SXSW Eco 1 - Leaving on a Jet Plane

I am currently sitting in the San Francisco Airport about to fly off to Austin, a city I spent a large amount of my formative years around, for the second SXSW Eco conference. Most may recall the exceptionally large and exceptionally successful critical mass of film, interactive media and music. Since its start in 1987 SXSW has gone from a relatively tame festival to a crazy party of tech and music and awe.

SXSW Eco, is an offspring of such an endeavor. Being only 2 years old the baby conference, according to the event's website;

international audience of on-the-ground innovators and executive level decision makers from the public and private sectors as well as thought leaders from academia, this event will drive the conversation of sustainability beyond rhetoric and towards solutions. SXSW Eco is for professionals at the forefront of the post-recognition discussion who are dedicated to making progress towards solving these challenges. 

I am going for a number of reasons, foremost of all because an amazing friend that I made this year and while some may be excited over food issues and the cool volunteer work you can do at the conference, I will be a part of the Oceans contingent.

So, honestly, I am unsure what to expect. I have already seen a meal event sponsored by Chevy and I see that Jessica Alba is interesting in promoting her brand. But it has been hard finding out what all happened here last year while I have been doing some preliminary research and figuring out what panels, discussions and events I am interested in attending. So far one of the highlights is looking like it will be this Global Water Game with Phillipe Cousteau which will hypothetically make him the 4th Cousteau family member I have meet in a week.

Over the next week or so I will be providing some tweets on #SXSWEco, updates here, some liveblogging there, some hackathon over in that direction, but probably not since I am not a programmer. Just pay attention. There is some cool stuff going on.