Yesterday was our ‘behind the scenes’ day of SXSW – load-in!

After driving through an unusually busy day in downtown Austin, we arrived at the Convention Center with a Honda Element full of signs, gear and supplies. Upon arrival, we were greeted by a guy directing exhibitors on where to park. After verifying we have SXSW badges, he directed us to a great parking spot located right next to the entrance (sweet!).

We took the freight elevator up, arriving at a gigantic convention-style room full of exhibitors setting up their booths. From what we saw, it looks like there are a good number of exhibitors this year. The room was still moveable and didn’t feel overly crowded which was helpful for bringing supplies in.

We took a moment to walk around and meet some of the other exhibitors. We saw a lot of different groups, including Google (cool, well-lit sign) and Blellow (who mentioned they are doing a party with Mashable and were kind enough to give us some slices of pizza). We noticed there is a big “couch trend” this year.

All in all, the room was not overly crowded but clearly has a good number of exhibitors. The SXSW staff seemed well organized. To check out a cart, we had to leave collateral. Suffice to say, when our cart went missing, I was a little worried I wouldn’t be able to retrieve my collateral (which, in my case, was my Lifetime Fitness membership card since that’s all we had on us)…but the staff was great about it and it actually turned out they had taken it back because they thought it was not being used (good thing because I was just thinking I needed to use that membership again when the conference is over). ;o)

SXSW is well attended by press so we spent the better half of the day back at the Star Nine office getting our press materials prepared which turned into a fun evening of stuffing folders and catching up.

All in all, we’re pumped about launching and exhibiting at SXSW 2009 and really looking forward to meeting everyone!