http://upcoming.yahoo.com/tag... is the list of every event tagged with SXSW. My own calendar is here: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/user... The Official SXSW party planner is here: http://sxsw2009.sched.org/ - Robert Scoble

The reason you should use Upcoming is because you can tell popularity of each party. Make sure you notice that people can mark that they are attending each party or that they simply are "interested." Lots of people, like me, list that they are interested on tons of parties. It's the "attend" votes you want to go for. - Robert Scoble

The other reason you should use Upcoming is because you can tell who is going to each party. Your friends are probably already onto what parties are best. So use them. Here's an example: - Robert Scoble

For instance, I know from past experience that Tantek (the guy who did the IE browser for the Macintosh and helped come up with microformats) is the kind of guy I like hanging out with. So, I go to his Upcoming page http://upcoming.yahoo.com/user... and see what he's attending. Anything he's going to I'll probably like too. - Robert Scoble

If you don't have any friends in the industry, here's a few of the best if you're a geeky type (I'll come back with a bunch of names, just stick around): - Robert Scoble

Scott Beale (Laughing Squid). Last year he made his own parties happen via Twitter. And he bought everyone beer. Basically everyone goes where Scott goes because he's a cool guy who throws great parties (if you ever get to attend his parties in SF, go, they are always very cool): http://upcoming.yahoo.com/user... - Robert Scoble

Nicole Simon. She comes from Germany every year and she's always at the coolest parties. http://upcoming.yahoo.com/user... - Robert Scoble

Steve Garfield. He's the videobloggers video blogger. If you want to hang out with cool types like Gary Vaynerchuk and Veronica, Steve probably will be the one to follow. http://upcoming.yahoo.com/user... - Robert Scoble

Rachel Clarke: she's a web marketing expert coming from UK. Every year I see her at the best parties. http://upcoming.yahoo.com/user... Of course she's attending the great British Boozeup: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event... - Robert Scoble

Hi Robert, this is great. I will be in Austin for the first time. This will help a lot. It would be fun to have something like a feed tied into each location, that one could track in FF. - Bastian

Ewan Spence: every year he's seen wearing a kilt (he comes from Scotland). One year he bought me a bottle of Scotch Whiskey. We drank it on the spot, of course, which made him one of my favorite people to party with. http://upcoming.yahoo.com/user... - Robert Scoble

I'm stuck here in Toronto instead of being able to go to SXSW, and this is making me wish more and more that I could attend. - Chris Charabaruk

++++++If picking out cool people doesn't help you, then pick out the cool events. Here's my favorites. Note, you might need to bribe your way into some of these.+++++++ - Robert Scoble

BarCamp. The standard. The one where I met Ze Frank and Matt Mullenweg at the same table. http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event... - Robert Scoble

The Big Digg Shindig. You know you want to go: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event... - Robert Scoble

Make Magazine Party. Make is for people who like making things. Fit you? You'll be put to work here. http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event... - Robert Scoble

Facebook. I judge a party by how hard it is to get into. Last year I had to try twice to get my friends into this party. http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event... Zuckerberg told me he probably won't be there this year, though. - Robert Scoble

Wordpress. Come on, nothing cooler than Matt Mullenweg's crew. Represent! http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event... - Robert Scoble

Google Reader/Blogger. OK, last year the Google party's line was so long we Twittered and started our own party with Scott Beale. Next year we're going to be smarter and get to this one early. http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event... - Robert Scoble

Brightkite. I'll bet you'll know where this party will be. http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event... - Robert Scoble

Mashable. Chris Brogan is going to the Mashable party, so you know it'll be social. http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event... - Robert Scoble

SXNW (South By NorthWest) geek party. One of the most popular. For good reason. http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event... Betsy Weber and Robert Scales, along with 318 other geeks will be there. - Robert Scoble

Someday I am going to SXSW, too busy this year with the Peterson's data center move project. But as I learn and engage more on the Social Media front, I need step up my understanding and my contact list :) - Susan Beebe

Rackspace. One way to pick out the parties is to know who has the most to spend and to gain. Rackspace had an IPO last year and is looking to build a brand around its cloud computing services, so this one is one I'm looking forward to. http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event... - Robert Scoble

If you can't attend SXSW you gotta watch http://www.ustream.tv/sxsw -- lots of music and smart people on from a decked out hotel. I'll be on most evenings at about 5 p.m. Central Time/6 p.m. Pacific Time. - Robert Scoble

But not a single high quality live video stream, which is a shame. - Richard A.

Richard: we'll be pushing out live video. I will also try to Qik or Kyte some stuff too. Stay tuned to Twitter. Usually someone sticks up a live stream of some stuff. - Robert Scoble

I'm tired of low quality video. I want well produced content with good sound, good lighting, something that's not a pain to watch. By now the infrastructure should be in place. - Richard A.

Patricia: if you think parties don't have business value then I gotta tell you you are doing them wrong. A friend went to a party at TED, met a VC, and walked away with six million dollars. If that's not business value, then I don't know what is. To say you get "nothing" out of a week hanging out with the best web experts and entrepreneurs in the world tells me your friend really has no clue, sorry. People like that SHOULD stay home. - Robert Scoble

But there's lots at SXSW that have nothing to do with parties. Visit http://sxsw2009.sched.org and see the kinds of sessions that are there. - Robert Scoble

Patricia, many of the top geeks from Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Facebook, Rackspace and many others will be there. That's who I'll be hanging out with. The kinds of people I've been pointing out here are the kinds: Tantek is one of the top programmers in the world. The CTO of Amazon is going to be there. Etc Etc. - Robert Scoble

But I really don't care. The hotels are all sold out, this is going to be even bigger than last year, so I'm sure we won't miss you if you decide there's no value there. Obviously someone thinks there's some value. - Robert Scoble

@Robert, what an odd thing to say. I don't know if there's value or not. I'm trying to figure it out. I hear mixed things. It's certainly not intended in some negative way - I am asking because I need to sift out if it's a smart move or not. - Patricia

Patricia: it's an odd thing because it's an odd question and an odd stance by your friend. If someone came back from ANY event and said he got nothing out of it I'd fire him or try to get him out of my life. That's the lamest thing I've ever heard. - Robert Scoble

And I don't care because you SHOULD stay home and watch me on http://www.upcoming.org/sxsw -- if you come you'll probably end up talking to someone interesting at a party instead of watching our cool show. :-) - Robert Scoble

Patricia: even that is extremely lame. I don't go to an event if I don't know who will be there and if I need to meet certain people I make an appointment ahead of time or I don't go. This person should be fired if that's how she approaches events (or, at minimum, never allowed to go on the road again because she obviously has no clue about how to spend the company's money). - Robert Scoble

Patricia: scary. I probably wouldn't stay employed by such a person if she came back from an event and told me something so lame. - Robert Scoble

Robert, understood. but it is true that some events just aren't a fit. in her category, SXSW wouldn't more than likely have the type of people she needs to meet. if anything it may have been better for her to sample 2 days or so to start and see versus going all week. - Patricia

Patricia: I bet she didn't look at Upcoming.org before spending all that money and time to go to an event. If she had, she probably would have been able to see that the people who attend the event aren't her kind of people. - Robert Scoble

Heck, about 1065 people are listed here on the SXSW Upcoming event page: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event... -- you can very quickly troll around and figure out what kind of people are attending the event. There's no excuse anymore for attending an event that you don't have some affinity for. Plus, add into this the http://sxsw2009.sched.org and you can see all the sessions. I still say that's the lamest thing I've ever heard, though. I could attend a plumbing convention and get SOME value out of it. - Robert Scoble

Robert, thank you. You helped me a ton here. I have a good idea of how to approach the conference and definitely appreciate all your insight!! - Patricia