SXSWORLD

As SXSW Interactive Grows from Small Town to Big City – Community Spirit Remains By Molly Wright Steenson My boots already hurt. I scanned name tags and faces, looking for someone familiar. Ah, there's Lance Arthur! I recognized him from that email list we were on. He called over the rest of his friends and intro- duced us. Fast forward to 2am: bellowing out-of-tune about Internet content cowboys as my new friends and I rode back to our hotel. We sang in the lobby. I think I went to sleep at 4am and worried about losing my voice. 1 998: When I arrived at the SXSW opening party, I was nervous. I had flown to Austin without being sure who would be there. What did I find? Throngs of people. Long lines for beer. Loud music. The next morning, I woke up with a headache that I cured by eating migas and salsa and headed to the Austin Convention Center. Five web publishers, including me, took part in the "Women and the Web" panel. By the time we took the stage, we were well-acclimated but still nervous; we did not want to flop in front of an audience we had come to know over the course of just a few days. I am willing to bet that many people have similar stories of their first SXSW visit. All they would need to do is change the names of the con- nections, add more or less beer, or modify the topic of the panel. To my story I might add that the word "blog" had not yet been invented, mobile phones barely fit in a SXSW tote bag, and the founders of Foursquare were still in high school. I did not know it then, but I would attend SXSW every year without missing a single one, including this year. SXSW 1995 Interactive Keynote Todd Rundgren by day three, or is it from singing "Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell" in the RVIP Lounge (RV karaoke)? The "Maps, Books, Spimes and Paper: Post-Digital Media Design" panel I moderated took place in a 700-seat room (we counted). Some friends, I never manage to see anywhere and do not even bother trying, although Twitter indicates that they are having a great time. To put the growth into context, imagine a city the size of Austin exploding to the size of Mexico City, or becoming as dense as Manila, in the course of a mere 12 years. That makes sense, though: the web is no longer a funky little town; it is a megalopolis. Accordingly, everyone who is working with or a fan of the web, mobile or social media makes a pilgrimage to Austin. While the density and size of a big city is awesome in every sense of the word, local interactions govern our experiences. We do not take on the whole city but rather neighborhoods, cafes and corners. Let me be clear: I loved SXSW Interactive 2010, espe- SXSW 2010 Interactive attendees await Valerie Casey's Sunday Keynote. 2010: When I arrived at the Austin Convention Center to pick up my badge, there were more people than I saw during my entire first trip to Austin in 1998, multiplied by about 20. Mobbed parties, lines around the block, and even the CEO of the company throwing the party could not get in without a VIP badge. Everybody loses their voices 34 SXSW ORLD / M AY -J UNE 2010 series of orbits. So much the better that my iPhone seemed to per- petually be out of battery, which meant that I could only be where I landed. n Molly Wright Steenson is a design strategist and researcher who studies urban and architectural systems and blogs at ActiveSocialPlastic.com and cially because of the expanded crowd of attendees. Now that the web, mobile technology and social media are not edge interests but a central part of contemporary existence, people come to SXSW to explore how technology can sup- port their interests, whether entertainment, or design, or business, or architecture, or education or activism. I met people from five continents this year. Several years ago, poet Tarin Towers told me I had a case of FOMO: "fear of missing out." She caught me fret- ting about what I was missing by being where I was. This time around, the scale provided comfort. It is a big city. I stopped worrying about missing the thing, the big event— because there was no single thing. SXSW has become a MICHAEL CUMMINGS © 1995 GEORGE R. BRAINARD

• Cover