There have been many forces in the universe conspiring against my ability to make it to SXSW Interactive in Austin this year. But! I’ve emerged victorious at the 11th hour and will be hopping that plane at 7:40am tomorrow morning and winging my way to Austin for 5 days of geek-infused fun, not too mention warm weather. Make no mistake - this is a business trip for me… and work has NEVER been so much fun!

My tentative schedule for the 5-day event includes:

Friday, March 7

1. Arriving in Austin and checking into my hotel at the Four Seasons around 3-ish.
2. Heading down to the Conv. Center to register and hopefully catching the 5pm reading from Robert Hoekman Jr on Designing The Moment.
3. The rest of the evening is playing it by ear

Saturday, March 8

1. Expression Engine 2.0 Sneak Peek at 10am - looking forward to what they have in store
2. Growing Pains: Your Web Company is getting BIG at 11:30
3. Blood, Sweat and Fear: Great Design Hurts at 3pm
4. Transparent Business: How Much Is Too Much at 5pm
5. 6pm to 8pm is reserved for a dinner hosted by Wiley Publishing - bringing together a bunch of Wiley authors for food, drink, fun, drink.. did I mention drink? Heh. Looking forward to meeting everyone!

Sunday March 9

1. Sunday starts the day off with a nice 10am brunch at the MoonShine with Susie, Peter, Joelle and Kathy. It will be nice to re-connect with them again!
2. I’m being interviewed at 3pm on BlogTalk Radio, Live. You can call into the show if you want to - if you’re interested, let me know, I’ll send you the phone number. It will stream live here on BlogTalk Radio. I’ll also post the archive of the interview here when it’s all done.
3. 4:30 PM SXSW Clicks: Web Designers Hosted by Adobe, this is a meet up for web designers and anyone wanting to meet the web designers at SXSW Interactive.

Monday March 10

1. 11:30 am 5 Things Elite Designers Should Stop Saying given by James Reffell Dir of Design, Yahoo! Inc
2. 3pm 10 Tips for Managing a Creative Environment by Brian Mason and Sarah Nelson of Adaptive Path
3. 5pm Finding the Creativity Beast by Dan Saffer Experience Design Dir, Adaptive Path

Tuesday March 11

1. Susie’s reading and presentation on Blogging For Dummies at 10am
2. My own reading and presentation at 10:30 am on the Adobe Day Stage for WordPress For Dummies followed by a book signing, if you’re so inclined, in the South By Bookstore.
3. Take deep breath that public speaking gig is over! Whew!
4. Catch my flight back home at 4pm

Whew! Looking all of that over, I think it’s optimistic to say I’ll make all of those events - but I will try! There are some evening events that I’d also like to try to make - - but I’m playing it by ear because there are also some folks I’d like to try and hook up with while I am there. If you’re going - - would love to shake your hand or share a coffee!

Hope everyone has a nice weekend — think good thoughts while I’m flying tomorrow, and speaking on Tuesday - -I need all the good karma I can get!!