GeekAustin crashes SXSWi SF bash

Until Linear sent me on the assignment, I never knew SXSW threw parties in other cities. That is what I get for growing up in Austin and wondering why other people love my hometown so much.

SXSW Interactive and Porter Novelli came to SF and threw a great party at Mighty that was the perfect prelude for Austin's premier yearly event. Although Mighty and Harlot are both common San Francisco tech party venues, Harlot is someone's idea of naughty, in a very typical San Francisco way, the way I actually imagine a housewife feeling the first time she puts on a latex corset. Mighty actually reminds me a bit of Union Park, home of many GeekAustin parties, except it's a better place for a dance party. Mighty was a great open space with minimal fuss in decoration - the paintings on the wall actually seemed like they were chosen based on actual personal preference rather than just thinking they were the hip thing to have in their club. Kudos to both Porter Novelli and Shawn O'Keefe, SXSW's Interactive Festival Producer, for choosing the perfect venue.

It was nice to have a touch of home in San Francisco – a more low-key friendly event than a lot of the events I've been to in the Bay Area. Most people at the SXSW SF event were raving about Austin if they'd been there or talking about what an awesome place they had heard it was. One person remarked they liked Austin because it was less pretentious than San Francisco – I hope to find that still true when I come back for SXSW Interactive in March.

In contrast to what I've heard of late about discussions of job losses at Austin tech parties, there was less outright fear at the event than a wariness in many that a job loss might be pending at some point in the next six months to a year. Though there was a fair amount of feeling among some that they might soon have the axe swinging down, the SF tech crowd seems to be a bit lighter in mood at parties than back in Austin - maybe it's fact that everyone here does yoga all the time or maybe it's the fact that marijuana is not frowned upon by the authorities that keeps people upbeat here in SF all the time.

Start-up and entrepreneur are not really catch terms here - they are much more matter of fact. The most common topics of conversation were what people were working on, tv shows they were watching and people showing off the apps their companies were developing for the iphone. I think that's something particularly San Francisco -- whipping out one's iphone to show off your work. I think there are a few reasons for that. You might never know who you're talking to knows. For all you know, they could know an investor that could save your company or pass the word on and buy it. Also, I think people here take a great deal of pride in their work and really do want to show off what they are doing. Events like the SXSW SF pre-party help pass on the word about products or projects in the most old-fashioned of advertising and social networking ways - word of mouth.

Like any good party, the randomness of whom you meet is what makes an evening memorable. I met Bay Area filmmaker Aron Ramen, who recently made some rather explosive videos (your servers are not bulletproof, Your server will blow up, Your server will burn) advocating cloud computing for San Francisco hosting company GoGrid. The randomness was memorable because my current boss is friends with GoGrid's CEO, and their new chief of technology was the sysadmin who trained me at my current job, and with linearb's recent tease about what whurley is currently working on, cloud computing had been in my mind . Hopefully, I'll get to hear about cloud computing and other recent developments in Austin soon while enjoying a few (or more) drinks.

Hope to see all of you at SXSWi this year. - Jana