South by Southwest

I arrived in Austin for South by Southwest for a little talent scouting at this major interactive festival on Sunday in the early evening, where I checked in to the hotel and headed for the convention center to pick up my badge and conference info.  I noticed as I rode the long escalator up to registration that I recognized the folks around me...not recognize in the sense of knowing their names or their hometown, but recognizing them by their dress, their attitude and how they expressed themselves. The looked, walked and talked like Organics. It was clear to me that I had come to the right place.

I spent Sunday evening doing the party circuit and in every location I found excited people talking about the technology, design and opportunities in the web space. I met people who did things like flash development, motion design, software engineering, product design, manufacturing, and R&D.

The amazing thing to me what that no matter what anyone’s "JOB" was they all held the same hope, admiration, respect and passion for the Internet. On Monday I attended the keynote address, which featured an interview between Jane Hamsher and Dan Rather, and on Tuesday I checked out the Will Wright talk. The Rather interview focused on integrity in journalism and reporting from the blogosphere. Will Wright discussed storytelling in the film and interactive forums as well as a demo of his new game, Spore. Even though the topics were dissimilar the same theme of using the interactive medium for a better world was clear. I left Austin and came back to  SF with a renewed enthusiasm for the work that we do and how we do it. I truly feel that we are pioneering of a new way of communication and I am absolutely grateful to be part of the intelligent, passionate and consciously aware community that is furthering it!

Dina Folkman