SXSW 2010 is a week away, but my mind’s already there. Here’s why.

SXSW last year was a fishbowl, an immersive experience that has continued to influence my life today: I met a ton of great people, created some great relationships (some of which led me to move to New Orleans), led a Core Conversation about trends in venture capital and entrepreneurship, and thoroughly enjoyed both Interactive and Music (a little too much, since I crawled home with the SXSW scurvy).

As great as last year was, this year will be better. I’ve talked to a lot of people coming to SXSW this year and the overwhelming opinion I’ve gotten is that it’s going to be busier, busier, busier. I haven’t dug into the full schedule of events to really figure out what I’ll be doing, but there are a couple things I know I’ll be doing:

• Pre-SXSW: The Chevy SXSW Road Trip Charlotte/Raleigh Team NC will be hitting New Orleans on Tuesday March 9th. The Chevy SXSW Road Trip Challenge is a competition between eight teams from across the United States…

  Starting the week of March 8 (the week before SXSW), eight teams of social media folks from across the United States will embark on a combination road trip/scavenger hunt competition from their hometowns to Austin behind the wheel of some of Chevy’s newest products. Along the way they’ll need to complete 50 “challenges” in order to determine the winner. The winning team will be the one that not only has completed the most challenges, but has done the most interacting with their community on Twitter and their own sites. But what’s really going to be fun is that you get to help us decide all of the tasks the teams are going to have to complete along the way!

  Team NC is Jason Keath, Nicole D’Alonzo, Wayne Sutton and Ryan Boyles. I don’t know what challenges they’ll be completing in New Orleans, but I do know that NOLAlicious and Capdeville will be hosting a tweetup to welcome Team NC to New Orleans, Tuesday March 9th from 5 to 7 PM. RSVP on the Facebook event page. And, of course, follow Team NC’s blog.

• Pre-SXSW: The Tuttle 2 Texas crew is coming through New Orleans March 9th to the 11th on their way from London to Austin for SXSW. I first heard about Tuttle from Alan Patrick at SXSW 2009, and meeting with the Tuttle crew every Friday morning quickly became a weekly ritual for me whenever I was in London in the later half of 2009.

  As Lloyd Davis explains, the Tuttle 2 Texas trip is about:

  The real purpose of the trip is to make connections and build relationships through conversation. That’s what Tuttle is really good at. That’s why we’re travelling slowly across America in such a crazy, old-fashioned, inefficient way. I want to meet old friends with whom I’ve only ever tweeted. I also want to meet new people and get to know them and think about who we are and what we have in common and how we’re all trying to make sense of this world that has been turned upside-down in our lifetimes.

  They’re taking trains from Boston to NYC to Washington DC to Atlanta to New Orleans to experience a bit of slow travel, filming a documentary about conversations, examining the similarities/differences between American and British culture, and then they’re riding with me to Austin, tweeting, videoing and blogging the entire way. Follow their trip on their blog, Tuttle 2 Texas. And if you’re in NOLA, we’re going to set up a space for conversations at Launch Pad and a tweetup for them on the 10th. Stay tuned.

• Saturday, March 13th, 11 AM: Photoshelter’s Austin Photo Seminar: Thriving in Uncertain Photographic Times. I’ll be giving the introductory remarks about “Creating Context for your Content”, extending a thought about Instead of focusing on the image, focus on everything around the image. In short:
  

  The biggest creative and business opportunities for photographers is not the image, but everything around the image. In other words, the opportunity is in context, not content. Taylor Davidson will set the stage for the day by discussing how photographers can build and leverage rich “context experiences” to create artistic and business opportunities in the photography industry.

  My goal is to set the stage for the rest of the day:

  You have a rock solid portfolio, a fancy website, and you’re tweeting nonstop. Now what?

  Join the photo marketing experts from PhotoShelter and local pro shooters as we get together for an afternoon to discuss, debate and share insight into the changing landscape of our industry. You’ll leave armed with the new tools, innovative marketing strategies and inspiring techniques you need to grow your photography business now. Don’t just survive, thrive.

  This event is from 11 AM to 4 PM at the Long Center for the Performing Arts, and since it’s not a SXSW event, requires separate registration and a $20 fee. Register HERE.

• SXSW: Sunday, March 14th, 5 PM: SXSW Core Conversation. I’ll be co-leading a Core Conversation entitled Everyone can be a *professional* photographer with Allen Murabayashi, the CEO and co-founder of Photoshelter. In short:
  

  Everyone is a photographer: a camera in every cellphone, a point-and-shoot in every pocket, a digital SLR camera in every bag or home. New platforms to create, distribute and sell to a wider range of clientele give everyone the opportunity to be a *professional* photographer and sell their photography.

  We’ll cover the economics behind the tools to create, promote, distribute and sell photography-related content in today’s marketplace while also bringing out the conversation from the rest of the attendees. Sunday, March 14th at 5 PM in room 8A at the Austin Convention Center. Direct link to the event on the SXSW schedule is HERE.

• SXSW Interactive: Good times throughout. I’ll have the chance to continue to talk about my love for New Orleans and the opportunities in the emerging startup movement in New Orleans, all while bouncing around meeting people.

  I’m looking forward to the Se@SW – Southeast at SXSW mixer, New Orleans’ panel Uprising Tide – Inciting Online Communities into Offline Movements, checking out panels about social search, Haiti CrisisCamp, and many other events that I haven’t yet heard of but are sure to rock my SXSW.

  Serendipity, please do me right again, last year was great.

• SXSW Music. Oh, and I’m staying in Austin for SXSW for Music. Got a band I need to see? Drop me a line. Looking forward…

Want to know where I’ll be throughout the rest of 2010, or to contact me about speaking, consulting or meeting? Check out my 2010 schedule.