Donturn sez, "David Nunez has put together a great guide to attending SXSW this year. He's even included his phone number to help out with questions and suggestions!"
Last year I batted about 50/50 sitting in on good/miserable panels. I will absolutely not name names, but I was furious at certain panelists who clearly prepared nothing for their session and expected to wing it or fill their entire hour with Q&A ("So… I think I'd like this to be a conversation… any questions?" grrr…) . I frequently hopped between panel rooms when the sessions started to stink; my advice to you would be: express selfishness with your time… if the panel isn't interesting or useful, I'd leave to find one that is… You should only feel guilty for the seconds it takes to step over your neighbor as you make your hasty retreat, especially if the panelist didn't do his homework.
If I may be frank: The problem, which is a blessing and a curse, is that this industry has an abundance of relatively young and inexperienced trailblazers. They have incredible ideas, have the "audacity" to actually execute on them, and create amazing results. These people are honest-to-god genius guerilla marketers and technologists.
Unfortunately, very rarely do they know "how to be a panelist," and they even more rarely have the modesty to admit they don't know everything, much less haven't done respectable research on their so-called "expertise."
(Thanks, Donturn!)
