{"id":17579,"date":"2013-03-08T08:00:24","date_gmt":"2013-03-08T14:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/techcitement.com\/?p=17579"},"modified":"2013-03-09T02:55:01","modified_gmt":"2013-03-09T08:55:01","slug":"sxsw-before-the-storm-there-comes-the-calm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/entertainment\/comics\/sxsw-before-the-storm-there-comes-the-calm\/","title":{"rendered":"SXSW: Before The Storm, There Comes The Calm"},"content":{"rendered":"

SXSW<\/a> has arrived in Austin, TX, which is unusually chilly this time of year. The festival’s big gaping maw has barely begun to open to swallow up the tens of thousands of people who show up each year to discover and celebrate the seemingly infinite amount of creative endeavors put on display. And to network. Oh, the networking. Around every corner, you can hear the shuffle of wallets as business cards are exchanged, musicians oh so casually mention where their bands are playing, and movie people (mostly producers) talk a little too loudly on their cell phones about meeting up with some famous celebrity. But that comes later.<\/p>\n

Right now? Right now, registrants are still on their way to town (if they don’t already live in Austin), impressive tech gurus are going over their presentation notes for the fifth time, booths are stacking up next to each other like Minecraft <\/em>blocks, and the line to receive badges sees a rare down time.<\/p>\n

\"Camera<\/a>

You can practically see the SXSW volunteers holding their breath in anticipation.<\/p><\/div>\n

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For now, the Press, Interactive, Gold, and Platinum Badge holders may pick up their badges.\u00a0 Film and Music Badge holders must wait until Monday, March 11 to pick up their badges. The crossover of Interactive, Film, and Music events is brilliantly choreographed to give the most exposure to the most people. On Thursday, those who arrived early easily breeze through practically non-existent lines and then pick up their bags full of not much. There’s the requisite copy of The Austin Chronicle<\/a>, the city’s independent newsweekly, and multiple SXSW Interactive guide books. The largest of which ranks in at 250 pages of\u00a0 an overstimulating amount of images and a dizzying assortment of buzzwords.<\/p>\n

\"SXSW<\/a>

SXSW bags today, canvas grocery bags tomorrow.
(Image courtesy of Roy Janik, co-owner of The Hideout Theatre<\/a>)<\/p><\/div>\n

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Truthfully, there’s not a lot to see at this point, but that doesn’t stop the interactive portion of SXSW from leaking out onto the lobby floor of the convention center before the convention even has a chance to start. The most inescapable installation in the lobby has to be the creepy semi-hologram (images are projected on a flat piece of plastic) by 3M that greets you and quizzes you about SXSW.<\/p>\n