In February I got an invitation to Austin. My friend John Hargrave from Zug.com was putting together a panel to speak about comedy web content at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Convention, and he invited me to be on the panel.

As the date of the conference approached, more and more people were talking about the event.

SXSW started as a music festival, exploded in popularity, added a film festival & conference and finally an interactive (web) conference.

Due to previous engagements, I couldn't attend from Day 1. But by the time I set off on Monday, it seemed like everyone was going to Texas.

Especially in the Denver airport.

My sister Chris, lives with her family in Austin, so I took her advice and skipped the rental car, opting for one of their bicycles instead.

The conference took place inside the Austin Convention center, a grand and new facility at the south end of downtown. They had a great crowd.

Just as I made my way to the escalator, a guy on the bottom floor got nailed by a falling object.

Someone had apparently thrown it off of the third floor.

The guy was O.K.

It was an iphone.

The barrier wall upstairs, it turned out, stopped just short of the floor, allowing small objects to slide underneath to their death.

I picked up my badge. I could tell I was late, because there was no line to pick up a badge. They defininetely looked ready to handle an army of conventioneers.

Arriving late meant that I also missed the tradeshow. Here's a picture of the "interactive" exhibitors clearing out to make room for the "film" trade show.

I wandered around for a while on Monday, getting a feel for the layout and half-expecting to run into someone that I know.

The Austin convention center has a sweet glass escalator, which tragically only visits the 1st and 3rd floors.

Austin was in party mode, with out-of-the-box advertising schemes in full bloom, such as this "guy getting sucked into a computer" display on top of a car, and "Kick Ass" movie ads on top of every taxi and pedicab.

The gal in the back of the truck center right was helping to pass out some Monster "Nitrogenated" Energy drink.

Please continue reading page 2 of SXSW 2010.

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