SXSW wrapping up in Austin

The circus is packing up in Austin. After several days of panels, presentations, hallway evangelism and presumably heroic quantities of unhealthy snacks, SXSW conference is drawing to a close. The crowds are abandoning the Texas sun, armed with business cards, new ideas and perhaps a slightly diminished respect for their own livers.

For those who don’t have the time or constitution to wade through the mountain of reports, blog posts and presentations generated by the conference, here are a few things worth salvaging from the wreckage.

• How to Be A Web Design Superhero – Andy Clarke and Andy Budd presented web design through the glorious medium of Alex Ross-style comic-book superheroes. Because apparently discussing CSS wasn’t sufficiently nerdy already. Don’t miss Jeffrey Zeldman as Clark Kent.
• WaSP reloaded — Dave Clarke finally unveiled the next incarnation of the Web Standards Project. The standards war continues. Browsers remain the enemy.
• Eric Meyer wrote a useful summary of the various panels for those of us who weren’t there to nod thoughtfully from the audience.
• Robert Nyman, Veerle Pieters and Jeffrey Zeldman all seem to agree that the real attraction of SXSW isn’t necessarily what happens on stage. It’s the people, the conversations and the general atmosphere surrounding the whole thing. As with most worthwhile gatherings, the interesting stuff tends to happen between the scheduled events.