Day 1 of SXSWi 2013
 | After standing in line for 45 min in the pouring rain for my first session that began at 2 pm, I learned that I was the 191st person in line for a panel with a seating capacity of 190. Ahhh! I waited for 30 min just in case a seat opened up - all I needed was one! - but alas, I never got in. I decided to wait it out until the 3:30 pm session and got to know the guy in line behind me as well as the wonderful SXSW volunteers answering the same question "what are all these people waiting in line waiting for?" over and over again! |
| Rain - and Austin is in a drought?!?! |
| About 100 people in line BEHIND ME. While I was first in line, I was interviewed on video by Gay Gabrilska of Hipcricket. One of the panelists for the 5:00 pm session was Hipcricket's VP of Sales. The 3:30 session was Lessons from a Futurist by Sheryl Connely, a Futurist from Ford Motor Company. She was an engaging speaker whose lessons centered around general notions about not being able to predict the future. The 5:00 pm session also put on by Team Detroit was entitled Please Leave a Message, a panel of some advertising executives behind some Ford's recent commercials for the Fusion. |  |
| Long lines - I was #191 in line for a panel with a seating capacity of 190 That's right. |
They talked about using customer feedback to create commercials. Here's one they did where Reggie Watts remixed a customer's comments about the Fusion:
They also talked about showing customer appreciation and played this video of the winner of someone who won the Mustang that she had created using their Mustang Customizer:
Overall, a couple of interesting panels and an entertaining way to start SXSWi 2013.