SXSW - Refresh Austin

Refresh Kickoff Lunch at SXSW 2011

February 24, 2011 By Alex Leave a Comment

South-By is just around the corner, so its time to discuss how to start things right. Luckily, we have you covered!

As we’ve done for the last three years, we’ve set up a lunch for Refreshers from around the world on Friday, March 11th from 11:30 to 2:30pm, to kick off SXSW Interactive. This is a great chance to catch up with Refreshers you met in years past and make some new friends before the conference starts in full. The lunch will be at B.D. Riley’s, the same venue as in years past and will be a casual affair. We don’t have any sponsors, so you’ll need to pick up your own tab, but the pub is very accommodating and is happy to maintain separate checks. Even better, they’re giving us happy hour prices and may throw in some appetizers.

If you have any questions, please let me know. If possible please RSVP on FaceBook so we have an idea of how much space we’ll need. That said, feel free to drop in even if you don’t RSVP, all are welcome.

Let me know if you have any questions and please pass this on to other Refreshers who aren’t on this mailing list.

Facebook Event Page

Filed Under: Events Tagged With: SXSW, sxswi, sxswi2011

March Events

March 2, 2010 By Alex Leave a Comment

Update

We’re moving across the street to Texas Coworking as Buffalo Billiards has another event scheduled on Tuesday.

If you’re interested in presenting, you need to e-mail me by noon on Tuesday so I know how many people will want to speak. After the meeting, we’ll head downstairs to B.D. Riley’s pub for networking.

Given the proximity of this meeting to SXSW, we’re going to try something different. Anyone who has a panel at SXSW 2010 will be welcome to present a shortened version of their presentation. This allows the presenters a chance to run through their work in front of an audience and gain feedback as well as ensure that people who can’t make it to SXSW can learn from their. Even if you are going to SXSW this year, I highly recommend you join. Odds are good that you’ll be double-booked for many time slots, so why not get a taste for the panels that are of interest prior to the big event?

This is also a great time to meet other Austin Refreshers before the big event.

RSVP on Facebook

Bonus! Don’t forget about the Refresh Lunch the Friday of SXSWi.

Refresh Lunch on Facebook

Contact Alex if you would like to do a short version of your SXSW panel at the March meeting.

Filed Under: Events Tagged With: Events, meeting, SXSW

SXSWi 2009 – Refresh Austin Panel Submissions

August 11, 2008 By Alex 3 Comments

South by Southwest Interactive 2009 looks to be an amazing experience once again. The panel picker is now open, and there are over 1,200 submissions, some of which are from fellow Refreshers here in Austin and worldwide.

We’re spreading the word about all of the great ideas submitted by our members and have compiled a list that you can use to review, and hopefully vote for their panel ideas.

Remember, every vote is good. So even if you don’t find the topic applicable to what you do, voting one or two stars will support your fellow Refreshers.

Panel Submissions

200s, 304s, HTTP Compression, and You – Mark Phillip, RUWT? Sports
Design for Disagreement – Paul Burke, thinktiv
SXSW Year Round: Organize Groups, Maintain Your Buzz – Alex Jones, Refresh Austin
Clients: Insane or Just out to Get Me? – Alex Jones, Refresh Austin
The Rise of the Enterprise Tribe – Kevin Koym, Enterprise Teaming, llc
Building Austin – Kevin Koym, Enterprise Teaming, llc
Sex Ed Online: How Teens Self Savvy – Karen Kreps, Net Ingenuity Publishing
Bridging Flash and HTML For Rich Web Experiences – Moderated by Mark Phillip, T3
More Secrets of JavaScript Libraries – Andrew Dupont (panelist)
Designing Experiences in an ADHD Culture – Susan Price, Firecat Studio
Politics, Technology, and Pop Culture – Tom Serres, Piryx Inc.
What Do You Do When the Traffic Starts Coming – Brian Massey, Conversion Sciences
The Patterns of Web Marketing – Brian Massey, Conversion Sciences
Blog Highways: Travel Blogging for the Wanderer – Sheila Scarborough, Writer

Did we miss one? Leave a comment with your panel so everyone will know about it!

Filed Under: Events Tagged With: SXSW, sxswi, sxswi2009

Here Comes South-By

March 5, 2008 By Alex 1 Comment

We’ve been talking about South by Southwest 2008 since the end of SXSW 2007 and the big event is finally rolling around once more. Hopefully you’ll join us for the conference and all of the great events. In addition to the listings to the right, there are two events that Austin Refreshers should take special note of:

Drinks with the Early Arrivals

A group of folks from Refresh Austin will be gathering for Pre-Conference Pints Thursday evening at The Gingerman around 6:30 and would love to invite other locals and early arrivals to SXSW Interactive to join us.

While we aren’t able to buy the drinks, we can provide great conversation. The invite is open to all, so if you can, come join us.

The Refresh Lunch on Friday

Join Refreshers from around the world to kick of South-By right! We’re gathering a great group of folks for lunch on Friday before the conference starts, making it easier to (re)connect with people you may know online or from last year. While we each have to cover our own food and drinks, we will have the back half of the pub reserved, so the conversations should be flowing freely.

The Official Refresh Austin Party

The Refresh Austin party at the PhizzPop Design Challenge is less than a week away! If you’re going to SXSW Interactive, make sure to stop by the Blue Room in Maggie Mae’s, which will be the central spot to meet other Refreshers.

Not attending SXSW, but still want to come to the party?

No problem, just register to get in free! We want everyone in Refresh to join us.

Plus…

SXSW is all about the last minute plans and decisions, so don’t be shy if you bump into your fellow Refreshers throughout the conference: say hi and socialize! There’s no reason that you should go to lunch by yourself, or not have someone to hang with at an after-party.

Filed Under: Events Tagged With: Austin, event, party, phizzpop, SXSW, sxswi, sxswi2008

One Stop for SxSW: the PhizzPop Design Challenge

February 20, 2008 By Alex 1 Comment

Still thinking about why you should join us for the Refresh Austin party at the PhizzPop Design Challenge? Michelle provides a great explanation as to what it is and why you should come:

Whether or not you decided to shell out this year for a SxSW pass, all Refreshers are welcome to attend the Phizzpop Design Challenge Finale on Monday, March 10 at 7 pm at Maggie Mae’s.

What is the PhizzPop Design Challenge?

Over the course of the last few months, Microsoft gathered the best and brightest design firms to build interactive websites to meet certain challenges. For example, the last challenge was to create a web site for a film festival. Bear in mind, these sites did not just present movie times. They allowed festival goers to rate movies, connect on movie choices, upload profiles, etc.

Each team has several sleepless days to create a site to meet their challenge. The teams then present their sites at the Phizzpop event to the crowd and a panel of expert judges. The judges pick which one best accomplishes its goal. I went to the Austin Phizzpop Design Challenge and saw all the film festival sites and they really were incredible, especially given the time frame. It makes you appreciate why the entrants work at the premiere firms in the country. Austin’s winner was Thirteen23, and we will be able to cheer for them in the final.

This year’s final asks the finalists from the major cities to create a website to improve citizenship. I feel we will see a good variation of sites based on this topic, and I am interested to see what they come up with.

What’s Cool About this Event?

There is an upstairs lounge dedicated to all things Refresh Austin. In the chaos that is SxSW Interactive, you can meet up with your local and not-so local Refreshers and have a beer.
The challenge asks how interactive design can improve citizenship. Rather than complaining about how corporate America and lobbyists are destroying this nation, we can use these cues to improve our lives. Design isn’t just pretty–design can mobilize and motivate people to call for change. It’s nice to be at the forefront of a movement.
You don’t have to have a SxSW pass to go. Even if you have one, this is a cool event where you can actually invite your friends who do not have one. Why should all the great ideas be restricted to those who have time
and resources for SxSW?
It will allow you to network and gain ideas from other designers from around the nation. Promote Refresh. Talk about your new ideas or complain about IE 8. Phizzpop is all about design.

Useful Links

Register for the event if you aren’t attending SXSW
RSVP on Upcoming (not required, but it we’d like to know you’re coming)
The competitor list
The list of judges and the specifics of the challenge

Filed Under: Events Tagged With: Austin, event, party, phizzpop, SXSW, sxswi

Refresh Roundup: Mixers, coworking, names, and ugly spec-work

February 16, 2008 By Ryan Joy Leave a Comment

Lots of folks, including many Austin Refreshers, came out for the SXSW Mixer at Mohawk. Short recap here.
On Tuesday, Grant Hutchins led a presentation titled “Grids in Depth” and David Humphreys led an Introduction to Rails and shared his 10 favorite things about the framework at our February Refresh Austin Meeting. Excellent presentations from both, as well as a great turnout!
Julie Gomoll finally answered the questions, “When can we start coworking in Austin already?” Turns out we can start coworking in downtown Austin on July 1st. Launchpad Coworking’s space will be located at 800 Brazos Street. Be sure to head over to the Launchpad site to learn more!
Justin Perkins has announced that he has a new site coming in a week. Or two. His site always takes a creative approach to blogging/bookmarking/lifestreaming/whatever, so it’s exciting to see what’s next.
On a serious note, Alex Jones takes Pixish to task for fomenting an environment where “clients will view the talent pool as relatively equal, opting for a crap shoot instead of finding the right match for their needs”. As Alex notes in his blog post, this constitutes spec-work and should be guarded against. Derek Powazek did take the time to respond to some of the issues brought up, but only time will tell on this one. Many creatives in in the industry remain unconvinced.
Christian Watson takes us on a whimisical Journey Through Web Design & Usability Domain Names. Sadly, it appears that the majority of semantically named web/dev/design domains are just parked.
Do you googlebate? Ryan Joy sure does.
GeekAustin announced that their May happy hour would be a special WordPress edition. RSVP here if you enjoy socializing with geeks in a libacious environments.

That’s it for this week, folks!

Filed Under: Roundup Tagged With: coworking, design, geek austin, happy hour, meeting, ruby on rails, SXSW, sxswi

Refresh Roundup: Open Source Politics, Zuckerberg animosity(?), and Austin’s businesses coming together

February 9, 2008 By Ryan Joy 1 Comment

Michelle Greer asks, Why Do Tech Geeks Want to Punch Zuckerberg in the Face? “With Beacon still in need of a major overhaul and all eyes on him for an IPO date, it looks like Zuckerberg has his hands full with Facebook.” you can see him at SXSW giving this year’s keynote.
Ryan Joy likes to find his daily paper on the doorstep in the morning. However, that paradigm fails when it’s the electronic version. Check out this PHP/cron job combo that may just bring back the nostalgia of newspaper delivery.
Andrew DuPont reports great news. Prototype 1.6 officially supports Opera. With it’s lightning fast javascript engine and DOM level 3 support, Opera is finally getting the full support it deserves… from Prototype, at least.
Whurley posed the question, Who is the best candidate for the open source community?” to the blogosphere, Twittersphere, and Interwebs. Michelle weighs in here as does Four Kitchens. I think we all cringe at the thought that our leaders may understand the Internet as a series of tubes.
Kevin Koym, with Bootstrap Austin, talks about building business ecosystems in Austin despite a possible recession. He argues that “Austin’s wired technology community has been organizing into … ‘Enterprise Tribes’ helping entrepreneurs build their businesses, recession or not.”
Boone Putney is excited by the beta release of Microsoft’s HealthVault. Privacy issues aside, Boone sees it as way to “automate a lot of the processes that are notorious originators of error in the medical industry.”
…and, of course, probably the biggest thing to come out is this week’s Refresh Austin’s SXSWi Party announcement.

That’s it for this week! If I’ve missed anything, post it in the comments.

Filed Under: Roundup Tagged With: Austin, business, Facebook, javascript, Microsoft, party, PHP, SXSW

Refresh Austin’s SXSWi Party

February 6, 2008 By Alex 8 Comments

We’ve hinted about this for a few months, but now it’s official. Refresh Austin will be co-hosting one of the largest parties at South by Southwest Interactive this year.

The great folks behind the PhizzPop Design Challenge have asked us to join them to welcome our fellow web professionals to Austin and cheer on the regional winners of the competition as they present their solutions to the problem entitled “Citizenship in the 21st Century”. These teams work hard, producing some truly impressive results, and we’ll have a chance to see the best compete for the big prize.

Join us at Maggie Mae’s on Monday, March 10th at 7:00 PM to party with your fellow geeks, knock back some free drinks, munch on some snacks and geek out. This is a chance for Refresh Austin to give back to the tech community by throwing a kickass party.

Oh, and it’s not just free drinks, cool technology and socializing. Thousands of dollars in prizes will be raffled off, and of course there will be an opportunity or two to add a t-shirt to your wardrobe!

We’ll post more information to this site the list very soon, but now would be a great time to add the event to your Upcoming calendar and learn more about Microsoft’s PhizzPop Design Challenge.

We want this to be party people talk about for years to come, but to do that, we need people to talk about it before it happens. If you know folks coming to SXSW, please pass them the Upcoming invite and help spread the word!

Got a blog? Of course you do! A quick post about the event between now and South-by would be much appreciated!

Many thanks to Lynn from GeekAustin for making the connections that have lead to this great opportunity!

Filed Under: Events Tagged With: Austin, event, party, SXSW, sxswi

Austin’s Best: Recommendations from local geeks

February 3, 2008 By Ryan Joy 5 Comments

Nobody knows Austin better than the locals. Here are some tips from Refresh Austin to help you enjoy our fair city to the fullest.

WiFi

To the delight of geeks hailing from accross the world, Austin is pretty much saturated with free wireless Internet. The convention center offers free wifi so you’ll be able to live-blog and check out what’s going on outside of the conference walls. Just know that the network can become bogged down at points during the conference.

Check out the Austin Wireless City Project’s website or visit any of the following local establishments:

Little City coffee house – 916 Congress Ave
The Hideout Coffee bar & Theatre – 617 Congress Ave
Jo’s Coffee – 242 W. 2nd St. and 1300 S. Congress Ave

Getting Around Town

Luckily, Austin has a relatively easy, grid-based downtown (the same cannot be said for the rest of the city though) and you’ll be visiting places which are all nearby for the most part. You should be able to walk, catch a ‘Dillo, or taxicab easily. The ‘Dillos are free and serve downtown, UT, and South Congress, among other destinations. There’s also a Downtown Austin website.

Capital Metro – 512.474.1200
Google Transit – Google maps plus public transit!!!
Yellow Cab – 512.452.9999
Lonestar Cab – 512.836.4900

Dining

Casino El Camino – Best burgers in town? Almost definitely. – 517 E. 6th (2 blocks from the convention center)
Torchy’s Damn Good Tacos – Fan Site – Locations on South First, West 6th, and East 6th (next to Casino el Camino)

Nightlife & Libations

The Gingerman - With around 150 beers on tap, you should be able to find a few you like

What would you recommend to out-of-towners visiting Austin for SXSW? Add your suggestions for dining, activities, and night-life in the comments below.

Filed Under: Tips and Tricks Tagged With: Austin, dining, SXSW, sxswi

Refresh Roundup: It’s conference season!

February 3, 2008 By Ryan Joy Leave a Comment

With SXSWi just around the corner, Sheila Scarborough discusses the lure of conference-hopping as well as the paradoxical desire to live-blog, tweet, et al. during the speaking sessions. Interestingly, it seems that we spend so much time cultivating our online connections that we fail to take a break even when around those connections in person! Be sure to say ‘hi!’ and put on a good face when you run into Sheila during the 2008 conference circuit.
Alex Jones, Marla Erwin, Glenda Sims, and other Refreshers attended the 2008 AIR Interactive kickoff and enjoyed pints at Sholz Garten.
Alex also “shed some light as to why some of your favorite products and services” are designed the way they are.
Paul Menard is going to WordCamp 2008 Dallas (March 29-30). Word on the street is that he might be willing to vanpool to the event.
Glenda Sims wrote about the wonderful Pachyderm project, useful to curators and educators looking to publish rich media learning objects. She describes it as “as a tool to help turn visitors into part of the creative process, giving them the keys to unlock a new interpretation that has the potential to transform the work as well as themselves.”

That’s all I’ve got for this week, folks! Of course there could be a lot more posted, but you’ll have to read our group archives and twitter stream to get it all.

Don’t forget about next week’s SXSW Mixer @ Mohawk on February, 11th. and our power-packed February meeting with presentations on Grids and RoR.

Filed Under: Roundup Tagged With: AIR, Pachyderm, SXSW, sxswi, wordcamp