SXSW Discoveries 

I got the opportunity this year to go to SXSW for the first time. Through my company, I got access to an Interactive badge (meaning I get to go to the technology sessions, the tradeshow part, and many other cool things). Here are a few of the things I've stumbled upon:

1. Don't wait in line
   Never wait in line for anything, ever. There are lines all over the place. Sessions, parties, food. You know what? There's literally hundreds of other things to go to. Go find one without a line. You'll have a better time, and you won't waste half your day waiting around. Some of the best stuff I've done over the past few days was serendipitously walking into a place because it wasn't busy (best example: catching The Tontons at Stubbs).
2. Evernote can be your best friend
   The newer versions of Evernote for the iPhone and Mac have been really nice, and fixed a handful of things that have always added a bit of friction to me using Evernote full time. As the app has gotten nicer, I've been determined to use it as my (organized) digital junk drawer. The best discovery though was Evernote's "document scan" mode, for lack of a better term. I have these receipts for expensing that I don't want to have to carry. I have a phone with a camera. And I have Evernote. Evernote has a mode where you tell it you're scanning a document, and it automatically adjusts the contrast and crops the document and dumps it in your Evernote. I've used it on every receipt I've gotten here and it's worked perfectly. Now I'm not worried about hanging on to random scraps of paper.
3. Even if it sounds too good to be true, give it a shot
   One of our friends mentioned Ra Ra Riot was playing a concert on the other side of the conference. We finished dinner and headed over there, fully expecting to find a huge crowd. We walked in as the band was finishing up their first song and ended up about 20 feet from the stage on a cool Texas night. No huge crowds pushed together, no bros at the show just trying to pick up chicks. Just a few hundred people hanging out checking out a band.
   
   
   
   

   Just remember #1 above. If something sounds fun, go try it. Just don't wait in line for it.