There are soooo many panels at SXSW that it was really tough to narrow it down to a schedule. But it had to be done, even though I still had some time slot conflicts. Take a look at my schedule.

I kicked off SXSW with a couple of rather boring book readings. I’m sure the books themselves are interesting, but the authors were only given 30 minutes to cover their book and that’s just not enough to get to anything exciting.

The first panel I attended was How to Rawk SXSW: The Basics. It was very informative for SXSW noobs like me. There were 6 people on the panel and they opened a bottle of Bullet Bourbon and it was gone in less than 30 minutes. Basically, the key to SXSW is to party, meet people and have fun. Good goals if you ask me. One of the notable panelists is the co-founder of Wordpress, he’s the one on the far left. As the panel drew to a close, I got up to shuffle my way out of the room. Half way during the said shuffling, I realized that I’m passing right by the lovely Veronica Belmont. So I introduced myself and she seemed really nice. I think I might actually have crush on her.

We got to the venue for the next panel a little early. While we were waiting, I ran into a friend that I haven’t seen in a long time. He actually sat down right in front of me. What are the odds? Not only that, I turned around and sitting there behind me was Heather Armstrong. If you haven’t been to her blog, Dooce.com, I strongly suggest you do so. Here’s a post representative of the quality of her blogging. I told her I was looking forward to the panel she’s hosting. I love web celebrities, they’re so easy to talk to!

I walked by the Hilton next to the convention center and ran into Kevin Rose. He and a group of fellow SXSW-ers are going rock climbing. So I thought, why not? I’ve never been rock climbing before and it turned out to be pretty fun, and also tougher than I thought. Although I did find out that I’m decent at rope climbing, and I’ve never even had to do it in gym class. I got to chat with Kevin for a little bit, he seems like just an average guy.

So there ya go, first day at SXSW and I’ve already ran into pretty much everyone I had really hoped to meet. It can only get better from here. Check Flickr for a few pictures. I’ll be adding more over the course of the conference.