First day of SxSW Interactive: Blogger lounge tweetup, meeting Nadia, pizza!

This is not the Texas weather we are used to; in fact it looks a bit like Seattle today mixed with Chicago style winds. The wet air does not smell of smoke, beer, or bbq; there are no bats. But the Internet works and the energy is getting to that crackling melting pot.

Nadia_smallpic

We began our Friday by meeting up with our sponsored guest, Nadia Payan, for breakfast and then off to registration at the Austin Convention Center. Aya wanted to make sure we knew where the blogger lounge was for the tweetup at 4-6pm so we ventured in early and got things ready.

Below is Aya being the “King of Swag.” At least til he can give it all away!

aya_at_blogger_lounge_small

The tweetup itself was great, with elbow-to-elbow standing room in the Austin suite, a rousing rendition of Kids in America by Tara Hunt on Rockband (and many other fine performances by attendees, I just happened to catch that vocal set). Internetgeekgirl Stephanie Agresta kept things hopping, we passed out Live Search t-shirts as the beer and wine flowed. The Austin  had this huge portal-esque window from floor to ceiling, and at one point we opened the door to the outside just to let the chill air cool the packed crowds.

I used our new Flip video camera to shoot video of Stefan and Nadia talking about the tweetup, and the amazing chain of events that led her to Austin and SxSW.  We are glad for the generosity of so many people that together with our own sponsorship, allowed us to get the chance to meet her.  This is only the first event at the TechSet lounge and it was a great prelude to the evening.

wineglass_belmont

Stefan’s wineglass photo above is deceptive – this is the Belmont BEFORE the TechSet party got raging to a standstill of packed people unable to move around the bar. Trust our guys to get there and stake out an early spot.

Even though the winds were chill, Austin partyers were out and about.

freepizza_stonys_snapshot

The evening capped off with our crew delivering free pizza from Stony’s at 6th and Red River from midnight to 3 a.m. The line was never less than 15 people long, and who can blame them – hot pizza on a cold night really hits the spot. These are stills from the video I took; we hope to have the full video later.

 pizza_line_drpepper

Whooping it up for live.com & Live Search.

Folks who hadn’t heard of us, got stickers and a cheesy reminder (sometimes with  pepperoni) to try us out!

happy_pizza_pepper

And then the Cherry Dr. Pepper guys came over and spontaneously donated cases and cases of the new soda for our folks to try. Random acts of beverage kindness! The Stony’s guys are fast – they made 20 pizzas an hour, giving away 12 slices per pizza.

We’ll be doing it again tonight from midnight-3 a.m. at the same spot, so see you on the streets of Austin!

Betsy Aoki, Live Search