South by Central North West East Part 2 of Deux

Ballroom for first round and finals of SXSW Accelerator competition

Just another night on Sixth Street

Trade show block party was rockin'. No, really.

Revolucionario Awards and Party at Ballet Austin

Robert Scoble interviews Joanna Montgomery of Little Riot/Pillow Talk at Rackspace/Champions Sports Bar

HuffingtonPostWeirdNews/NASA/Illuminode party at The Garage

HuffingtonPostWeirdNews/NASA/Illuminode party at The Garage

British Music Showcase at Latitude 30

Matthew Inman of The Oatmeal in a keynote address

Fred Armisen headlines a short, unannounced appearance at the IFC Crossroads House.

Alan Weinkrantz and Jeff Pulver in an Israeli startups session

Silicon Valley Bank party

Obligatory crowd shot inside the Austin Convention Center. Ooh, Newton's Cradle in the left corner!

Rackspace Rackers talk with visitors at Champions Sports Bar

I didn't partake in the massage chairs at Rackspace/Champions Sports Bar.

Scene from Republic Square Park

Innovation and convergence were key words of 2013 South by Southwest Interactive.
Bwhahaha. When aren't they?

My half-hearted effort (read that, driving to Austin from San Antonio daily when I could) to cover SXSW yielded six panel sessions, one keynote session, a tiny bit of the Accelerator competition finals, two startup crawls, the trade show block party, a visit to the Rackspace/Champions Bar Cloud Experience...and a bunch of parties.

It's amazing I get any work done from SXSW mixed in with family life and Express-News regular work back in S.A. But one story about the local startup Kirpeep is up no online. My second article isn't a focus on, but does include, TrueAbility, another fledgling company led by former Rackspace Rackers.

TrueAbility underwent a sales pitch-type first round contest in innovative web technologies at the Accelerator competition before a packed room on Monday. TrueAbility advanced to the finals in its category the next day, but didn't win. Nonetheless, TrueAbility is on the map, offering cloud-based technical assessment tool to recruiters and hiring managers. I had a great, lengthy talk with co-founders Luke Owen and March Robertson between rounds and I'll have their story up shortly with the next North Central News edition.

Along the lines of covering locals, I got in a few minutes of the Israeli startups session involving Alan Weinkrantz from San Antonio. He spoke with Jeff Pulver, who spoke of his investing in about 40 startups in the past year or two. Pulver knows a good business plan when he sees it. But just as much, Pulver appreciates persistence.

"When you embrace something you're passionate about, it's awesome. If there's one guy with four business failures and there's one guy with one success, I'd rather invest with the guy with the four failures," he said. "The numbers will be in my favor."

I liked that this SXSWi included more space technology, One panel's question was whether 21st century space exploration will see any kind of golden era like the ones we experienced in the beginnings of space travel and the during the NASA space shuttle period.
The panelists agreed while it's good to have private companies and organizations such as Space X helping to usher in a new wave of innovation and experimentation post-space shuttle, objectives and expectations for the whole of humanity must be realistic.

"Space exploration is a worthy human endeavor but doesn't work well on balance sheet. But there are current on-earthly endeavors that don't look good on balance sheet too," Griffin said.

He added whatever lofty goals we all seek in space exploration will never be achieved in one or two lifetimes. It's something to keep in mind. Sara Seagar of MIT offered that interstellar travel shouldn't consist of humans merely landing on the moon - whenever that happens again - only to mine it for fuel to convert the moon as a launch pad of sorts. We could and should mine the moon and whatever other places filled with valuable minerals for those minerals that could help replenish our present and near-term resources terra firma.

Matthew Inman of The Oatmeal fame was -- it goes without saying -- entertaining in his keynote address, recalling his journey from just another online comics artist to the brains behind web comedy gold. But more than that, he lauded two crowdfunding campaigns -- one led to preserving the lab that once belonged to Nikolai Tesla. Inman got heat for his advocacy of shoring up Tesla's legacy.

Tesla comic wasn't meant to deify the man, but to make the man a man. He deserved a better legacy," he added.

I did pop briefly into journalisting sessions, led respectively by Jane Pratt and Texas Observer editor Dave Mann. Their insights into alternative approaches to newspaper and magazine publishing make me wish I had turned my attempted alt-newsmonthly from the late '90s, the San Antonio Scene, into a non-profit outlet. Either that, or I really wish Kickstarter had been around at that time.

I wish I could've had more time to get into sessions involving the Arrested Development crew, or Cory Booker, or Rachel Maddow, or Al Gore, or Deadmau5 and Richie Hawtin talking music tech, or the '80s party with Girl Talk. There's only so much I could do while balancing family and office newspaper deadline obligations back home.

I'd like to think I burned many calories with the dozens upon dozens of walks from my car, parked most often near the county buildings and state capitol, to the hubbub of activity around the convention center. And now there is the annual onslaught of criticism of SXSW interactive -- it's too crowded, too expansive and mired with corporate sponsorships, a 180 from the pre-supposed hipster, DIY attitude with which SXSWi began. That there are too many parties and free events (official and unofficial) and that, really, SXSW is just one big shindig where no "real work" actually gets done. (Hey, I contest that claim -- I handled work emails, wrote news copy and formatted photos during parties. You'd be amazed with the level of productivity when it's dark around you and you have only the drone of a good DJ's music or a decent live band to serve as your aural background for concentration.)

Indeed, there were fewer startups at this SXSWi, and many younger and mid-level firms ranged from having minimal involvement to no involvement in this year's festival. No doubt many Austinites feel, in general, the entire event (including film and music parts) have jumped the shark years ago.
While marketing was up, so is the expansion of panels and events addressing newer subtopics such as health care, biotech, public service, civic activism, sports and journalism.

That's the challenge -- for an event and a city that thrive(s) on a reputation of being a well for technological innovation to keep reinventing itself every so often, to be more creative and original -- even more useful to some extent -- while balancing costs and expectations. I'm relatively sure, right now, I'll return to cover 2014 SXSW and hopefully not just interactive. I'll just have to be more creative about my stay in the Austin area and how I cover the event.  Now if you'll excuse me, I must catch up on an estimated 20 combined hours of lost sleep and rest my poor feet.

South by Northeast West Round 1

It's my first full South by Southwest Interactive (to the extent that it can be full for me) I've covered in several years. The things I do for my North Central News community weekly readers and to tame my inner geek.

I'm doing this half-assed. I'm driving from San Antonio to Austin and back almost every day and STILL handling deadline work back at the Express-News office. So far, I haven't gotten much in, other than picking up press credentials and visiting the Austin Startup Crawl on Thursday. That was my first visit to the Capitol Factory in downtown Austin, at the Omni Hotel.

It's an impressive sight -- office and conference space for startups and small high-tech enterprises -- but the winding, condensed rooms filled to the brim with visitors were not for the claustrophobic. Warm bodies packed tightly together makes for a hot time in the city, eh?

But that was before the real SXSWi officially began. And when it began...I missed lots of the fun stuff, of course. On Friday, I missed out on Grumpy Cat's appearance at Mashable while dealing with deadline editing back in S.A. (Oh, column writers...why couldn't you have sent me your oped pieces earlier?! And I didn't get to enter the BBC America Roadhouse area. But I know. I have additional chances to hit up BBCA and Grumpy Cat (not HIT Grumpy Cat -- whatever) this weekend.

On Friday, I only attended one session -- a panel discussion on Latinos attempting to bridge the digital divide. Why yes, the divide exists but is closing mainly, not surprisingly, due to the attitude shift between generations. One great line I heard, regarding Latinos' overwhelming support for President Obama in 2012, was that the GOP shouldn't sweat this supposed Latino wave in favor of Democrats. Truth is, Latinos are active in both parties, and they're just as apathetic, too.

Following the late afternoon session, I attended the Startup America happy hour. There were stacks of the Startup Owners' Manual, which in a different way I wish had existed when I began my alternative monthly newspaper in the late '90s. Following that, I enjoyed a breather at the registrants lounge before taking on the gaming expo at Palmer Center.

I admit, I'm not a gamer. Not a 21st century gamer. My allegiance (read that, experience) lies primarily with the Atari/Collico/Activision/early Nintendo days. So for me, gaming expo is a purely drive-by visual experience and nothing more. Wish I could appreciate it more inside. But outside...ah, the Frog Design interactive opening party, filled with the otherearthly glow of giant TouchTunes devices and LED panels, and the drone of attendee-selected music. Quite impressive.

Want science? I love science. Science! Then visit a full-scale, tennis court-sized, four-story-high model of the James Webb space telescope, the successor to the Hubble space telescope. NASA's display area includes an interactive, 3D globe and other activities and displays to remind us that, despite budget woes and a sense of malaise, there's still lots of space exploration to be done.

SouthBItes food truck area, curated by Paul Qui, near Red River and I-35, isn't the easiest to access part, but it's a nice stopover. Well, it was for me given that was 9 p.m. and I hadn't eaten anything since breakfast in S.A. It's also Lenten Friday and my options were rather limited. Thank goodness for the Peached Tortilla and its fish tacos. They did the trick. However, I was soured on the overkill promotion partnership between Peached Tortilla and NBC concerning the network's upcoming Hannibal Lecter/Silence of the Lambs prequel TV series. "Terror tacos"? Really? Eh.

All the while in the evening, I hadn't even thought of attending the film screenings of "The Incredible Burt Wonderstone" and the "Evil Dead" remake. According to Twitter, both flicks appear to be big hits. I've been hesitant about getting on board with the new "Evil Dead."

Initially, it seemed weird that Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell, who brought us legendary horror in the '80s with the original Evil Dead flicks, would be willing to redo their material for a 2000s crowd. But it seems that, even with a novice director, they've succeeded. Wish I could've stuck around late for that screening. Sounded like fun.  Last but not least for sure, it was bittersweet to see SXSWi pay a little tribute to the memory of Jessica Ghawi in its official program.

Alas, it's back to work. I've finished writing my first SXSW article involving S.A. startup Kirpeep, who's doing this swag challenge this weekend in downtown Austin. It's a scavenger hunt for geeks, and some nifty prizes are up for prizes. The article includes Rackspace and its involvement level in this year's SXSWi. I hope to visit with a few Rackers at their Champions Sports Bar as they hold court there this weekend.

My other article will be about another young S.A. company, TrueAbility, whose a select participant in the SXSWi Accelerator competition for startups Monday and Tuesday. Otherwise, it's onward to see Grumpy Cat, BBC America, trade show, parties, screenings and concerts (official and unofficial), journalisting and Latino-themed sessions and whatever else pops up.
Pray for me.