SXSW Wrap-Up

(cross-posted from Bryght.com)

Well, internet spring break is officially over. The ringing in my ears has stopped, all the geeks are back banging away at their keyboards and counting their money piles, musicians the world over have had their fill of tech talk, and my liver is speaking to me again.

SXSW was an awesome experience for Bryght. Colin and I went down for both SXSW Interactive and SXSW Music to launch our new Backstage product, connect with new resellers and partners, and spread the Drupal love. We had a booth in the exhibit hall and Colin gave his talk about Music 2.0 which drew quite a crowd for a lunchtime session. Mmmm, BBQ.

We were accompanied on the trip by Robert Scales and Jeremy Hubert from Raincity Studios, as well as young upstart Will Pate. Scales was workin’ it during Interactive and drummed up several new clients as well as worked hands-on with a couple existing ones like Predixis and AskANinja.com (both Bryght sites). We spent our days working hard and our nights networking and playing harder.

We’re super-stoked about some of the deals coming out of the conference, including an important partnership with Goodstorm. Thanks for everything Yobie, it was awesome to meet you  and your team and we’re excited about what the future has in store. Let me assure you internet, the world *is* uniting around Drupal… as proven to me by great geekouts with Nick Lewis, Matt and Jeff of Lullabot, and Micki and Daniel (my cyberpunk anti-hero from the future) from Participate.net.

The whole week was a who’s who of internet celebrities. I got to meet one of my personal heros, Heather Champ from Flickr. I also spent a bunch of time with Ben Brown, founder of Consumating.com… and a guy you gotta respect for all the love he brings to the world. I also met Craig Newmark, Jeffery Veen, Jason Fried, Evan Williams, Danah Boyd, and the founders of Buzznet (who totally get the whole guerrilla marketing thing and caused quite a stir with their sponsorship of the Redbull House) and lots of other people I’ve worked with and admired online for some time.

Next on the agenda is a quick trip to Seattle for tonight’s Drupal meetup with the Gregory Heller and the CivicActions guys as a part of the Non-Profit Technology Conference (NTC), followed by open source Penguin Day tommorow, and I’ll conclude the trip by giving a "What is Web 2.0?" keynote presentation to 70 or so people gathered for the Switch On technology event put on by Tech Village in Nelson, BC.

"Web 2.0:  Kris Krug (Bryght.com) launches into the changing world of Web 2.0. What is it and why is everyone talking about the next wave to hit the digital world. Kris breaks down Web 2.0 in an informative and entertaining discussion of what’s to come, how we can take advantage of this trend and his experience at the 2006 winter Olympics."

Over and out for now, internet.