Your editor showed up at the Austin Convention Center well in advance of her panel and spent many fruitless minutes finding the registration booth, getting checked in, and assuring the registration people that she was not some impostor "Sarah Smith" from some non-Wonkette entity. Fortunately, this process went on long enough that she got to meet Mark McKinnon!
You know this dude, yes? Former Bush guy, then McCain guy, quit because he didn't want to be mean to Barack Obama? He was very classy and nice to your editor, even though she wrote this slightly obnoxious thing about him just before the election. He apologized for the shitty weather.
A forty-minute Death March through the bowels of the Austin Convention Center ensued. Here is the thing about this center: You can get from the first floor to the fourth fairly easily, from the first to the second with some difficulty, and from the first to the third via precisely one (1) elevator that was nestled off in the film dorks' area. So your gal went from floor 4 to 1 to 2 to 1 to 3, finally, to get to the glamorous Green Room where all the panelists hang out and talk shit about the plebes.
Following a brief conversation that consisted mostly of "Where is Zadi?" we shuffled off to our assigned room, which was a bit larger than your editor had anticipated, thus: frightening. But fourth panelist Zadi Diaz was there, hooray!
That is Jeff Jarvis there in the photo, looking tall, as is his wont.
A pack of Republican web people lurked in the very center of the audience, and they did not care much for anyone pointing out how funny it was when Rebuild the Party got swamped with pleas for more Truck Nutz. However, these Republican lurkers were kept in line by the Obama people seated directly in front of them. Most of the controversy in the panel centered on whether a social media campaign is successful if it generates "buzz," regardless of the quality or nature of the buzz.
(Answer: if the associated buzz involves finger-banging, the campaign is a success.)
Our noble moderator, Blogads' own Henry Copeland (he is a Hero to Wonkette because he sells that ads that keep your editors from raiding the cat food pantry for sustenance, thank you Henry!), ventured that a successful campaign did not "pollute" the general atmosphere. So of course afterwards certain Republicans were overheard grumping about how Wonkette was the real "polluter."
And then we met Markos "Daily" Kos, who was super nice! We talked about how Sarah Palin was a blessing and a gift, and proof that Jesus loves Democrats.
And this looming plaid demon here is PETA's Joel Bartlett, who brought our attention to the organization's latest innovation: George Clooney-flavored tofu.
So hooray thank you South by Southwest, thank you Casino El Camino for the tasty burgers, thank you Henry for putting together a fun panel and Zsolt for staying awake even though it was midnight your time.
A link to some sort of recording of the panel -- audio? video? audio, probably -- will be made available if and when we ever figure out where it is.
