SXSWi Wrap-Up Day 1: Alarm Bells Sound, It's Party Time
Some folks stayed behind, but hundreds filed onto the sidewalks before police declared it a false alarm. A "system malfunction" was the official explanation from the Austin Fire Department.
The alarms could very well have signaled the end to a successful first day of SXSW and the beginning of the official party season, as many took the opportunity to get an early start on evening events.
The day began with perfect weather, with temperatures into the 70s and a cloudless sky. The Interactive Festival was packed with one of its largest crowds ever, but with events at the Hilton and other venues, the halls never seems overcrowded. During the sessions, the building's wireless network, which had problems in previous years, seemed to hold up fine under the first day's strain. Registration and badge pickup times ebbed and flowed, from as little as 15 minutes to as many of 50, but reports from Twitter suggested that the line moved quickly even under the busiest conditions.
Veterans noticed the amusing return of the "SXSW walk", as people walked the halls at about three-quarter speed, with eyes glued to their phones and fingers swiping across the screen.
The day's biggest names of the day were HDNet's Mark Cuban and Boxee's Avner Ronen, who debated PayTV versus the Internet in the battle for the future of television.
