Trumblog

In some of my posts last week about my South by Southwest schedule I hinted at an attendance strategy, but never really explained it in detail. This was in part because I assumed that it was how things worked and wasn’t that unique an idea (which is correct). But now that SXSW is over I thought that perhaps I should explain my strategy for being interested in more sessions than I could possibly attend.

After going through the SXSW schedule I had almost 50 sessions that I was interested in, but only 15 slots. Impossible.  Luckily I learned a little tip from my wife that I hoped would help me get the most from SXSW.  Last year she earned her masters in Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

At Harvard students spend the first week of each semester shopping for classes. Professors give abridged lectures and students visit multiple classes in order to decide if the topic and professor’s style is what the student want to spend their limited time on that semester. Time for class shopping is short and there are a lot of classes so leaving in the middle of a lecture is an accepted part of the process.  It is similar to the business strategy of failing quickly in order to avoid wasting money on a losing proposition that drags on forever. You cut your losses and move on.

My plan was to use both of those strategies at South by Southwest. I had over 50 sessions that interested me and thanks to colleagues and friends I prioritized them and used that as a guide for what to attend. I began each period at the session that the most of the respondents to my poll were interested in. Then if it became clear that the session’s speaker wasn’t cutting it, the subject isn’t what I thought that it would be, or it was less useful than I hoped then I’d move on.

As it turned out I only ditched one session, Accessibility: What It Is For and Where It is Going?, because it started getting too deep into CSS and website development.  Did I do the right thing?  Should I have ditched some of the weaker sessions?  Maybe, but often the other session that I wanted to join was in a different building or I kept finding a little something that kept me engaged.  I know that I got a ton out of SXSW so I’m not second guessing myself.  But next year I may be a little more aggressive.

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