But most of the people I met and hung out with were Austinites anyway. (Of course, it took an international conference to get us all together…) But, that said, I would love the Main Event to be a little less…flashy? I don’t know. Just more substance. More, “Good God, why didn’t *I* think of that?!”

Of course, I have no idea how to make that happen. If I did I’d call up Hugh right now

I agree that something needs to be done about the panel picker. For that matter, I feel the same way about Cog’oake. Editorial control is better than popularity contests.

Still, I had a lot of fun. I too come to Austin mainly for the conversation, and I won’t go to noisy bars (yelling makes me cough like a consumptive) or stand in lines, so for me, it’s mostly been about making my own fun outside the main circus.

THIS. The PanelPicker is a lousy idea. I’d venture to say that some of the best ideas were from people without ridiculously huge followings and therefore couldn’t get the votes required to speak. I’d like to see interactive with much more challenging content, not the outdated tripe that was news a few years ago.

The event we do (Bike Hugger) was originally intended to get people outside of the convention center and also a reaction to the corporate “Frog Party.”

We remembered too what it was like to just connect with friends and not stand in long lines to then stand around in an overpacked club trying to hear each other talk.

SXSW goes the way many good things do, like your fav restaurant that’s under new management and removed your favorite dish from the menu. I think what’s happening is the people that run SXSW have created a monster with little hope of reining in it. They’re just hanging onto it’s tendrils trying to steer it in a direction they think the community is headed.

My one strong suggestion is that they kill the popularity contest panel picker and bring back editorial. Social Media Experts running facebook ads for their panels was as bad as Fortune 100 companies “street marketing” as if they were “keeping it real” with their bros.

For example, we had marketers crash our party uninvited because they were so desperate to get noticed at SXSW. That’s a degraded brand that turns into a NASCAR, strip-mall, neon-signs-with-tits-out, yelling at you to get noticed type of event.

Not the SXSW I remember or want to contribute to.