Serra’s Seven SXSW Session Suggestions

Music Mavens, Film Fanatics and Techie Types of all persuasion will decend upon Austin, TX today to kick off yet another year of great shows, movies and new media at South by South West 2011.

If you haven’t heard of the festival (often referred to as SXSW), you’re likely not very into music. Or film. O r the Internet. What started off in 1987 as a small music festival has morphed into one of the largest festivals of it’s kind in the world. Taking a look through the schedule is almost overwhelming – so many sessions, speakers and shows to attend, it’s hard to decide where to start.

Personally, I say the place to be is at SXSWi – Interactive is where it’s at. Five days of presentations from the brightest minds in technology, covering topics from design, development, emerging technologies, digital lifestyle, gaming, social media, robotics, business, health, politics, comedy… and parties. LOTS OF PARTIES.

The most important, of course, being ServerBeach’s infamous GeekyBeach Party – Have you RSVP‘d yet?  We’ve got all kinds of surprises ready for the party and The Beach is buzzing with excitement. We can’t wait to get out and let loose with all our favorite geeks. We’ve also got a whole new booth design and a TON of new SWAG we’ll be giving away at the Trade Show, so make sure you stop by and say hi!

Get your Geek on with SB@SXSW!

Check out more pics from last years party here. In the meantime I give you:

Serra’s Seven SXSWi Session Suggestions
(Otherwise known as “where I’ll be if I manage to sneak out of the ServerBeach booth”) 😉

Bike Hugger’s Built: A Series of Talks by People Who Create
Tuesday March 15 12:00 PM
Various, Bikehugger.com
Built is our flavor of a maker, hacker, DIY Ignite-style event, with the bike as a backdrop. A Series of Talks by People Who Create, covering topics such as “Hackable: Light Communication Kits for Bikers” and “How to Build A BBQ Smoker from a Trash Can.”

Non-Visual Augmented Reality and the Evaporation of the Interface
Sunday March 13 12:30PM
Aaron Parecki & Amber Case, Geoloqi.com
This presentation will highlight the advantages and disadvantages of visual and non-visual augmented reality, covering alternate types of augmented reality techniques and how they have been saving us time in the past few months. Amber Case is a Cyborg Anthropologist! (#3 on my “what I want to be when I grow up” list.)

The Nerdist LIVE Monday
Monday March 14th 6:00PM
Chris Hardwick, Nerdist.com
The Nerdist Podcast is an excellent source of geeky hilariousness, infused with witty banter and guests like Sarah Silverman, Will Wheaton and Kevin Smith.

Keynote Speaker: Christopher Pool
Sunday March 13 2:00PM
Christopher Pool, 4Chan
Christopher “moot” Poole is the founder of 4chan.org, which has grown from a niche site targeting anime fans to one of the most influential communities on the ‘Net. With over 12 million unique visitors per month, many popular viral videos, Internet phenomena, and memes get their start on 4chan.

Hacking Space Exploration: Robots, the Universe and Everything
Monday March 14 5:00PM
Ariel Waldman, Spacehack.org
On launching robots into space to discovering distant galaxies: how the public is hacking into open source space exploration. As technology shifts from a means of passive consumption to active creation, people are collaborating on a massive scale.

Know Your Meme
Saturday March 12 3:30PM
Andrew Baron, RocketBoom.com
This session will examine the entire lifecycle of a  meme.  Touching on subjects such as how a viral video becomes a meme, how to qualify the value of transmitters as well as examining the boundaries of legal gray areas, and the psychological effects of exposure to a global audience. Tactics vs. Strategies for extinguishing memes. Aggregating realtime statistics for predicting memes and memes in the future. Memes memes memes!

The Sexual Survival Guide for Geeks
Friday March 11, 5:00PM
Violet Blue, Open Source Sex
We may be hot and nerdy – and could all use a little “booty call boot camp”. When you’re faced with real-life situations and the nuances of quirky geeks who are smarter than the average hottie, and have that irresistible OCD, you’ll need to know more than how to Google a pickup line. Topics will include: Do’s and Don’ts of picking up geeks, Sex etiquette and social media, Why geeks are better lovers, how to attract a geek and Geek-specific suggestions for seeing each other.

For a complete list of sessions and speakers check out the SXSW Website – See you there!

The Geek (Of The Week) is That-a-Way

The beach is That-A-Way

Calling all geeks. Looking for your 15 seconds of fame on the intertubes? Look no further – we want to tell the world your story!

Serverbeach’s GEEK of the WEEK features the stories of our awesome clients alongside those of our own beloved in house geeks. Sarcastic sysadmins, dynamic developers, network macguyvers, wicked webmasters, ethical hackers, obsessive bloggers, gadget fanatics, power gamers and everyone in between. No matter what color hat you wear – as long as you hang out at the beach with a passion for technology, we want your face here.

Convinced? Send us your story! If you’re selected we’ll contact you via email and ask for a mugshot so the world can see exactly what we love about our geeks.

See past Geeks of the Week
Send us your story

I Heart Geeks Spotted Chasing Skirts in San Diego

Our infamous ‘I [Heart] Geeks’ ladies tshirts have been a big hit. Every man seems to want to bring one home for the geek-friendly lady in their life, including Jamie Lynch of  Encinitas, California.

We met Jamie earlier this week at the Magento Imagine Conference in Los Angeles, and this morning he sent us these great shots and video of some true geek love in action.

Jamie’s wife and her twin sister own Runningskirts.com, and they tell us that the ‘I [Heart] Geeks’ tshirt generated plenty of attention during their Valentines Fun Run this past week. The event was held at their flagship store in Encinitas, California (near San Diego). For the record, I’d like to call out those running skirts – they are adorable, and I want one! Watch the video below, around the 1:10 mark to spot the tshirt.

Thanks so much for sharing Jamie. We [heart] pictures 🙂