It seems like each year fewer and fewer people I know make the trek to Austin for the annual SXSW Interactive conference. My first SXSW was in 2004 when it was still a smallish event that took place only in one corner of Austin Convention Center. You were forced to run into people in the hallway between sessions and as a result I’ve met some real friends.
Now that I live in Austin SXSW isn’t the annual trek that it used to be, but it is still a time when I get to catch up with people I don’t get to see often. This year is shaping up to be no different.
So, is anyone out there in the EE world making the trip to Austin this year for SXSW? If so, let me know on Twitter.
Each year (it seems to be getting earlier and earlier) anyone can submit a panel to the SXSW committee for inclusion in the following year’s program. The panels are all placed in the “Panel Picker” and the public gets to vote on which panels they want to see at the conference. After that an advisory board will make the final selections based on the voting.
So, now it’s time for the community to speak out and post any panels they’ve proposed to the special forum thread. Support the members of our community and please vote for their panels!
Yesterday evening Kenny Meyers pointed me to the results of feedback cards distributed after each SXSW session. The good news? Our ExpressionEngine 2: Total Domination panel ranked #8 overall with a score of 4.87.
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scoring system, with 5 being the most favorable rating and 1 being the least favorable.
Only sessions that received more than 10 comment cards and a score greater than 4.50 are included in this post.
Let’s hope this means the SXSW organizers will be more willing to have panels on our favorite CMS and not just the same old panels on WordPress and Drupal.
(A huge thanks to Kenny Meyers for not only putting the panel together but for also fighting for the panel with the SXSW people during the early stages.)
Over at his personal blog, Kenny narrates through the events leading up to and during our SXSW panel on ExpressionEngine.
Our panel was at 12:30 and we were supposed to be in SXSW’s green room by 11:30 AM. I arrived early, running through my slides and outline, making sure I had it all together. Slowly my fellow panelists trickled in. Mark and Jenn arrived first, and Ryan Irelan shortly after. Finally, Brian Warren arrived last. We sat there and joked around a bit, some more nervous than others. A nice young hip-looking man came to pick us up and take us down to the conference room. “He must be here for music,” I thought.
My esteemed colleague and fellow panelist, Jenn Lukas, has released her ExpressionEngine 2 Starter Files for everyone to download and use. You should feel free to customize the templates to your liking and keep them tucked away for use when you start a new EE site.
The files make it easy to get a basic template framework up and running on EE 2. You place the files in your site directory and then use the new feature in EE 2 that allows you to create new templates from files. That’s all there is to it.
A reminder to everyone in Austin for SXSW. Our ExpressionEngine 2: Total Domination! panel is today at 12:30 PM in Ballroom B of the Austin Convention Center.
Here’s the description:
ExpressionEngine is growing in popularity and with the release of 2.0, it’s power has expanded to the stratosphere. Powering great websites such as Change.gov, A List Apart, and Campaign Monitor, it represents an amazing way to build websites and publish content. Join us as 5 experts give best practices from a beginner front-end level up to extension developer supreme.
Join me, Kenny Meyers, Brian Warren, Jenn Lukas and Mark Huot for one hour of presentations on cool stuff you can do with ExpressionEngine.
There are three different times available on Saturday March 13th and Sunday 14th.
Saturday, March 13, 10 - 11am Distributed development: how do you guys do it?!
Saturday, March 13, 4 - 5pm Module building from experts, the EllisLab team
Sunday, March 14, 2 - 3pm CodeIgniter Web Apps with ExpressionEngine 2.0
Do any of these sound interesting to you? Sign up in the special forum threads they’ve set. There will be a limit on how many people can attend in order to keep the conversation manageable and to fit in informal gathering spaces.
It’s Wednesday and that means it is time for the weekly EE Help Chat, which takes place at 9PM EST and runs about an hour.
People of all experience levels are welcome and both beginner and advanced questions are encouraged. If you’d like to get an idea of how the chat works and what the guidelines are, check out the EE Help Chat page for more information. On that page you’ll also find the link to enter chat at 9PM.
In the next few months there are a couple of opportunities to gather with your fellow EE users, talk shop, learn some cool stuff and drink copious amounts of {your_favorite_beverage}.
SXSW Interactive - March 12-16
The annual gathering of internet nerds from around the world, SXSW is a broad technology conference. It takes place in hopefully warm and pleasant Austin, TX. This year they have agreed to host panel discussion on ExpressionEngine. Led by Kenny Meyers, with myself, Mark Huot, Brian Warren and Jenn Lukas, the ExpressionEngine 2.0: Total Domination! panel will cover, well, EE domination! Actually, we’ll be discussing cool things you can do with EE and share some of our experiences.
The panel takes place on Monday March 15th at 12:30 PM in Ballroom B.
ExpressionEngine Summit - March 30
An online-only conference that will feature a full day of speakers talk about ExpressionEngine. I’ll be speaking at this virtual event about advanced templating techniques.
EECI 2010 - May 31-June 2
The follow-up to last year’s inaugural event in Leiden, Netherlands takes place in San Francisco at the end of May. In short, EECI is the event for our community. If you have budget to attend any event, this is your baby.
The speaker list is features Rick Ellis, Leslie Camacho, Derek Allard and Derek Jones of EllisLab, Structure module creator Travis Schmeisser, Brandon Kelly, Leevi Graham and a lot more.
SXSW got a little more funky-fresh this year, with the announcement of the EE/CI pre-party.
The premier ExpressionEngine and CodeIgniter Conference - and your cool friends from Ellislab invite you for a night out @ SXSW. Join us Monday night at The Library together with your friends from the EE & CI community. We’ll serve you beer and pizza and even give away some free tickets to the EECI2010 conference.
You can sign up for the party here but be quick, spots are limited!
EllisLab have updated the blog with their SXSW plans:
Over the course of the last few years we have gradually changed our approach to SXSW, preferring to move toward a small-group discussion format.
This is a great move for EllisLab and for the community; there is an immeasurable value to this discourse. This year we are excited to continue with this format and to add to it; this year, you, through the services at UserVoice, will have the opportunity to choose where we meet and what we discuss.
First we will be offering Lunch with EllisLab to exceptional contributors to the community, including those who run ExpressionEngine or CodeIgniter community sites, third party add-on developers, and Pro Net members. This is your opportunity to tell us what we can do to support your endeavor while enjoying a meal on our tab
The ‘Labs have so much in store that if you’re going to Austin this year, it’s a must read.
EllisLab recently updated their blog with travel plans. Yes, 3 of the finest people from EllisLab will be in Austin for the big geekfest. They’re also allowing some flexibility in their activities:
We have some exciting plans for this year’s SXSW, including the ability for those attending SXSW to influence our schedule. This is the first time that we will offer the community the chance to have a say in where we are, and what we discuss; we’re excited to make this an EllisLab event for you, the community.
No word yet if Derek Jones will run customer service for your add-on while in Austin.
EllisLab will also be attending Ryan and I’s glorious panel: ExpressionEngine 2.0: Total Domination. Yes, the title is as corny as your partially hydrogenated food, but the content will be delightful. The speakers include Ryan, Myself, Mark Huot, Brian Warren and Jenn Lukas. 4 illustrious EE speakers who know there way around the engine, and one man who will surely embarrass himself in some way. It’s the EE event of the season before the EE event of the season.
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