I Won A Free Interactive Badge!
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.
