South X SouthWest came again this year, and this time, I was able to spend a day wandering around downtown Austin with my bestie @a_a_ron88 ! We had a good time and came out with a nice loot too. Next year we're planning on making a proper weekend of it. More free things! Yay!
We first went to the #sxswesteros exibit early in the morning. We were lucky enough to get in and out very quickly, but easily spent a good hour or so inside. They had three large screens projected on the wall, and you were able to grab a wooden sword and strike at targets being projected. Like a Game of Thrones Wii game! You eventually 'colored' in your portrait that they had taken prior to you getting up on stage. Bestie decided to join the fun at the last minute!
Next stop was the #FXFEARLESS lounge that was super super cool and so suave. I could spend forever in there. They had comfortable couches, amazing decorations, free water and coffee and sweets, and even a free tee station!. And this really neat vending machine that gave out prizes if you tweeted out the code it gave you. So we both got really cool thermoses. And shirts, and by this point, I realized that bringing a tote bag for next year is a very good idea.
We also made a stop at the #essuranceaccess booth, and got registered for daily prizes. However, their tee printing machine was down, so we ended up with free juice instead. Which was.....it wasn't that great aahah! It was the beet juice in mine I'm guessing BUT it really wasn't a good juice. I had a watermelon/beet juice/lime/something blend, and Bestie had Orange juice with beet juice, bee pollen and..something else. Mine tasted a little gross.
after a nice sit down, (and buying a tourist sxsw tee, because why not and also we needed something to put all our merch in) we managed to make our way to the #3M tent where they had lots of cool tech things happening. But we had been on our feet all day, and had been up at ungodly hours, so we didn't stay long. We did get free duct tape from the tent though, so that was nice!
we also met an excitable young man in line at 3M, and I know I felt suddenly old when he told us he was only 20. Also, we shared a super cool cop car cab sponsored by #battlecreek airing on CBS They were giving free rides to anyone with a special Battle Creek police badge. It really came in handy because we were just tired and achey and it would have been a long walk back to my car. (I know they took a picture of us getting into the car, but I couldn't find it anywhere on Twitter. :(
And last, a picture of the loot we both got (this is my pic)! It wasn't a bad day at all, and I can't wait to see what turns out next year when things actually have a plan and we both have proper days off to enjoy and recover.