Category: sxsw

I haven’t had much luck in finding a roommate for SXSW, so I may end up just booking a hotel on my own. So, does anyone have any suggestions for hotels? Something close to the convention center would be convenient, and free breakfast would be a plus (since I’m trying to save on costs here and there).

Apparently, there’s a new Hampton Inn near the convention center which is becoming popular with some bloggers. According to that post at SXSWBlog, the rate is $76.50 (for AAA), though I’m currently getting errors at Hampton Inn’s website when I try to get a rate quote to confirm that :-/. (Perhaps it’s full already.)

I also checked Hotels.com for prices. There, the Wellesley Inn & Suites North (8221 North Ih-35) caught my eye as it’s just $60/night but it includes breakfast and a kitchen in each room.

There’s also the Wellesley Inn Town Lake which is closer than the North location. However, it wasn’t showing up on Hotels.com and wasn’t able to get a rate quote on their website either, leading me to believe that it might just be full (not that I’d be terribly surprised, considering how close it is to the convention center).

If you’ve already booked your hotel, we could even carpool to and from the convention center if I were to book there as well.

I would like to attend South By Southwest and I’m trying to figure out whether I can afford to go. SXSW Interactive runs from March 7 - 11 and I was initially thinking that I could go down for just a few of those days, to save money. However, there’re speakers I’d like to see on either end (Richard M Stallman on Fri March 7, and Ben & Mena Trott on Tue March 11).

In order to make an informed decision, I figured on calculating a cost-estimate and comparing that to my funds (it sounds so simple…). Here’s what I’ve come up with (on the assumption, so far, that I would drive down Friday afternoon and return Tuesday night), but let me know if I’ve forgotten anything:

• SXSW Fees: $120
• Hotel for Friday night through Monday night, assuming I can find someone with which to share a room: $40 x 4 = $160
• Breakfasts for Saturday through Tuesday morning: $5 x 4 = $20
• Lunches for Friday through Tuesday: $10 x 5 = $50
• Dinners for Friday through Tuesday:$20 x 5 = $100
• Additional Beverages for Friday through Tuesday evenings: $10 x 5 = $50
• Gas, one tank in each direction, but figuring on three tanks just to be sure: $15 x 3 = $45

So, that comes to about $545. Did I miss anything?

[Dow update: -141.45 to 7,989.56]

I’ve signed up for SXSW, including the discount for the DFW Bloggers (South by Southwest is a film, music, and technology festival in Austin). However, I now need to find a room. So, if you’re looking for a roommate, let me know.

I'm looking forward to so many of the panels there:

• Joe Clark will talk about “High Design, High Accessibility” [Sat, March 8th]
• Lawrence Lessig will elaborate on the Creative Commons Project. [Sun, March 9th]
• Katherine Parrish will discuss barriers to participation in Internet communities. [Sun, March 9th]
• Davezilla will school you on how to make your site funny. [Mon, March 10th]
• Eric Meyer, Tantek Çelik and Jeffrey Zeldman will de-mystify CSS. [Mon, March 10th]
• Ben and Mena Trott will lead a discussion titled “Beyond the Blog.” [Tues, March 11th]
• Josh Ulm will dissect the latest trends in web design. [Tues, March 11th]