SXSWi 2008 or Bust!

Joelle said around mid-morning on August 23, 2007

Some of you may recall that in 2006, I attended SXSW Interactive as a panelist on ”How to Make $$ with Your Blog Design Skills” (you can download the entire podcast here — please excuse the poor sound and my nervous laugh).  Kathy wasn’t able to attend with me that year because she’d just had Mr. Poop (her kidlet) and wasn’t in a position to hoof it to Austin, Texas.

Then, BlogHer happened and we were offered an opportunity to attend the 2007Conference in Chicago, but this time, I was unable to attend. So, Kathy went to “represent”.

So, we’re making SXSW Interactive in 2008 a priority.  We’d like to attend something together for once. We’re also going to try to work a book signing into the trip at the SXSW bookstore.

Luckily, Susie Gardner had the brilliant idea of reconvening the same panelists from our first successful panel (we made the SXSW Honor Roll of best panels) for a new topic: Blogging Tool Death Match! (For some reason, I thought it was going to be Blog Platform Death Match, but I don’t make the rules...) But, so many panel ideas are submitted that we need your votes to make sure our panel is selected.

Blogging Tool Death Match!

Every blog project starts with the same question: Which blog platform is the right one to use? Answering this question correctly can make or break the final product. Get the nitty-gritty on each platform from experts who will defend their software choice against all challengers. Will it come to blows?

This year, I’m trying to coerce Kathy into taking my spot on the panel since I did it once already.  I can hang in the audience and make lewd gestures at her like any supportive friend and business partner would do.

Each of the panelists is taking a blog platform to pimp: Lisa Sabin-Wilson (Wordpress — of course!), Peter Flaschner (Movable Type — Lucy, you have a lot of ‘splainin’ to do!), Paul Chaney (Typepad — I’d rather eat paste than work with Typepad, maybe he can change my mind) and one of us (Expression Engine — the tool of champions!).  If Kathy’s not into it, I’ll happily wax enthusiastic about Expression Engine.  Susie will be our moderator in case I have to throw down over Movable Type’s whole “rebuilding” thing and we need to take it outside. 

If you’re planning on attending SXSW Interactive 2008 (or if you aren’t and don’t mind logging into the site), PLEASE vote for our panel! C’mon, you know you want to see a bunch of blog designers slinging geek mud!  How is that not the pinnacle of excitement?