SXSW is coming, will you be there?

The electricity is in the air, can you feel it? It's coming soon, so very, very soon. The event of all events (at least in certain industries). If you browse or read any of the designer sites out there, you know exactly what I mean.

The South by SouthWest Interactive Festival is about to begin!

Thursday is the day it all starts for me and my possse. We'll be riding into town that evening to shake it up with some good friends and good drinks. My guess is that that's the pivotal night to begin working out how destiny will guide our next five days.

I'd like to keep it loosy-goosy when it comes to following any kind schedule. There's so much going on that I want to get a feel for how it flows, although I really do have a few must-not-miss events on my calendar.

The Influence of Art in Design

I had this idea for something that I wanted to talk about. Something that was very personal for me: the idea that I could somehow share with others the epiphany feeling you get when truly inspired.

Fine arts have long held a subtle, yet influential grip on both information and design. From cartoons, illustrations, digital art, photography and more, you'll hear firsthand from some of the best in their fields, have a chance to explore the past, present, and future of the techniques that you see around the web, and how it can improve your own work and get both sides of the brain working better together.

But I knew that I couldn't do it alone, so I discussed the idea with my buddy Dan Rubin, who instantly jumped at the idea of moderating such a panel.

With his help, the panel saw great success on the voting page, and we added four other fantastic people: Glenda Sims, Dave Shea, Erik Sagen, and Patrick Haney.

I can tell already that this is going to be a fun and brilliant discussion that will bring up some interesting thoughts, and will probably go by far too quickly (although it is just before lunch, so who knows what can happen).

SXSW Interactive 2007 Panel Smackdown

Jason Santa Maria is a pretty damn cool guy, so it's fun to give him a hard time. Little did I realize that this comment thread would turn out so funny.

But hey, it sounds like there's drinks involved now, which is quite enough to get my attention.

Now I just need to dig up that Luchador mask...

The 2nd Annual ABX

You'd have to shoot me to get me to not show up on Sunday Night at the 300. Bryan's put some massive work into putting this event together, and it's guaranteed to be worth it. C'mon, all of the cool kids are going to be there. Aren't you?