Response: Did SXSW really suck this year?
Thursday, March 18, 2010 at 2:01PM 
The following response is to the recently published Ad-Rants article.
I'm sure that everyone can argue that the panels suck - there are oftentimes when you walk in and shit, it's a self-marketing ploy, something completely off topic, or worse - something you already know everything about. Now, that's bound to happen - with the scale of SXSW people are sure to slip through the cracks, and let's be honest, all of us techies are interested in technology, social media, and the like - with panel proposals happening as early as October the year prior, it's hard to expect the cutting edge; especially when we're all immersed in the stuff. In my opinion - maybe people need to branch out more - the panels are useful depending on what you make of them. Jim is the CEO of an online video company, he's probably not going to "Neuroscience and Marketing", "An Intro to HTML 5" or even "UX Beyond the Desktop" -- nor does he really need to. SXSW should be an opportunity for him to meet up and coming developers or web stars to help his company, and screw the panels. Come on now, it's like Spring Break for geeks, let us revel in our live episode of Diggnation, let the luddites attend the panels, and quit complaining already.
