Jake Cacciapaglia from DartBoston on SXSW 2010: The Perfect Storm for Power Networking

When I first heard about South by Southwest I had no idea what all the hype was about, and to be honest I didn’t quite understand why it was such a big deal.  It was early in 2009.  The honeymoon stage of Twitter had hardly worn off and I finally started to understand the use of hashtags, which is how I knew something special was going down at #sxsw (aka South by or Sx).  I followed a whole bunch of people who were at the 2009 festival, which made it easy to gather there was a killer party taking place in the heart of Texas.  There was no way I was going to let SXSW 2010 pass me by!
Fast forward to early January 2010.  Plane tickets were cheap (something like $600 roundtrip) and I had a friend’s hotel room to crash in, the decision was a pretty much made for me.  Just as the monsoon rains reached Boston, I reached Austin, Texas where it was 75 degrees and sunny!

Game Plan?  The only thing I knew upon arriving in Austin was that there would be amazing people, ideas and of course, parties hosted by some of the coolest tech companies from all over the country.   And of course, DartBoston was bringing Capitalize to the mix with two west coast Angels, Dave McClure and Dan Martell! 

Over the five days I spent in Austin there were hundreds of panels on everything from community management and SEO to new interactive technologies and lean start-ups.  I made it to exactly two panel discussions, both with a borrowed pass (shhh!) because passes are expensive (approx. $500) and,  so I decided not to buy one.  In fact, I don’t think anyone would argue that the best networking takes place at parties and other events going on outside of the convention center – believe me there is no shortage.  Plenty of other people were doing the same and I would recommend this route for anyone trying to be cost-effective.

Every night in Austin was consumed by a multitude of massive parties that lasted well into the early morning hours and you could pretty much take your pick.  This is where the real power networking takes place.

My expectation for SXSW was to meet as many people working on cool tech stuff as I could, and my expectations were totally blown away.  Imagine every Hotel in eight square blocks packed with thought leaders, founders, investors and CEOs.   Industry icons like Tony Hsieh – CEO of Zappos, Ev Williams – Founder of Twitter,  Dharmesh Shah – Founder of Hubspot, Pete Cashmore – Founder of Mashable, Jason Calicanis – ThisWeekinStartups, Gary Vaynerchuck, , and Guy Kawasaki were floating around everywhere.  Ashton Kutcher even made an appearance!  I came back with more business cards than I could handle and lots quality relationships.  It was awesome!

Lesson learned: Pace yourself!  Someone shared this advice with me and chose not to listen…
Big thanks to RiotVine created by one of Boston’s very own, Kabir Hemrajani, which made it possible to know when and where the hottest events were taking place.  
If you are thinking about SXSW 2011, buy your plane ticket now! For those of you that attended SXSW, what did you think? Do you agree the best networking occured outside the convention center?

Jake Cacciapaglia is DartBoston’s COO and is known as the behind the scenes man.  He also manages DartBoston’s sponsorship opportunities and plays a pivotal role in the day to day operations of the group.  Jake co-founded GoSwoop with Cort Johnson in the 2006, and spent 8 months living in Bangladesh where he learned the types of sacrifices one makes to be an entrepreneur. 
Jake grew up in Plainville, Massachusetts and graduated from Bentley College in 2006 with a B.A. in Economics and Finance.  He is a regular marathon runner and enjoys music, travel, and self-taught geekery.