SXSW.

Full Stop co-founder Jay Fanelli and I are headed to SXSW this year, scheduled to leave on a flight Thursday morning at 5:00 AM. We’re dropping what seems to me like crazy money on plane tickets, a hotel room, a rental car, and tickets. Strangest of all, attending the conference isn’t the priority. I haven’t given the list of speakers more than a cursory glance. Some of them are probably gifted orators with smart things to say. I hope I get to hear a few of them. The real reason we’re going, though, is to socialize with our web designing, developing, content-wrangling brothers and sisters.

For a depressing analysis of the embarrassing bloat of speakers and emphasis on profit by the organizers — to the shameful exclusion of a good user experience ((Hey, how terrible is that web site, am I right?)) — see Mike Davidson’s withering invective.