleagues. It has paid off. The networking is going extremely well.

I will post more about what I’m learning as time allows. If you’re still confused as to what SXSW is, here’s the official blurb about the conference….

The SXSW Interactive Festival features five days of exciting panel content and amazing parties. Attracting digital creatives as well as visionary technology entrepreneurs, the event celebrates the best minds and the brightest personalities of emerging technology. Whether you are a hard-core geek, a dedicated content creator, a new media entrepreneur, or just someone who likes being around an extremely creative community, SXSW Interactive is for you!