SXSWi – Friday – Day 1

Friday was such a hellish day, let me tell you. Getting to Austin apparently is a huge task. Let’s quickly review what sucked about Friday:

• I missed my flight out of KC. I had a voice message Thursday night from American Airlines stating that my flight had been delayed two hours. Upon arrival at the airport, I was told that my flight was just leaving. Great. I then got put on standby and had to wait for the next no-show on a different flight. Thankfully that was a fairly short wait.
• Once I arrived in Dallas, my connecting city en route to Austin, and boarded the airplane, I was greeted with a 20 minute crying spree by a toddler, whose mother did nto seem to car one bit about the crying.
• Also, while awaiting take off, I was alerted by the flight attendents and pilot that there was a minor mechanical failure on the plane and we would be delayed. Great way to quelch flying anxiety.
• Once I arrived, I picked up my luggage and grabbed a taxi to my hotel. $27 dollars later, I realized I don’t like taxi’s.
• After checking in and relaxing for a bit, I called another taxi to take me downtown to Jeff/Wilson’s hotel, which is about two blocks from the Convention Center. After a 30+ minute wait in my hotel lobby, I again recalled my disdain for taxi services.
• The meet-n-greet we were going to a little later on required the SXSW badges to enter the bar, so I had to go over to the Convention Center to pick up my badge. After a good 10 minute hike around the Convention Center, I finally found the line. After 10 minutes, I realized I was in the wrong line. The real line was just a little further and I was out with my badge within 10 minutes.
• Jeff and Wilson headed off to the bar district, all of 6th street aparently, while I headed to the Convention Center. After I picked up my badge, I walked the few blocks over to 6th Street. I called Jeff on his cell to help me with directions to the bar they were at. Apparently, Jeff is not Magellan. Far from it in fact. So far from it, he could justifiably be called Magellan’s antithesis. 20 minutes later, I found the place.

After that bit of fun, the night was really spent meeting people at the bars. I met a lot of people, people who most likely won’t remember me. 🙂

Tomorrow I’ll post about the panels and such that I attended on Saturday.