SXSW Interactive Recap: Day 1

SXSW Interactive is Austin’s own tech geek paradise of social media, web technology, and what’s coming up next. I went on behalf of BeGreen, along with our business dev manager Holly, to talk green with some of the brightest minds on the web.

Day 1: Friday, March 13th
Holly and I started off together, attending the “How to Rawk SXSW: The Basics” panel. It was somewhat useful, with a nice review of third party guides and information to help you navigate the conference. Mainly, though, it was a great chance to sit down after waiting in a ridiculous line to pick up my badge.

I also attended a panel on B-Cycle, the new bike sharing project owned collaboratively by Humana, Trek, and the ad agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky. It was a fresh, creative idea – modeled after the Velib bike sharing system in Paris – that I’m excited to see spread to US cities. Here’s a great “did you know” – increasing cycling in America from 1% to 1.5% of our transportation would save 462 million gallons of gasoline. That works out to 4 million metric tons of CO2 emissions avoided. Wow! B-Cycle already has a pilot program up in Denver of 1000 bikes, and claims they’re in early talks with Austin as well.

Later that night, I stopped by the official SXSW Mix at Six happy hour, and met lots of web startup types as well as about 5 people from BazaarVoice. I shared some Thai food with the BazaarVoice crew, and rehashed our Day 1 experiences before calling it a night.