Day III of SXSW made me sick.
I wish it was because I over indulged at the Mashable party after successfully talking my way in through the VIP line and skipping a cue that went around the block halfway to San Antonio.
Instead I was headed home in a cab at 10:30, hacking up a lung.
Don’t know if I caught the Austin flu, but something knocked me out.
The good news is I had enough strength to attend a fun workshop called Idea Vomiting. Run by three kids, and I mean kids, from IBM and frog design…this brainstorming workshop illuminated powerful techniques in idea generation. The best of which is the introduction of absurdity. Our workshop task was to brainstorm ways to improve SXSW.
It was an easy task.
SXSW is super inspirational. Buzzing with energy. Racked with cool. Unfortunately it’s highly disorganized. That’s an understatement. It’s a cluster “puck” to say the least.
Lines are long. Sessions oversubscribed. Shuttle buses lost. The app is brutal. The guidebook is missing sessions. And the weather has been brutal. Yes I’m blaming the organizers for that!
The room had a lot of great ideas to help improve the event. Our team focussed on Volunteers and ended up story boarding an idea where volunteers wore different coloured shirts based on their expertise. But my favourite idea came from the group next to us.
Their idea was “Kiss My Badge”. Love the name.
Technically they wanted to load the delegate’s badges with RFID technology so we could instantly talk to our fellow attendees, get Real Time updates on session attendance and schedule changes, share feedback on sessions, and receive travel alerts related to your specific hotel.
That’s one sick idea!