Back in Boston, if I mentioned I was going to Austin, they'd rave about what the weather would be like this time of year. So I arrive in Austin around noon and it's raining :-)
Checked in at the Hilton then crossed the road to the convention center to register. There were a pile of Australian Music Guides - the newspaper that Phil Tripp put together which includes a photo of yours truly - so I picked up a couple of extra copies for my family.
My Platinum pass gets me in to the Film, Music and Interactive sections of the conference as well as the Film and Music festivals. The music side of things doesn't start for a few days so I only got the conference material and goodies bag for the Film and Interactive streams. It's already clear I'm going to have a hard time picking how to split my time.
Even though I have absolutely no room in my suitcase, I splashed out a little on SxSW clothing including a hemp jacket, sweatshirt and three t-shirts.
There are a bunch of films on each day - hard to pick which ones to see.
This evening I went to a panel session featuring Richard Garriott and Warren Spector. It deserves an entry on its own. Later on, I briefly popped into the opening party for the film stream - met the guys who made the short film "I Am Stamos". They have a party tomorrow night and then the film is being screened.