SXSW: Day 4 Wrap-Up

SXSW 2010 is upon us and the Clement & Co. staff is there to some of the geeky randomness. Kat Bollozos is trying to keep herself together long enough to do some daily wrap-ups. Day 4 finds our correspondent ditching panels to check out 3D TVs, eat tons of BBQ and take bad photos. Follow us @ClementAndCo for some real-time random observations.

Day 4 marks the day in which the lack of rest, proper nutrition, and appropriate shoewear came to a head. I think I wasn’t the only one feeling this way either, well except for the shoe part. I’m sure everyone here had the foresight to bring comfortable shoes that don’t break.

Anyway, I didn’t make it to my first panel because I had to run around downtown Austin looking for a Citibank. I eventually opted to get a cab, I liked out and found driver that was super talkative. He was trying to convince me to stick around for the Music section of SXSW. He made sure to let me know that so many people will be here and it’s a huge moneymaker for them. I don’t know why this would convince ME to stay, but whatever. He was a friendly dude.

Since I was already thrown off with this endeavor, I decided to go to Iron Works BBQ, which everyone here has told me to go to since day one. I was the eager beaver that got there at 10:55, and they don’t even open until 11. The BBQ was awesome, I would have loved it more if they had mashed sweet potatoes like Stubb’s.

After my very early BBQ lunch, finally made it to one panel “Who needs venture capital?” which was very helpful. Everyone on the panel was actually a big name and had some great advice to us startups (look into friends and family investments, bootstrap, and do some freelance work to help keep the business afloat). Basically, the main message that I took away from that panel is to not look at venture capital as the only option for funding, if you do, you will be very disappointed.

I tried to make it to the Microsoft Bizspark Accelerator talks, but they ended by the time I got there. I will pencil that in for tomorrow (which is the very last day of Interactive). Since I didn’t have a talk to go to, I decided hit the trade show again, and tried out the new Panasonic 3D HD TVs. I wasn’t actually a big fan of 3D TVs, but IT WAS SO AWESOME. Apparently, they will be available for purchase at every retailer on March 21st for $2,500.

After I left the trade show, I met up with my friends and we decided to jump in a Bing car (which provides free rides downtown) and go to Stubb’s (yes I know I’ve literally eaten BBQ twice in one day today). Now, I’m just waiting for all the Happy Hour events to start, and of course, I’m waiting to get my free drink of the day. I will be going to some parties tonight, Gowalla, Rackspace, Foursquare, etc. Let’s just see if I survive.

Also stay tuned for my entire wrap-up of my SXSW experience, it’s going to be a doozy!