I’ve been in Austin for years. It’s kind of embarrassing to admit I’ve never attended the SXSW Interactive Conference. Finally I made it out to one. It far exceeded my expectations. Not everything was a home run. I’d say about half the sessions were either not relevant, had poor chemistry or was too rudimentary to be of any use to me. I had to remind myself that I’ve got almost 20 years in my profession and that I’m not going to hear too much about design that will blow my mind. I focused most of my attention to sessions that were outside my realm of expertise. That made all the difference.