South by South West (SXSW or locally called “South By”) in Austin TX is one of the largest and famous celebration of creative people and work. Not only for design but also music and film. I was fortunate enough to attend with two good friend/coworkers.

I was impressed at how SXSW compared to other conferences. It felt like attending a music festival except being inspired by creative talks and panels by design leaders. You were surrounded by thought leaders and some of the most smartest and creative people from all over the world.

There was so much to see and do —attend the sessions, visit the art installations, experience sponsored lounges or explore the trade show. I wanted to experience it all but everyday included conflict in deciding what to attend and what to forgo.

Sessions

Each session inspired you to be better and make change. It reminded me of attending my first design conference in university or my first leadership camp in high school. It made me question my work to this date and what’s next in my career.

There was so much variety in topics. You could see a talk about designing social change, attend a workshop on how building you own vibrator (I kid you not and they were fully booked) or listen to a film panel. From self-driving cars to purpose-driven brands, I watched sessions from various industries and fields. But regardless of topic, themes were similar around empathy, diversity and transparency.

Favorite entertaining session: The Journey to Star Wars. It was fun listening to Rian Johnson talk about working on Star Wars VIII, The Last Jedi. I was star-struck when Mark Hamil “Luke Skywalker” came on stage as the surprise guest. He was hilarious!

Favorite design session: A tie between Ideo’s managing director sharing his process on innovation and creativity, and Google’s UX research director and head of design talk about the future of conversational UI.

Trade Show

Many booths but most surprising were areas sectioned by countries (felt like Disney’s international pavilions at Epcot). Naturally, Japan’s area was the most visually fascinating and advanced.

Sponsored “Houses” or spaces

Various technology and media companies, Bumble, Twitter, Pinterest etc. would transform existing restaurants or spaces into pop-up lounges and/or stages.

Some would have free food, drinks and/or swag. It was always interesting to see these themed houses. The world’s longest cheeseboard from Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board was one of the best.

The sony team also had this cool space called the “Wow Studio”. They displayed their coolest tech projects that were meant to “WOW” you.

Parties & Nightlife

The city comes alive at night with live music and fun all over town. During SXSW, various tech or media companies sponsor parties across the city. It was as wild and bizarre like a mini-Vegas strip. Streets were closed and you could hear live music left and right.

The Texas Monthly magazine threw a kick-off party with live texan bands. We saw ‘The Last Banderos’ (Emily’s recommendation) which played tex-mex and rock & roll sounds. It was a great time with authentic texan music and free drinks and swag.

The Ready Player One movie party built the coolest space but the lines for the VR experience was closed by the time we arrived. The DJ, FM-84 played nostalgic 80s sounds but sadly no one was dancing.

The Pinterest party was okay with a DJ playing old school (aka the 00s) and there was a dancing crowd but I expected more creative installations and fun visuals than what was there.

The Mashable party was a huge fail because everyone wanted to go and they hit capacity with 6 people in front of us. Tip: Go at least 1-hour before doors open.

The Media Temple interactive closing party was the most fun. Steve Aoki was the DJ and I really liked his set that night. He played a variety of sounds including mixing in “My Heart will Go on” and really hyped up the crowds. Unlike the other parties, people were dancing like crazy (myself included).

We all enjoyed it so much that we’d love to go back next year! It was inspiring and such a fun time.