FA Attendees: David Landa (Partner, EP), Michael Piliero (Partner, CD), Christoffer Rodemeyer (Senior Designer)

This past weekend, Michael, David and Chris hit the streets of downtown Austin to imbibe the cutting edge of digital (along with brews and warm Texan sun). Maybe it’s just that we keep up with the blogs, but the overwhelming reaction from our team (and many other attendees we spoke with) was that the sessions didn’t deliver much new or exciting information.

Despite the lackluster session experiences, the conference was a great opportunity to socialize and celebrate with clients and collaborators (from near and far). That said, there were a few highlights that we felt we should share:

1. Stickybits

Wow, how awesome is this new service!  The concept is simple – tag real world objects with a barcode, then use the stickybits app on your mobile device to tag it with links, video, images and text – any kind of digital content. A sort of virtual graffiti- rolled up in a fun (sometimes devious), social wrapper.

2. Valery Casey & The Designers Accord

Valery Casey delivered the Sunday keynote. Casey is sharp – a guru on design, branding and sustainability. Her organization was founded with the goal of “changing the way the creative community does business.” The accord specifies a “particular ethos and behavior around sustainable design… to catalyze innovative and sustainable problem solving throughout the creative community.” In addition, she addressed the SXSW interactive community and stated that we, more than any other creative discipline, have the power to drive change through our expertise in systems and networks.

3. The Futurists (The Great “Beyond”)

To be honest, most of this was *way* over our heads – but we sat in on a panel of futurists rambling about “heuristic ensembles” and “bio-cognitive experiences”. Heady indeed, but provocative none the less. Panelist participants included Julian Bleecker, Jake Dunagan, Sascha Pohflepp, Stuart Candy, Jennifer Leonard, and Bruce Sterling. It’s nice to know that someone is at least thinking about the world 10k years out!

4. Barbecue Heaven

We hit Barbecue Heaven daily; my tweet says it all: “I am both at, and in, Barbecue Heaven… #sxsw” For a couple bucks you can snag a sandwich with brisket or chicken and boi oh boi it’s good.

View our SXSWi 2010 set on Flickr