The economy sucks. Nothing new there. It's been 10 months since I've been laid off and my contract work and blog advertising isn't going to afford me a luxury SXSW trip. Why deprive myself? I'm doing it CHEAP.
Thanks SXSW Baby for the shout-out!
SXSW Baby is another great resource for finding out everything you could possibly want to know about what is going on at SXSW and what you can take advantage of during the festival. They also feature Message Boards where you can ask questions, find travel partners, hotels, etc.
Free wifi. Everyone loves it. The convention center has it. Don’t spend the $10+ a day that your hotel is offering up. You won’t be spending much time there anyways!
SXSW has more info on the Austin Convention Center’s wifi.
One of the easiest ways to wreck your budget is food. Everyone needs it. Especially with all of the free beer and booze a’flowing. If you don’t want to crash before all the good evening parties, food can be helpful tool to ensure your walking ability by 6PM.
Before leaving for SXSW, I packed a box of six PowerBars that I picked up at a drugstore for about $6.00. They are super easy to throw in your bag or jacket pocket, are chock full of vitamins and healthy stuff. (Read: Free BBQ for every meal is not healthy despite popular belief.) They are great to have around for those in between meals or when you’re stuck in an area of town or the convention center rampant in overpriced/pricy food options.
During every portion of SXSW, there are always opportunities to find free food. There are great tools like SCHED’s Free Food tag that help you find places to eat for free. There are always vendors/sponsors with “lounges” in the convention center offering up free grub and beverages. Many parties offer free BBQ and sometimes tacos or other TexMex.
Last night, while walking from the Pastries and Pasties burlesque party to Mohawk for the AMODA Digital Showcase, we ran into Live.com who were standing at the corner of 6th & Red River, passing out stickers which would grant you a slice of free pizza from the shop on that corner.
When all else fails, there are scores of people who have been sent to SXSW by their companies to make new relationships and are gifted with expense accounts to facilitate this. Find someone who can write off dinner and enjoy a good sit-down hot meal.
Anyone who has effectively networked in their lives knows business cards are an essential, especially at conferences! I was running out of my old business cards and wanted to make sure I was prepared for my 11 day trip at SXSW09.
I knew I wanted to order some Mini Moo cards from Moo.com and that I wanted to design them with a set of photos I had chosen from my Flickr account. Conveniently, Flickr and Moo have an integrated partnership for easy ordering!
After selecting the photos I wanted to use for my new business cards, cropping as needed and went to check out, I headed over to Retail Me Not, my favorite online coupon/discount aggregator. I found a super awesome coupon for first-time Moo customers and was able to get $4.00 off my order with it.
Total Cost (w/shipping): $22.98
I live in Atlanta, GA. SXSW is in Austin, TX. That means there’s a bit of transit involved to get me from Point A to Point B.
Transportation options include flying, driving, Amtrak, carpooling, private jet, hitchhiking, car rental, and a potentially a few others. I deducted the most time-efficient (while being money conscious of course) would be to fly. And the safest option. (It’s about a 14.5 hour drive!)
I flew a fair bit last year and racked up some AirTran credits which I decided I would like to use towards my SXSW trip. The great thing about AirTran in contrast to other commercial airlines frequent flyer programs is that they give you a flight credit for every segment you fly, regardless of the distance or price of that segment. My frequent and relatively short-distance trips to NYC last Summer and Fall earned me the 8 credits required for a free one-way coach fare.
The only hitch is that AirTran doesn’t fly to Austin, TX. The closest destination is San Antonio, TX — approximately one hour and twenty minutes away from Austin. After doing a little bit of poking around, I learned there are many shuttle options from San Antonio to Austin, a few as low as $20 each way! I purchased the plane ticket using my credits and with taxes and fees (and choosing my seat), the ticket ran me $8.50.
For my return flight, I used a promotional discount code I received by being on AirTran’s mailing list which earned me $25 off my flight and was able to purchase a ticket for $165 with taxes, fees and choosing my seat.
Travel Total:
$8.50 Flight from Atlanta to San Antonio
$20.00 Shuttle from San Antonio to Austin
$20.00 Shuttle from Austin to San Antonio
$165 Flight from San Antonio to Atlanta
TOTAL: $213.50
All three divisions of SXSW have email newsletters. It just so happens that the conference gives away free Interactive badges on the Interactive mailing list once a month leading up to the event. In order to win, you simply have to answer a trivia question based off of a recent SXSW blog post and enter via email. They choose the winner from the lot of correct answers received.
So I entered one of these contests on a whim (desperation?) and a week later, I found out that I had won! Not only did I win a free Interactive badge but SXSW also put up a nice little blog post up about my winning including a very brief bio and photo. Great for pre-networking? It was definitely beneficial visibility and a big expense avoided.
Like my “About” section says:
The economy sucks. Nothing new there. It’s been 10 months since I’ve been laid off and my contract work and blog advertising isn’t going to afford me a luxury SXSW trip. Why deprive myself? I’m doing it CHEAP.
I am attending both SXSW Interactive and SXSW Music this year. I am going to do so as cheaply as I possibly can and utilize every resource I can find to make this possible!
My trip will span 11 days — from Thursday, March 12 to Sunday, March 22. Interactive is from March 13-17 and Music is from March 18-22.
I am aiming to spend less than $200 total excluding my transportation to/from Austin.
On this blog, I will chronicle my spending and tips/tricks I find or learn during the experience for reference in future years. If you have any of your own, do share!
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