Ben Menoza

SXSW 2009 is approaching fast, and around this time, potential presenters collect their thoughts and come up with panels that would make for interesting discussion during the day. In true democratic fashion, the (registered) public votes on submitted panel ideas through the Interactive Panel Picker. Each panel idea falls under one category. The focus for this post will be Other.

This will be the fourth post in a day, and the last in the series, regarding SXSW panel submissions. I’m fortunate that I’ve had the time and inclination to go through and post about them. Even though this blog is seldom read, it’s still important for me to share what I think are the most interesting panel submissions, in hopes that others will think so, too, or at least inspire them to determine what’s interesting to them and vote. Whether you pay to attend, or have the good fortune to be sponsored to attend, it’s a good investment of your time to shape what content gets presented at SXSW.

From the time I started going to the conference a few years ago to now, I’ve seen it grow exponentially, from the number of attendees to the topics presented. However, growth is not without its pains, and I’ve seen the quality of panels go down from when I first started attending. Admittedly, I didn’t start using the Panel Picker until now, so maybe I shouldn’t complain so much. Consider this my penance.

Anyway, onto the panel submissions that didn’t feel like being categorized! There are no discernible patterns here (or at least none after doing four posts in a day, unless hair braiding is a trend in technology I’m missing), so I’m just going to give you my four:

• It’s the End of Newspapers as We Know It — And We Feel Fine! with AJC.com’s Chris Heisel
• Designers and Developers Not Working Together and Not Realizing It with ampersand gt’s Scott Bellware (site goes to a parked page on GoDaddy, which is apparently another trend I’m missing)
• IGNORE: Hitting Your Social Quota with Austin 3.0’s Kristine Gloria
• Open Source and Design: Ideologies Clashing with Optaros‘ John Eckman