Wondering if Apple supports SXSWi?

SXSWi 2008 is over and done, filed away until next year. During this year the attendees are more than ever bombarded with marketing from Microsoft, Fuze, Miller Lite as well as many more sponsors. This year in my opinion was worse than before as many of the panels were actually just product demonstrations.

One thing I noticed along with my friend Rick Benavidez. Considering the massive gathering or designer and developer talent during SXSWi and that 90% (my estimate) of attendees as well as panelist use MacBooks or MacBookPro laptops. We have to ask “Where the hell is Apple?”

Why are they not a major sponsor in the conference? Maybe they supporting but for some reason just not advertised. Yeah right.

Do you have any proof of Apple at SXSWi? Pass it on Please

The end of SXSWi 2007

So it’s more than a week after SXSWi 2007 and I’ve not reported on any of the events. Really whats the point. As I sit here on a Saturday morning drinking a cut of coffee and reading my bloglines feeds of other’s experiences during SXSWi I agree it was as expected, fantastic.

Sure I enjoyed the many sessions offered and as usual I really wanted to split myself in two sometimes due to key sessions offered during the same time slot. Thankfully the podcasts for the 2007 sessions are starting to already role in. I think by next year we should be seeing videos of the conference.

So here are some of my highlights for this year.

  • Thursdsay evening drinks with Peter-Paul Koch, Alex Jones and Ryan Joy at 219 W. Good times had by all.
  • Saturday, the first full day for Interactive. Spent most of the day just following the crowd and mesmerized by the Twitter screens. Watch as many others pulled out their cell phones and post a twit just to watch it on the big screen. Wonder if this was the precuursor to twittervision.
  • Sunday, concentracted more on a specific session track. Wanted to learn all that could about cell phone and mobile use. Great sessions.
  • Monday and Tuesday were also great just being together with other like minded folks. I meet so many interesting people every year.

I still have about 20 pages of notes I’ve not had a chance to review. Client work seems to be taking it’s priority position. Darn clients.