There are 3 important things you are going to  achieve at large events like SXSW 2013:
1. Learn from attending the demos/panels/Keynotes
2. Networking and Accelerating your outreach to influencers by networking
3. Achieving long lasting human relationships
As a 6th year attendee of SXSW, here are a few tips to achieve the 3 goals:
-  Plan and mark the sessions you want to attend. The sessions are spread out so plan like a college student plans their classes - the topic and the distance of the subsequent sessions if they are back to back. Popular sessions fill up fast, so plan to arrive early. Here’s a useful link to the full SXSW schedule.Â
- Networking - The opportunities to network are all over. Events and meetups are great. For small business attending SXSW please come to the Small Business Meetup with Ramon Ray on March 9th and the TechCocktail’s SXSW Startup Celebration. See you there! Take a look at Eventbrite’s SXSW site to see events, many of which may be free or open. You can also check out the Plancast and search for your friends or colleagues to see what events they are attending
Town Crier Photo credit Daily Marauder on Flickr
- Human Connections. I cannot stress how important this is, the guy or gal you met at the street corner listening to the Town crier may be the editor of an important publication or founder of a technology company or the blogger you always wanted to meet. Give your phone and laptop a rest and look around you and for a moment. Forget your mom’s advice of ‘Don’t talk to strangers†and make those strong human connections that will come in useful for your business.Â
See you at SXSW2013!
