Well, my second year at SXSW and I've noticed a few changes (and discussed them with some folks here):
1) It seems more corporate. More big corporations showing up, more people (1200 this year) being pretty serious. Serious equates to less willing to meet other people it seems.
2) More laptops - believe it or not, more people seem to be laptop-equipped. For the first time I've seen serious saturation of the wi-fi networks in the conference rooms - where they slow to a crawl.
3) Still a fairly high calibre of people and the usual coterie of people who want to plug a particular point of view in the guise of a question in the Q&A sections that end the panels.
4) The weather is glorious. Warm, a little humid. It makes for really lovely evenings.
Posted by artandscience at March 12, 2006 01:20 PM