107 reads

Day 2: SXSW 2017

by kate d.March 11th, 2017

Too Long; Didn't Read

Had a weird nights sleep. I was wide awake at 4:30AM ready to get my day started. Eventually dozed back off and awoke at a normal hour, 6:25.
Got myself ready for the day. Prepared for all the weather combos but the weather just doesn’t make sense.
Coffee & breakfast tacos at Jo’s Coffee which is the new love of my life. (Side note: they serve frosé — which means I’ll likely be back.)

On to the convention center for my first sessions. Opening remarks by Hugh Forrest — then a seriously BRILLIANT keynote from Cory Booker. I was inspired to do more and ultimately he made me cry but it was such a good a start to the day.

Left this session and came across a line for Gary Vaynerchuk — the line was insane it spanned floors so I decided to move on. (More on that later…)
Popped into the DELL house. They were doing mimosas and VR but I ended up with some fancy seltzer. Left and went next door to a place that gave me some delish lunch.
Next up was the Fast Company grill. They know how to put on a great event. Samsung was also in the house and the Dos Equis came with limes — and were 😋

I only spent a few minutes at Fast Company before heading off to ONE Design to listen to an excellent talk on design culture. It was an amazing learning experience in a beautifully curated environment that had the topo chico flowing.

After leaving Capital One I ventured up to Sixth Street. Went to the Mashable house which was a really cool space. But ruined by dudebros (a common theme of sxsw)

Attempted to visit NatGeo Further but the line was insane so I went back to the convention center to visit the Comcast Careers social lounge.
Comcast lounge was seriously on point. Snacks, drinks, long tables with plugs, Nick Offerman & Gary Vaynerchuk just happened to be speaking while I stopped by. Not to mention they came through with soft pretzels like a real Philadelphia company.

I guess I ran into some sort of Handmaid’s Tale promotion. It honestly creeped me out.

Ended up walking down Rainey Street to preview some of the big brands activating tomorrow (Facebook, Twitter, CNN, Pinterest) and I stopped buy the Intel AI lounge which was fantastic. The AI they were showcasing was seriously so amazing. It was next level.