I’m actually going to SXSW! I’ve never been and hadn’t planned on going this year either until there were a few shifts in responsibilities at work and a spot opened up for me to go. Talk about lucky.

I’ll keep you updated on it as it happens, including what events I go to and all the awesome things I’m sure I’ll learn (you’ll be able to find these posts in the ’Happy Unconference’ category – A new category I created for any conference news/updates with a nice little reference to the Happy Unbirthday tea party…)

For right now I’ve signed up for “My SXSW” which is – as you could probably tell from the name – the social network for SXSW attendees.

It’s powered by the Social Collective which specializes in conference communities. Pretty decent functionality – you can:

• Import your friends from Facebook and Twitter.
• Use a twitterlike message system
• Create a “badge,”
• Build your own schedule
• Find people you’d like to meet (search by Name, Industry, City orState)

I like that they provide a community up front like this – if I wasn’t already going with some people I know it would help me to feel more comfortable being able to get to know people before heading out there. But I wouldn’t expect anything less from SXSW.

And if My.SXSW isn’t enough to get you excited, there are all the parties and mixer invites going out on Facebook…uh, I mean all the conference event descriptions… :) 

Anyone else going or have you gone before? Any advice or suggestions you have are welcome!