Mar 16
SXSW wrapping up
2006 at 01.15 pm posted by Veerle
I’m sitting in the lounge, waiting for the cab to take us to the airport. SXSW is all wrapped up for us. The city has been taken over by all those weirdo rock types joining the music conference. Too bad that most of the people hanging around are less friendly, and that’s a bit of a downer after all those hugs and vibes going on yesterday. It feels like you’re left with an emptiness. It’s back to virtual again ;) One thing is for sure SXSW is very good for networking and making new friends. Finally we can put a face to all those bloggers, designers and developers.
SXSWi the human factor. Priceless!
Talking about networking, I have been exchanging a lot of ideas with people and that's priceless. Being able to talk face to face with someone that is one the same wavelength is such a joy. One example would be like, I was trying to solve an issue in my comments (at breakfast, I know we're geeks after all) and I was sitting next to Shaun Inman and he said "Oh is that Expression Engine?" and we started talking and I explained my problem. Within 5 minutes Shaun solved it. People give me the feeling they know me for years, I'm a bit speechless about all that to be honest. One thing is for sure we made some new friends and we re-connected with others. We talked about sharing experiences personal and business wise. Especially the cheese and wine gathering at Jen's room was fun. A room full of talented people having a laugh and sharing thoughts was one of my personal highlights. If you want to get a sense of it all, look on Flickr ;)
My favorite one-liner:
Shuffle the geeks forward
by Jon Hicks
Expression Engine Shoot Out
The biggest surprise of this trip came yesterday when some of my readers did send me an e-mail to let me know that I won the 1st price in the "Personal" category. I'm still speechless about the comments of the judges. Never thought the new design of my new blog would have such a huge impact on people. Ok I liked it, but I was still unsure about it in some way.
Heading to Washington DC
In a few hours we're on a plane to Washington DC, the second part of our trip in the U.S. We're very much looking forward to explore the city. We will be staying in a hotel in the center close to everything. I'm not only looking forward to meet 2 of our special U.S. clients, but also to spend some time with our best friend Cindy Li. She is SUCH fun to hang out with. Cindy has such a big heart and a warm uplifting personality. We're gonna have a ball! She's a senior designer at AOL and if we're lucky we will be able to visit the usability lab, where they have the device that tracks your eye movement on a page. That will be interesting ;) And, oh boy, there is too much to visit and to do too. Stay tuned ;)
39served
1
I agree completely. The only thing missing from this year’s SXSW was a kumbaya circle, or maybe a verse from that old Coke commercial. I bet somewhere in Austin there is a musician blogging “Now that all those weirdo computer types are gone...” ;)
2
Just listening to Radio 1 in the UK and they are covering the SXSW right now, sounds a bit hectic there right now!!!
3
congratulations to you, first off!
second:
i
sure
sure
hope i can make it next year...here’s to foresight and planning. i’m not even terribly interactive, i just want to take a gang of photos & meet people. ;-)
j.
4
Congratulations on your beautiful new blog… and again on your EE Triumph! Well Deserved!
5
Congrats Veerle, the redesign is, simply put, hot, and you deserve the credit you have been awarded.
Texas is a long, expensive way from sydney, but one year i will make it there, and seeing as though its such a long way away, will have to stay for the SXSW music as well…
6
To start, conratulations on your shootout win Veerle, it is well deserved. I only hope I can produce something as nice one day.
I’m sad to see SXSW wrap up, even though I couldn’t attend, but I do hope to meet you and many others some day, maybe at the next @Media
7
All of the things the judges said are so well deserved! Congratulations again. I hope you enjoy Washington, DC. You’re coming at an odd time of the year, hot one day, cold the next. Bring clothes that you can layer. :-)
8
Glad I could help Veerle! It was great to meet you. Hopefully Leslie and I will be able to meet up with you and Geert in DC while you’re here.
9
Congratulations for the price! You deserve it!!
10
Amaaai Veerle… chapeau!
I’ll just translate that for all the others: “Wow Veerle! Hats off!”
;-)
11
Congrats with your first price! You earned it because this redesign is slick as hell.
Have a safe trip to DC and enjoy!
12
Hi Veerle, I have been reading your blog for a short while now and decided today to de-lurk! Congrats on the award and since I only came across your blog recently, I was wondering if there is anyway to view a screenshot of what your site looked like before you did the re-design?
13
Rockers, Clubbers have both their weirdos.
14
congratz Veerle ! you’re the best! ( I’ve been lurking from the sidelines, but you’re “bookmarked” for daily review ;-) ) have fun !
15
Congrats on the first place Veerle! We all knew the design would get noticed.
I have a co-worker and friend who just got back from SXSW and he said it was just a blast. I’m jealous and want to go next year. I’ll see if he can’t drag me along. Coincidentally, like your friend in DC, I work for AOL as well. Small world.
Take care, hope the rest of your trip is awesome!
16
Congrats on the EE contest! Although, I must say, I was not surprised. Nice Job!
I was just thinking about DC and I forgot to mention my most favorite breakfast when I lived there was to go get Chocolate Chip Belgian Waffels and a smoothie at a place called “Trist” in Adams Morgan. If you can beat the crowds (which can be annoying) it is worth it. My wife and I are heading down next month to visit old friends and will definitely incorparate into our plans.
(Although...you probably have great waffels at home I bet)
17
Congratulations, Veerle! Your win is well-deserved. I had been complianing for some time about the lack of EE design inspriation. You have shut me up!
It was also very cool watching you speak at SXSW. Have fun!
18
As I said elsewhere, your new design is one of the few designs to come along for weeks, if not months, that actually has an air of “progress” about it. I wouldn’t be surprised if it served as inspiration for many programmers and designers who have felt that there wasn’t much new going on, that everything had been done and that things were going to repeat themselves over and over again.
Besides, it it an ingenious use of EE.
Very, very good work, pulling many developments of the past months together in one spot, adding plenty of nifty new detail and then giving it a mighty spin, if not whirl, to give us all something to strive for.
Kudos!
P.S.: I noticed that if I select preview and then want to post, I hit the 600 (??) seconds wall. But maybe it’s also just my intricate tweaking of FF (I usually have javascript set to off)?
19
Congrats on the Shoot Out!
20
Hi,
I was sure since the first second I saw you new blog version that you will win the Expression engine contest. That’s funny because a few days before, I was reading the post of Mark Boulton regarding the contest and I was wondering if you would enter it or not… This blog is a perfect example of “best practices” and you deserve all the so good comments posted so far because of your motivation, implication about the future of webdesign. Congratulations Veerle and welcome back in Belgium!
21
I knew it! The judges aren’t wrong. I can’t agree more with them. I think this blog is exploring EE to its maximum. Of course the design is well executed too. Well done, Veerle! Oh and enjoy your stay at DC.
22
hey veerle congrats on winning 1st place in the pmachine personal section.
23
I love (absolutely love) the new look for your blog!
24
I will miss you and Geert - I had so much fun meeting you two in Texas!
25
I had yet to comment on your new design as well Veerle. Looking quite excellent. I have no design talent so I’ll leave it at that. It was fun to chat during the brief moments we ran into each other.
You were indeed bombarded by quite a few other people so I thought I’d let you do your thing and mingle with all the folks.
I share you feelings on being able to talk to folks on the same wave length… except in my case it was a bunch of JavaScripters (I suppose Inman can jump in on a conversation of that calaper as well seeing as how he’s mr rennissance man).
Having been in the middle of a conversation with Jeremy, Stuart, and Simon (Willison) talking about “how to explain closures to an ordinary person” had us going for quite a while. That’s actually tougher than it sounds.
Anyhow, ciao. I’ll definitely have to come back and visit more often.
26
Congrats young lady! :D
I hope the Washington part of your trip goes well. Travel Safe.
:)
27
Congrats on the shootout Veerle!
I had a great time talking with you and Geert in Austin. I hope the rest of your trip goes well. :)
28
Was very cool to meet you Veerle! I really enjoyed the panel. It’s cool to see how other entrepreneurs work and deal with things. Wish I had more time to chat w/ you!
29
I love reading about SXSW - I never knew about it until this year! Sounds like a blast!
30
I very like Your’s WebDesign color
31
Completely unrelated to SXSW: it was awesome to meet you and V-Dub this weekend!
Eric is VERY sad that he didn’t get a chance to chat with you longer but hopefully you guys can keep in touch online until you make your next visit. ;)
Love yous guys!
Nicole :)
32
Hey, I was one of the those “weirdo rock types” that came to Austin for SXSW. :) Ok, so I came for the music but I hope I am not lumped in the weird category. The web conference sounds cool; hopefully I can get a job with a company that will send me one of these years! :)
33
Congrats! Well deserved award.
34
Congratulations! Havent seen the old design but version 2.0 of your blog just squished me into my seat (read: Amazing!) :)
35
why is www.duoh.com not in the same design?
36
Veerle. sometimes I can’t help myself and I just find myself staring at your blogs....
I try to avery my eyes but they are so perfectly formed and beautiful…
I love your blogs.
37
Awesome! Hehe, about that Cheese and wine at Jane’s room I’m suspecting you are the blond girl of to the bottom left with her back against the camera, am I right?
And I totally agree with your opinion on these gatherings and happenings all over the world - these are a great forum for exchanging ideas, form groups and projects as well as getting new friends and catching up with old - not to forget putting a face to all those new names one see out there.
I was just to mention that I’m unable to load your rss-feed when I noticed you have given it a new address ;]. Keep up the marvelous work you are doing here!
Cheers
38
@Alexander, yes indeed you got that right ;) I’ve added some notes so you know who is who. I hope Jeremy doesn’t mind.
39
That’s funny, you departed from DC at the same day I arrived there :) You should have stayed there for a few extra days, we were watching the pandas with Cindy on Saturday. It’s a pitty we haven’t met there again.