I have been hearing about SXSW for years…and never really considered going. My good friends Marisa Bangash & Melinda Lee (www.uncensoredinterview.com) first turned me onto it a few years ago and while it initially appeared like a new music conference 2010 was the beginning of the shift. CBS Interactive, Leo LaPorte (twit.tv), NPR, BBC and others have been covering it like its the next CES or NAB…but for the insiders and from what I have read and heard it was very cool. Our friend Gary Vaynerchuk gave a keynote as an example…and the list includes the “who’s who” in the world of interactive. The bad news…I didn’t go…the good news…there was folks twitting, blogging and live feeds all over the place and it was fun to get the overview. But being there is what its all about…so look for me in Austin next year.

As I said, there were a boatload of stuff…including the following from my friend and colleague Brian Reich.

I presented at SXSW in Austin, TX this morning as a part of the technology in government Future15 series. My talk was called ‘blamestorm.’

The basic premise of the talk was this: “Technology and the internet can help drive change in the world. We can solve real problems.  Address complex issues. But its not happening. Not enough is getting done. Why not? Because most people don’t understand… and they are holding us back.”

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I was listening to the live webcast of Leo LaPorte’s “TWIT Live” program and his two guests were internet experts, Natali DelConte, a former SobelMedia panelist and a report for CBS Interactive (among other things) and Jason Calacanis, who I met a few years ago. Jason is an Internet entrepreneur and former blogger. He has founded many companies including Silicon Alley Reporter and Weblogs, Inc. He is the founder of Mahalo.com and has been its CEO since 2007.

Natali can be reached via: http://www.natalidelconte.com/

Jason can be reached at: http://calacanis.com/

Leo can be reached at: http://leoville.com/