South By Texas State

There are three non-physical things I love that perhaps don’t always go hand-in-hand with my “nerd tendencies”: politics, media and fashion. However, I think that is changing considering some of the offerings at this year’s SXSWi.

Interactive has a quite a political touch this year with a few panels focusing on how campaigns have changed thanks to Web 2.0 tools like social media. The March 14 panel Politics, Technology, and Pop Culture has me tickled with excitement. It will feature Mark McKinnon of Public Strategies Inc, Obama Girl Amber Ettinger, Tom Serres of Piryx Inc., Dan Patterson of ABC News, Alex Wellen of CNN and the last minute add of Lawrence Lessig (thanks, Chris). It’s an interesting mix of speakers because you have the political campaigners, mass media and of course, who could forget Obama Girl.

OK, maybe we could forget.

Bringing about fame for a political candidate via the web is one thing, but what about yourself? It’s why I’m loving the Tuesday, March 17 panel UR Blog Sux and Print is Dead. The title itself tells it all: If your blog sucks, no one will read and you will keep trudging away at that lame job you have. Of course, it’s amazing what can hit it big. Who would have thought pictures of cats with captions would have been the next best thing since sliced bread? Apparently, Ben Huh knew all along and it’s just the reason to check this panel out.

Fortunately for me, Tuesday will wrap up just the way any day should with a little bit of talk on fashion and not just the runway type. Alison Lewis, the editor and producer of the Switch, will be one of the speakers featured in the panel The Convergence of High-End Design, Fashion and Technology. As many of us know, high-tech gadgets should have a level sexiness to make them appealing, but they also need to work well. Hands down, Apple is at the forefront with bringing great technology and design together, but it will be interesting to what other gadgets are out there doing the same.