When the SXSW Interactive conference started, I fully intended to blog live from each and every panel session and keynote. I made sure my iBook battery was charged, furiously typed copious notes during the sessions, and researched any URLs that were mentioned. But then I looked up.

Once I downshifted and took a step back I found I enjoyed my experience in Austin that much more. I kept taking notes, and there are a few sessions I hope to write about here on the blog over the next several days — I have a feeling that after a few days of rest, some of the ideas presented at SXSW will have had a chance to sink in and I'll do a better job putting them into words. Besides, thanks to the miracle of tagging there are plenty of links, musings and photos available under the "sxsw" tag on del.icio.us, Technorati and Flickr. Michael also helped Tim and I do our best to summarize the trip in a SXSW wrap-up podcast.

- As tech conferences go, SXSW is one of the more diverse — an opinion shared by Liz Lawley and Danah Boyd over at Many-to-Many. The variety of attendees is one of the things that makes SXSW so unique and sets it above other conferences.

- During Sunday's "Build Your Brand With Blogs" session, there was a lot of discussion about the difference between transparency and authenticity — the two are not the same, cautioned Molly Holzschlag from Molly.com, and business bloggers would do well to recognize that.

37 Signals' Jason Fried made some great observations as well, especially about the tone his company sets with their Signal Vs. Noise blog. The company realized that being honest when writing online acts as a filter for clients and prospective clients — they would rather not work with anyone who would be put off by, say, the occasional "f-bomb," so Jason lets them drop. (My mom reads this site, though, so I'll continue to hold back.)

- Texas-sized congratulations to the winners at Monday's Bloggies ceremony, almost none of whom were present to accept their awards. Those of us who were there kept ourselves entertained by posting snarky comments (mostly about Ernie) to the IRC chat room set up for the event and projected on a giant screen to the right of the stage. Big winners were Tom Coates' plasticbag.org, collaborative all-things-cool blog Boing Boing, and just about anything published by Gawker Media.

- Ana Marie Cox, a/k/a Wonkette, won the award for Best Political Weblog but couldn't make it to the stage to accept. Cox was busy doing an on-air interview with Al Franken for Air America Radio as part of the launch of the network's newest affiliate in Austin, Tx. Her keynote interview later that afternoon was packed, a discussion which lacked substance but was sprinkled liberally with a certain 10-letter word.

- As always, Bruce Sterling (the godfather of SXSWi) wrapped up the conference on the final day as only he can. His keynote conversation with Alex Steffen was a fast-paced exploration of technological solutions for creating sustainable prosperity, a discussion which is summed up here by Alex's WorldChanging colleagues. Bruce encouraged Tim not to be disillusioned with the pace of innovation when he was the guest on our final SXSW Spotcast. The dynamic futurist once again hosted the traditional closing night party, held this year in the distinctly non-traditional American Legion Hall.

- Out of all the events happening during the conference, the highlight for me continues to be 20x2 in which 20 people are given two minutes each to answer a question in any way they'd like — spoken word, songs, short films, etc. Show creator Kevin Newsum is just a great, brilliant guy who, ably assisted by consummate personality Jeff Rider and host Mike Stephens, manages to put on an event that brings together all the originality of SXSW. This year's question was "What's the Word?" and the video presentation by Nick Finck sums up the word and the conference better than any blog post could hope to do. See you next year!

( File under: sxsw )