SXSW 2009 II - AT&T, Gary Vaynerchuk, and a Gay Bar

Well, I'm not writing about the panels I attended yesterday as they were entirely unremarkable.

Speaking of unremarkable, AT&T has been having a heck of a time dealing with the capacity issues that >3000 iPhones and other smartphone-ish devices have been causing here. As of yesterday my iPhone was completely unusable for anything but SMS and voice. In that I had put my schedule online so I wouldn't have to fumble for the paper schedule (and the paper schedule lacks a detailed chronological listing of talks) this was... suboptimal.

Come on AT&T, you knew SXSW was coming and that it would be big. The data problems last year were forgivable because the iPhone was a new thing at the conference. This year, you should look in your logs for phones with data plans registered in the area and refund their bill for May.  Just sayin'.

Dinner... then... epic win.

(twitter handles have been used to incriminate the guilty)

So, the action begins when @geekgiant and I (@brucephenry) take a taxi to the Gnomedex/Seesmic/somebodyelse party. Things are cruising along, @scoblizer is getting quietly loaded. Well, quitely for him.

Then the word comes...

@garyvee, who is known to have brought several cases of excellent wine to SXSW is headed for the remains of the Toombla party. It's on. @garyvee is gonna blow the party up!

@geekgiant and I procure a cab and pour a surprisingly loquacious @scoblizer into the car. Fifteen minutes later @garyvee, 6 cases of wine, and an army of erstwhile sommeliers decend upon the venue. Bottles are opened, cups passed... the proprieters shut them down... panic!

@garyvee says, "We need another venue fast!"

I say, "I'm on it!"

Thirty seconds later I'm across the street at a gay bar talking to the manager. I expain the situation and ask if we can bring 300+ people over and pour our own wine. He says sure; problem solved.

Three minutes later an inebriated herd of geeks pours into Rain.

The results, as I mentioned, epic win! (see the Twitter search results) And there's just too much to lay out here. This is the classic SXSW experience. Companies spend thousands and thousands of dollars to throw parties, but it is the awesome people like @garyvee who can show up and give us geeks a chance to party like rockstars.

Thanks @garyvee, that was filled with awesome!

P.S. - At about 4 am @garyvee asked the question on Twitter about when Kathy Sierra was talking.  I realized I had to be up for Kathy Sierra, et al and the Presenting to the Brain panel. Irony, thy name is hangover.