Andy Flemming’s 2015 SXSW Diary from Austin: Al Gore, free beer and the great WiFi rage.

| | No Comments

FLEMMING-IN-AUSTIN-2.jpgM&C Saatchi, Sydney creative director Andy Flemming is covering SXSW exclusively for Campaign Brief until the 17th March. He hopes.

8:34am. I’m on the shuttle bus to Austin. Everyone’s all excited and chatty until we reach the convention centre to get our passes. The line here is vastly longer than the taxi queue yesterday. I spot a ‘Press’ entrance where I presume I get my press pass in a special VIP section with cushions and snacks and, you know, live data visualisations or something. I peel off and make a big deal of walking past the huge queue as if one of ‘the chosen few’ and find a bored looking woman who says I have to go to the back of the line and queue with the others. I try not to look at the grinning faces of a thousand UX specialists as I slope to the back.

10:00am. People are lining up for everything, water, free stuff, the toilets, food and especially the seminars. The doors open for Al Gore at 10:00am so I get to the front of the huge line as people start filing in. I hold my pass up to the doorman and say ‘PRESS!’ in a loud voice like the hard-boiled fifties journo I seem to think I now am. Fuck it, it gets me in first which means all of us in the front row get to make selfies as Al Gore talks about the end of the world.

FLEMMING-IN-AUSTIN-1.jpg1:30pm. I’m not going to be mean about the people of Austin, or indeed their beautiful city. They’re wonderfully hospitable and will chat to you at the drop of a Stetson. This is in vast contrast to the French in Cannes who I’m convinced pretend not to speak English, preferring instead to do that Gallic shrug when you need something important like directions or your fucking dry cleaning. There’s a sign in my hotel that asks that you kindly ‘unload your gun.’ I guess that could explain the hospitality. They’re all packing.

2:30pm. As I queue for a Taco I see a smart looking businessman weaving through the crowd whilst shouting “I have to get the car out NOW. They’re closing down the fucking city.” I’m not sure what he means until later.

5:30pm. There are tents all over the place with thumping music and even more queues for free beer. I go into one of them for Internet access but can’t get the password to work. I ask a volunteer and she says that the ‘WiFi rage at this party is so intense, it’s busted our computers.’ This is an amazing sentence. I’ve noticed that there’s a vast crowd outside Starbucks. I presume they’re raging the WiFi.

FLEMMING-IN-AUSTIN-PRESS.jpg7:20pm. I’ve interviewed a few people to try out this Press Pass thing. This basically means asking them questions whilst pretending to scribble notes in a Moleskin journal. A guy from Finland asks to see my notes to check if his name is spelt correctly. I have indeed completely misspelled his name and have written precisely two words. One of them being ‘Finland.’ There’s an awkward moment and I decide to just walk off into the crowd and pretend it never happened.

FLEMMING-IN-AUSTIN-3.jpg10:35pm. After a few drinks at the Havas party I realise that the cops have indeed blocked every road in and out of the city centre. The streets are now absolutely heaving with fucked up pass holders and there are parties on every rooftop. People keep running up to me screaming ‘Free drinks! Free drinks!’ It’s like Ibiza. I manage to get a taxi get out of there. Not because I don’t want free drinks, but I’ve remembered that I don’t have any Nurofen Plus. Maybe I’ll get fucked up tomorrow.

See the full SXSW On Streaming Schedule here.