Life at 91 (Dad’s New Insta) & SxSW

Yes, my Dad is now 91! And now he’s on Instagram! If that’s not enough click-bait to get you to follow then you suck! 

Let’s try and get him to 4 mil followers and make him the most followed nonagenarian in the world! Or, 2k makes him number 2...

Thanks to Quavin, my amazing brother, who quit his day job to digitize and catalogue the 60 year archive of over 20K photos taken by my mom and dad. You can see them in their full glory on Instagram! Many of them I’ve never seen myself!

Which somehow brings me to SxSW… I brought my dad to SxSW the first time when he was 78 years old. He loved every minute of it: the energy, excitement and curiosity that drove the attendees and filled the conversations. He had a beer with Mark Cuban, compared photography notes with Steve Hall, heard Frank Warren speak about PostSecrets - where a man proposed to his wife during the keynote - and managed to hold an impromptu speech of his own at the art museum where the opening party used to be held.

We stayed out late meeting people from all walks of life, we woke up early and heard panels that spanned all types of topics - from the destruction of music, to the rise of blogs, to tips and tricks to get the best out of Photoshop layers when designing for CSS (he really wanted to see that one), to the ethical nature of digital death.

We brunched hard, we basked in the sun, took shelter from the rain, and let the experience of SxSW wash over us. On the morning we had to leave we woke up late - we’ll let’s just say, I woke up late. I’ll never forget forcing this 70 year old to run through the Austin Airport at full speed so we wouldn’t miss the flight. Once on the plane I asked him how his trip was and he said, “Wow, the world is changing and I just feel lucky enough to see it first hand."

This will be my 15th year at South by, and while my dad didn’t get to see the 8 years that I was the largest sponsor, he still got to see it during those early days. 

If you decide to make the pilgrimage this year, or not? If you think it's too tired, or not? Or, if you wish you had gone, and still wonder if you should go? Well, only you can answer that...  But, what I do know is that the world continues to change and SxSW continues to provide context for that change!

I hope that 2019 won’t feel too spread out, too siloed, and too segregated. After-all, the joy of SxSW is in the serendipitous moments that happen and allow for an exchange of ideas from people from all vantage points. 

But maybe this actually means that there will be more opportunity, and the key is to really take advantage of this vs. waiting for SxSW to be perfect.

Here is what Martin thinks:

If you'd like to be kept updated on everything else I have planned for SxSW, then you know what to do:

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