Some Of My Highlights from the Various March/USA Events
So the USA trip is over, and I’m getting back into the current time-zone; but there are a lot of great memories. Too many to mention them all, but here are a few highlights.
I’m not going to mention all th great people I met, as it’s going to take a good few days to go through all the cards and notes to make sure I follow everyone up (and if I miss you, please just email me and say where you met me).
But now, the highlights….
The Getting Things Done Summit
I would have loved to stay for the last day of this conference , because this turned out to be a brilliant gathering of minds in terms of productivity and personal time management. Lots of notes to go back over from here, and I finally got to have a drink with Buzz Bruggeman of Activewords.
SXSW Interactive
Lots of highlights here; Steph and Brian’s TechSet Blogger Lounge was constantly a source of new and old friendships, chat and “have you seen..†conversations; the SXSW panels continuing to fail to impress; and a huge social scene of the Web 2.0 community… But I think I’ll zero in on the Geoff Smith gig – announced on the fly (via Twittter, how South By) and requiring a grabbing of those old and new friends from the Blogger Lounge and legging it across Austin to the Belmont.
Fray Cafe
The quiet, word of mouth speak-easy that is Fray continues to be one of the best nights of the year. It’s just so honest, real and emotional, with everyone being so supportive of everyone else. Following last year, I couldn’t do as heart-wrenching a story, but I really enjoyed this years story about a pack of cards. From the people coming up throughout the rest of SXSW, it appears the audience did as well.
SXSW Film
Two picks here. The first was the interview with the cast of “The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle.†There are some interviews where you can go in with a lot of research and knowledge and a view to getting as much information and clarification as possible (as I did with my interview with Nokia at GDC); there are some where you need to work and guide the interviewee to get a good flow (which can happen when people are nervous).
And then there’s the interviews where the subjects decide to have fun, like a cat with a ball of string. The Little Dizzle interview was like that, and raising my game in terms of performance and keeping my wits about me was a refreshing change from the more factual interviews that make up the SXSW Podcasts.
The other gem was the US premiere of Iron Maiden’s Flight 666. More on that in a later post nearer Iron Maiden day on April 21st – but if you’re a fan you must make a point of getting tickets to see this in a cinema with every other fan. Expect to hear a very special TPN Rock show…
SXSW Music
Without a doubt Belladonna, a band I’ve been following on TPN Rock for many years now. To coincide with the launch of The Noir Album they made the trip to the US, and Austin was one of the dates. That set just put me on top of the world. Incidentally it was right after the Iron Maiden film, so going from the biggest band in the world, to one of the smaller bands I champion just summed up the opportunity and scale of SXSW.
Game Developer Conference
While there was no stand out moment at GDC, the sheer proliferation of “It’s all about the iPhone†while not a shock to the system was still eye-opening. Yes there are many iPhones out there, but there seems to be a fundamental imbalance between supply and demand. There are so many apps out there that everyone has hit the $0.99 price point as fast as possible chasing the relatively few people with the device. Yes there will be success stories, built it’s a steep drop to the second place apps. Good eco-systems are gentle hills, not ice coated mountains.
Lonely Planet Travel Blog Awards
Now this was fun! Hosting the inaugural Lonely Plant Travel Blog Awards in downtown San Francisco. In actual fact this was around 60 minutes of standing up in front of an audience and entertaining them, and getting through the awards, and keeping everyone interested. Still, I think I rose to the challenge – now of course the question is how will the Lonely Planet team get the top prize (every Lonely Planet Book, some $10,000 worth) to the winning bloggers who are currently attempting to go round the world for under ten grand.
Just wanted to give some thanks for blogging Belladonna, as I and another Ra Lyr have been working hard for them here in the US for some years, it’s always exciting to see them getting the recognition and respect they truly deserve. The Key Club on Mar 16th and SXSW on the 18th were two showcasing events helping them to solidify their position as the first “Rock Noir” band in the world, a genre all their own. You met them as we did so you know that they are for real and very humble people. When they take the stage, as you saw, they morph into Belladonna…keeping with their mysterious persona and hauntingly eloquent lyrics. One thing that got me at SXSW was that the tent was nearly empty after the preceding band played their set. Not bad but not great, so when Luana got up and did her vox check, well…people migrated in very quickly and the rest is history.
My sincere thanks to you Ewan, Aaron the stage manager for SXSW, everyone at Opal Divine’s Freehouse and all who came out to see Belladonna. I flew nearly 4 hours just to be there with them and enjoy their company and music.
My warmest regards to you and yours,
John Cascio Jr.
Belladonna USA