A quick disclaimer about the following photos:
- I took them with my crappy point and shoot because I planned on getting sloshy during SXSWi and didn’t want to run the risk of ruining my good camera.
- Because I got tipsy, I did forget to take pictures of some of the other people that I saw and met during SXSWi. I apologize other people. I know you are there in spirit.
I feel so incredibly lucky that SXSWi was at my front door. I live in Austin, Texas and while SXSW as a whole can be a mixed blessing, I am so glad I had the opportunity to meet the colleagues and friends I had talked to on Twitter and in the blogosphere in general.
Descriptions of the photos can be found below the pictures:
BASHH (Big Ass Social Happy Hour) with Austinites Michael Cummings and Kat Fan here in Austin. Thanks for a fantastic time guys! (Photo via uLOVEi)
At the Girls in Tech Happy Hour – left to right: Nick from Locationless, Jenny from Where Is Jenny?, ME, and Tyler from Advanced Riskology. I was super stoked to meet these peeps!
Chris and Cherie from Technomadia. They put together this awesome nomadic happy hour where we all sat around and chatted, margaritas in hand. I had spent time with them at Camp Nomadia at Burning Man 2010. It was so nice to see people from my camp again.
Christy and Kali from Technosyncratic. Cool kids. I convinced them to go and see a rollerderby bout that I referee-ed while here in Austin.
Big Sam of @ZenNomads. Sam was also with all of us at Camp Nomadia at Burning Man. He is missing his wife-in-crime Tracy. Send her my love! I spent oodles of time with him over SXSW.
Me and Andy Hayes of Andy Hayes! Nice meeting you Andy! :::Please note the more pics I have of this happy hour, the goofier I look due to margarita time.::::
Left to right: Jenny from Where Is Jenny?, Gary Arndt from Everything Everywhere, and Nick from Locationless
Karol Gajda of Ridiculously Extraordinary and me. Karol, you are so super nice! Good luck on the rollercoaster tour!
Bryan and Laurie of Budget Your Trip. While these guys are also from Austin, I love hanging out with them.
Left to Right: Kim Mance of Go Galavanting and Gary Arndt of Everything Everywhere.
Brian and Maria of Trippin With Stanley. Love these guys! I’d like to think of them as our RVing doppelgangers. Gonna miss you guys!
There were some people I forgot to grab pics of and I am super sorry! I got to meet Benny from Fluent in 3 Months. His Spanish blew me away! You’re inspiring Benny. Also, super awesome to meet Nick Reese of Becoming Bold and had a long discussion about world travel with recently returned Ryan of Follow Me Everywhere. I swear I had met Chelsea from Rustrum – apparently Technosyncratic HAD met her before. Small world! I had the opportunity to meet Anis from Tripping. She is super nice as well! Love my travel peeps! And also, the beautiful Jeanie Witcraft of Embracing Change/JWitcraft.com – which to my embarrassment, forgot that her giving spirit offered me a massage that I totally could have used during that time.
And a HUGE thanks to Olga from Being Olga for letting me crash at your house so that I can attend as many networking parties as possible while stumbling home in safety!
Note about Shaun mysteriously not making any of these pics: He is still working a graveyard shift at his work and was busting his ass doing what he is good at. 🙂
Wow girl you get to meet so many cool people. You get to see Jenny and Andy too. Looks like you had a great time. Hopefully I get to see you too 🙂
yeeaaa so jealous this is awesome! There are a lot of cool things in this world – 1 of them going to a multi day even where some of the coolest, most awesome, most badass bloggers and travelers congregate + margaritas! NEXT YEAR i’ll be there! 🙂
One day, I’ll make it to SXSWi, and then I hope to meet you, see a bout you referee AND make your round-up pictures! Hey, a girl can dream =)
Yay, what a blast!! And not only had we already met Chelsea Rustrum, but we had gone to the same high school in Oregon (a H.S. of only a couple hundred in a little town of only a couple thousand). Small world, huh?
So great meeting you and all these awesome travelers. 🙂
I’m so glad we got to hang out with you, Erica!! The Day of the Nomad was awesome, as was seeing you ref at Roller Derby.. and our night on the town too 🙂 Camp Nomadia lives on in our hearts always. Give our best to Shaun, we totally missed seeing him.
Wow, now that’s some networking you had going on!! I can’t wait for TBEX11 in Vancouver and WDS in Portland in June so that I can meet tons of the people that I’ve only met on line. Looks like a great time!! Cheers!
Soooo jealous you got to meet all of these cool folks. Everyone seems to be having so much fun and glad to finally put faces to names (and blogs).
Great meeting you guys. I love the pictures. 🙂
Awww so exciting! I wish I was there. And the many happy hours! I would have been in heaven! haha
I’m sorry I didn’t get to meet you guys! I love your site. I was at the meetup and saw you but had to leave before I could meet you. There’s always next year!
@Sarah: I was TOTALLY stoked!
@Lauren: It was EPIC. I am feel so lucky that I had the opportunity to have everyone together and hang out!
@Kristin: I’m just lucky it happens where I live. I’m not sure I would have gone if I lived so far away. I would LOVE to grab a beer or coffee with you lady!
@Christy: Right now the thing that I’m struggling with is meeting all these people and then realizing everyone is gone within a week. While I expected everyone to do that while on the road (in which I would learn to deal then), it happening in my own town is… sad. 🙁
@Cherie: Message passed on to Shaun! Thank you so much for coming out to derby – it meant the world to me.
@Gillian: I networked my ass off (and my brain exploded of overload shortly thereafter)! I wish we could make it to TBEX – just can’t hack the plan tix from the middle of Central America!
@Jill: While you do get used to seeing the little picture on Twitter and avatars, it is so different when you meet them in person… although Jenny I could have spotted a million miles away.
@Chelsea: Right back at’cha lady!
@Lindsay: My liver hated me after everything was said and done. 🙂
@Jerri! AWW! No worries, I know how busy SXSW can be! Maybe another time! ♥
Girl! Love these pictures of us. Especially the one with our revised name tag 🙂
@Olga: HELL YEAH. I do love these though.
It’s your doppleganger! Too funny! But really quite true. It was great meeting you and all your spiciness! Can’t wait to keep on living my South American dreams vicariously through you two and will look forward to our paths crossing again!
Ahhh LOVE IT… looks like you met a lot of cool people!!! I cant wait to meet you… we will make it happen!!!
@Maria: YAY!
P.S. I’ve already been warming Shaun up to an RV AND he just got a new laptop and wants to learn web design and back end stuff as a whole. 😛
@Jaime: We will TOTALLY make it happen!
looks SO AWESOME!!! wish i could have made it! learned about some great new peeps here! good stuff 🙂
Thanks for the roundup Erika. It was great to meet everyone! Lots of inspiring travel stories and people doing amazing things with their lives. We should definitely do this again soon.
@Lorna: I would have gotten into so much trouble with you if you had come down here. <3
@Bryan: I had a blast! I love meeting kindred spirits as well.
You misspelled “PWNAGE.” 😉
I need to climb back into the blogosphere so I can start meeting rad people like this (and like you and Shaun) again.
@Badger: I’ve had to reevaluate my verbiage when I entered the blogging world. Almost all my euphemisms were gamer speak!