Tonite I will be attending Refresh Houston. The subject is very relevant to me because it will be about Flash Accessibility and Standards. It is surely going to make some of the regulars a little uneasy because of their contempt for Flash

I will post tomorrow about the folks I see and meet up there. Looking forward to hearing Thea Eaton of Snert Studios speak.

I went to the informal Houston Refresh last night where our hometown star - Matt Mullenweg was hanging out. That guy is the founder of Wordpress and was recently voted one of the Top 50 Most Influential People on the Internet. Not bad for a young blood (I watched Dog the Bounty Hunter last night and I have been needing to use the term “Young Blood”).

The real story about last night is the amount of Houstonians who were there that are working on some cool apps and projects. Who needs the Bay Area?

I had a real good time at SXSW. It was finally a chance to meet some people that I had never met in person but had interacted with online. I kicked off the first day with an early panel and ran into my friend Blake Killian of Voodoo Ventures. We game planned a bit during the panel and decided on what we were going to hit that day. After the panel, we went and talked to Ryan Carson of Carsonified for a minute and then headed off for lunch. After lunch I ran into Chris Schultz of Voodoo Ventures and we found Blake again and headed over to Austin Barcamp.

At Barcamp, I met Blake Burris of Corazon Labs and he has an app up his sleeve. I don’t want to say too much about it right now because he is still working on some details but it is going to be pretty slick and useful. That’s kind of hard to say both of those adjectives about most web 2.0 wannabes. I also ran into Jeff Corkran of InnerEcho and it looks like we need to do some work together. I have a few ideas and Jeff’s company may be able to help me execute.

I also met Brian Oberkirch of BrianOberkirch.com and he always has solid information. His panel was cool because it was relevant. It was about running an internet company outside of the valley. Told you it was relevant…..

The first panel I made it to this morning was about turning your projects into revenue generating businesses. This hasn’t really been a problem I have faced because my businesses weren’t hobbies. I only started my companies to spend a $1 and make $2. The panel was great and the information was inspiring.

We had Ted Rheingold of Dogster/Catster, Tara Hunt of CitizenAgency, Gabe Rivera of Techmeme, the PixelGirl, and Ryan Carson of Carson Systems. These panelist definitely brought a crowd and handled the discussion flow pretty good. I want to get the podcast to go over it all again.

I was sitting in the back with Blake and there was a group huddled around an electrical outlet as if it was 10 degrees and they were huddled around a fire. One of those guys was Robert Scoble of Scobleizer and another guy I met in the group was Dave Coustan of Earthlink.

We are working hard in the big chairs in downtown Austin as we are gearing up for the weekend. Right now we have some primetime real estate with the best seats in the house (pictured below). I am afraid, albeit in a good way, that we are going to have to cut our weekend short because our orders are piling up for You Design It and Defy Distribution. We went to dinner last nite with some friends, Lance and Jessica, and they let us stay at their house.

Lance recently received “Austin Runner of the Year” and you can check out his team at 3 Stories Racing. Nice site…

Right now I am literally writing this while driving on 71 past Columbus on the way to Austin. My meeting is at 3:00 and I should have some time to spare before I get there. It is going to be game time when I do get there though. I just wanted to post this to say that I should be posting frequently throughout the weekend to give shout-outs to the people I meet at SXSW. Make sure you come back regularly…..

I am headed to South by Southwest Interactive this weekend. I was also fortunate enough to get a big meeting in Austin on Thursday for Defy Distribution that could be major for us! I am leaving tomorrow for that meeting and then staying in Austin for the remainder of the Interactive portion of SXSW.

There are a lot people that I have chatted with over the internet that I looking forward to seeing in person at SXSW. This will be my first time though so my expectations are low. I will be carrying cards representing You Design It, Defy Distribution, Bliggy Bank, and BlakePoutra.com and that always makes it hard for quick introductions. Enough posting for now, I need to start getting ready.