I heart SxSWi

Though getting to the conference and back was a pain for me once I was there I had a blast (minus the cold/allergies/what-ever-the-heck-is-going-around that hit me). Notably there were visibly a lot more Blacks at this years SxSWi then in previous years. Definitely a good look. The “Where are all the Black Tech Bloggers” panel went off smoothly and got quite interesting throughout the 60 minute duration. There were appearances by Anil Dash, and editor from Boing Boing among others. Oh, and your boy Loren Feldman made it as well, he had a lot to say but wasn’t really sayin nothin. On a positive note it was wonderful to see how many people were interested in the panel, some of the points/questions raised were:

- How can one stand out in a room full of white, male, VC’s?

- Where can employers find qualified Black web professional for executive positions?

- Are there specific feature sets that appeal to Blacks on the Web?

As you can see “Where are all the Black Tech Bloggers?” was not the only question that came up in this panel. As soon as I get the podcast I will post an update so you can listen to the juicy details for yourself. SxSW is posting podcasts and videos from panels on their site as well so you can get full access if you weren’t able to make it down.

Ah now for the parties…on the nights that I did go out the parties were tolerable. On Saturday we tried to hit up the Google party at Light Bar but the line was wrapped around the building so that wasn’t going down. Instead we headed over to the Avenue A | Razorfish party at Six it was aight, free drinks. Six couldn’t hold us so we eventually bounced over to the frog design SxSW Interactive opening party at the Mexican American Cultural Center which was a very beautiful building. I won’t lie… I couldn’t hang and I left early just as the break dancing began. Honestly the parties on Sunday were not live at all we hit up the Facebook, Blogger, and Socialthing! parties. Duds. Maybe I am being harsh, they were probably hot for the MAJORITY of the people who were there (read White) but for me they were kinda lame and it was mostly because of the music. Note: I have an eclectic taste in music so that is saying a lot. We ended up getting crunk in a hole in the wall sponsored by no one. Now if that is not a market for opportunity I don’t know what is. It will be interesting to see if any of these major Black brands with a web presence will make a move to sponsor a party at SxSW next year. Maybe Black Web 2.0 will, that would be HOT!