Pre- SXSW — Travel Day
So here we are, March 9th 2017, the day has finally arrived. The day we depart to attend SXSW, one of the largest and most innovative conferences in the country. I am writing this on the plane to Austin after an interesting morning at the Duluth Airport, attempting to get to MSP.
Okay, but before we get started and I tell you about my adventures… Are you wondering, why in the world is a house museum at SXSW? Let Glensheen Director, Dan Hartman, tell you all about it. https://medium.com/@duluthdan/blog-one-of-nine-the-boring-intro-2acc606273e9#.badl2xm26
Let me just recap our flying mishaps because people seem to be entertained by things like this. I have to preface this story of setback with the fact that I am super pumped to be heading to Austin and am grateful for my coworkers who have been great travel buddies so far.
Departure morning was destined not to go right when I woke up at 3:35 am, the same time my coworkers and I had decided to meet at the airport for our 5:15 am flight. For those of you who know me, you know that early mornings are not my thing. Thankfully, because it is the tiny Duluth airport, I made it through security and checking my bag with time to spare.
Side tangent: I am a beaming puppy mother today. My 15-week-old puppy WILLINGLY slept in her kennel last night for the first time! It was a magical moment. Puppies seem to be good training wheels for kids. Hmm… that smells like a potential future blog topic.
Okay, back to our journey to Austin, Texas for SXSW! It was not long before the delays began happening, we boarded the plane then off the plane then back on the plane. It was an exciting morning of four hours at the airport. We made it to MSP at the time when we were supposed to be landing in Austin. Rock Bottom seemed like the perfect place to fill our bodies with food because rock bottom is about how we felt at that moment running on no sleep and frustrating delays.
But hey, all is well that ends well and I have a feeling that today will end well! I am dreaming of stuffing my face with one of these famous Austin tacos.
So, I will be making daily blog posts after each day at the conference. I am hoping to incorporate a dazzle of pictures and a cackle of screenshots. I heart screenshots. These blogs will be scattered in nature taking you through the experiences of the day.
What do I think the conference will be like?
I am not quite sure what to expect at this conference. I have heard it referred to Duluth’s Homegrown Festival on drugs. Maybe it is a mixture of what it would be like if the Zenith City Social Media Conference and Homegrown had a baby with a giant dose of hulk strength.
I have a feeling we are going to feel like a small fish in a very large pond. Which is exciting and enticing yet terrifying. We have the chance to be mingling with folks from Google, Facebook, etc. The fact that this is an opportunity to put Glensheen on a larger national scale is incredible. We will have opportunities to talk to people face-to-face that you would have a hard time getting a hold of otherwise.
What I am hearing is that it is all about the networking. Cough, parties, cough? To me, it sounds like a more authentic way to make valuable connections anyways. I’ve found, being in an environment where people are comfortable enough to put themselves out there is a key ingredient to a solid networking event.
What are my hopes of takeaways for the conference? I want a crazy-cool, mind-blowing strategy to market. I want a speaker to knock my socks off and find a social media strategy or content creation strategy that is unlike anything else I have ever heard. I want my mind expanded by not only the sessions but also the people I meet and the city of Austin itself. And I can’t wait to bring it back to Duluth.
With that, I am going to pick this back up at the end of Day 1, to capture some initial thoughts of SXSW and Austin, TX. See you soon SXSW!
