SXSW is big. It’s bigger now than it’s ever been, so obviously more will be written about the conference this year than in any year past. It’s interesting to me as a first-timer, to see people lamenting the fact that it’s not the same conference that it used to be, the panels sucked, etc. I’ve been hearing this for about 6 years now and I can assure you that from the outsider perspective that SXSW is indeed evolving. After missing SXSW for so many years I got sick of hearing how every year was worse than the last, or at least not as good as the first year that said person had gone. Although, I’m sure that 2011 will be the best year for me, but I doubt that will stop me from going in 2012.

The complains about the schedule are not unfounded. I was frustrated that at times I wanted to see 5 things all in the same hour and for the rest of the day there was nothing. Here is the deal though, I got the same overwhelming schedule as everybody else and yet I managed to see Battledecks, Matt Haughey, Worst Website II, and The Coudal/Lopp/Gruber show. How did I pull off such an impressive feat? I showed up, and in most cases I showed up early — including for the conference so I could get my badge Thursday night and avoid the Friday morning crush. I’ve got more notes on rookie tips for SXSW to publish, but I thought I would just say that see what you want to see at SXSW is not really that hard. If I can do it, anybody can.