After 13 days on the road for both DrupalCon and SXSW, I’m ready for some recollections on both. First the most recent one, SXSW. Then DrupalCon. I am right now sick as a dog with the flu, which is what usually happens after I travel and especially when travel is compounded by lack of sleep.

All told in the last 2 weeks I averaged only 4 or 5 hours a sleep a night. Sometimes 2, sometimes 6.

First, I went to SXSW for the interactive festival and then for R.E.M. I ended up working much harder on R.E.M. than anticipated, but it was quite fun (as you can imagine). Highlights of the trip for me:

• The Power of Twitter - my trip to Austin, TX from Boston was a multi-day, 24 hour nightmare including almost renting a car in Houston to drive to Austin. I twittered the whole thing. When I got to Austin, I got stopped a lot by people that were happy I made it to Austin in one piece. I did not know half of these people.
• A Conference that Didn’t Suck - SXSW seems much less “cult of personality” than the ego-wank-fest that are usually O’Reilly conferences. No booming voice announcing John Batelle coming on stage, or Tim O’Reilly’s intentionally overblown obvious ramblings. Instead if twas lots of panels, good hallway conversations, good friends and a shit ton of drinking.
• Twitter Empties a Bar in 30 seconds Flat - this was a thing to witness. A twitter goes out about a party starting and a bar emptied in about 30 seconds.
• Working Wi-Fi - The conference had two wireless networks setup. A 2.6ghz band and 5 ghz band. The 5ghz worked in every room, flawlessly and so fast I could remote desktop into my work computer if I wanted to.
• Taking Michael Stipe to a Facebook Party - Tuesday, after going to some panels, I had to meet Stipe to coordinate some press. After our press, I told him about a Facebook party that evening and if he wanted to come. He said sure. I arranged it all and it ended up with Michael and I and a few friends sitting at a booth at the party. Michael I think surprised the awesome Facebook folks by being super low key. They put on an awesome party and he was super happy to go. He got to meet the who’s who of the Valley and ultimately had a good time. As did I. It was a geek dream really.
• Meeting Joseph Arthur - The man that wrote In the Sun is indeed a god.
• R.E.M. - not much needs to be said. I worked my ass off with them at this for all their press, and saw them live for the first time in a year. It was amazing and fun and inspiring at the same time.
• Being inspired again - Too often I get bogged down in the politics, tedium and management that i have to do. It was nice to step away from it and become inspired by the very reason I like my livelihood and passions: music and technology. The best thing you can hope for is when they intersect.