The Perils of Conference as Party

Photo by Richard Crowley.

I'm all atingle to return to SXSW, the interactive industry's annual shindig/mindfest/bbq in Austin, where I'll be giving a talk on iPad design. The awesome thing about SXSW is not only that it's a great conference (hundreds of sessions) but also a great party, with more beer, food, and live music than any geek possibly deserves.

Alas, that's also sometimes the worst part about SXSW, which has a reputation for uneven and sometimes unfocused talks—often thanks to speakers' extracurricular adventures the evening before. So I had to chuckle as I was reviewing the event's speaker agreement:

I understand that all panel sessions, solo presentations,
workshops, core
conversations and book readings adhere to a very precise
schedule / time limit.
I understand that the time I spend talking about the
fabulous networking event
that I attended last night is time that cannot be devoted
to the topic at hand
-- so, I should refrain from making these references
during my session.

Tags:

conference,

speaking,

sxsw