Corvus Consulting

With thmbnl heading out into the brave web world, I’ve rubbed my eyes and re-acquainted myself with sunlight and fresh air. Then I broke into a cold sweat, realizing that:

I’m going to SxSW in two days!

It’s my first time around at the venerated, and enticingly infamous human-colliding event, and I’m overwhelmed by the scale of it all. Amid the blur, I’ve committed to podcasting with friends Larry and Chris of Citizen Garden and with Robert Scales . I got pulled into a persuasion mob by Philip Jeffrey, who’s been herding attending Vancouverites online with Tod Maffin and others. I’ll also be joining some friends of Ma.gnolia, coming together for lunch on Sunday, followed by a spot on team Flower Power for Geeks Love Bowling. Sadly, I never did get a chance to brush up on my ten-pin game beyond the Wii.

And then there’s the schedule; I don’t think Disney has this many things to choose from, though I don’t see Haunted Mansion on the list. After seeing a static schedule a couple weeks ago, I balked at even thinking about somehow recording what I wanted to see. Procrastination is a beautiful thing sometimes, because only a few days ago I found out about Sched.org.

The SxSW schedule at Sched demonstrates its elegance. Signing up is a matter of adding a user name and password that are instantly validated. Building your own schedule is as easy as clicking checkboxes. Everything happens on one responsive surface, and then pivots out to iCal. A couple more clicks, and I now have a personal SxSW calendar of everything I’m interested in. Hook up the iPod Touch and it’s in the pocket. Life is good. Whether or not you’re heading to Austin, Sched is worth a look.

And if you are going Texas-style, let’s say hi; I’ll have a fist-full of thmbnl buttons to give out, and one of them has your name on it. And that will likely lead to beer, as I hear most things there do.