In the past week, you might have wanted to escape the Internet entirely due to the takeover of all streams by a little thing called “SXSW.” The yearly festival is more popular than ever, especially the Interactive portion, which for the second year, has boasted more registrants than the infamous music festival where bands get discovered, and musicians as big as Kanye West trek out every year to entertain the masses in Texas. 

So, what happens at SXSW? Besides the panels, it’s a collection of some fun, awesome, geeky stuff.  First, you have to pick up your badge! Your badge is your ticket to not only the convention center, but also to a large number of after parties. I proudly wore the EdenFantasys name on my badge this year:

Walking around the convention center, you can run into any number of cool things, like a table covered in Legos! Who wouldn’t want to relieve some of the stress of going to panels while playing with some blocks?

This being my third SXSW, I have a number of rituals I participate in when I attend. My favorite is hanging out on the fourth floor deck between panels, checking out the madness below. It’s also a great place to chat people up. I chatted up many people at SXSW this year, and they were all fascinated with EdenFantasys, some even admitted they shopped with us!

All kinds of companies make their way to SXSW, some brand-new like Retrollect, a new start-up I met at a Google party, and some established like Hootsuite. All the companies want to stand out in some way, so they do things like give away free stuff or have their mascot patrol the streets! Fun fact: Eden Fantasys uses Hootsuite to tweet! So, I was extra excited to catch the Hootsuite mascot.

On Monday, the SXSW trade show goes up! It’s everything you would expect: lots of booths, and lots of people eager to talk to you about their product. The British newspaper The Gaurdian had a very unique booth: they provided tea and scones [get it? because they’re British!]. There’s also a whole trade show devoted to video games called the SXSW Accelerator. The most exciting thing I found was a fake Mike Tyson, ready to pose for photos at a moment’s notice.

Many, many companies throw parties and they’re exactly what you expect: long lines to get in followed by longer lines to get a drink followed by a longer line at the bathroom. Online retailer Etsy bucked convention a bit and threw a party during the day at local bar Venue 222 which included a display of their best crafts, and a crafting table where you could make your own bags and shot glasses. Sadly, I saw nothing that could double as a sex toy cozy. 

They did give everyone a “hangover kit” which included a toothbrush and an apology note to hand to your friends! Etsy also threw a more grown up happy hour a few hours later on the same day, where I had a very long discussion on male masturbators with two programmers who declined to be named, but who did thank me profusely for the information when our conversation was over.

The best party at SXSW is a mobile one. It’s called the RVIP Lounge and it only exists at SXSW.  Every year, Jonathan Grubb and Kestrin Pantera rent an RV and drive around downtown Austin at night with a gang of happy drunk folks singing inside. As the night goes on, the crowd keeps changing and this makes for an amazing, extremely unique experience. They usually broadcast their location somewhat cryptically on Twitter. This year, I caught them parked outside the exclusive foursquare party.  Immediately, someone started to bellow the karaoke anthem “Don’t Stop Believing.”

Maybe the biggest advantage SXSW has is its location in beautiful Austin. This year, I was lucky enough to have a local guide who clued me in to one of the city’s hottest trend: food trucks! I don’t think I ate one meal in Austin this year that did not come from a truck and it was all delicious. We visited the East Sixth Street food trucks, home to the Vegan Yacht and decorated in Christmas lights as well as Counter Culture, another locally loved vegan food truck.

Intellectually stimulating, and a load of fun, SXSW is the only place on earth to be in the second week of March.