ACTIVE Network API Developer Blog

If you've never been to SXSW, then you are definitely missing out. This conference combines original music, independent films, and emerging technologies to foster an environment that encourages collaboration and growth. The ACTIVE Network team had the pleasure of attending SXSWi to demo our technology within the Circus Mashimus lounge, hosted by Mashery. The 'Interactive' portion of the SXSW conference brings together geeks from all walks of life to spread ideas and hobnob with innovators in the technology industry. For 5 days, we showcased our technology platform and spoke with over 900 people about our APIs. Overall, it was a great learning experience. Some of the highlights from our time at the conference:

The convention center was teeming with people just about everyday, which kept us busy in the Circus Mashimus lounge. Approximately 9000+ attendees visited the Circus Mashimus lounge (16% were developers), roughly 10% were exposed to the ACTIVE Network technology platform and APIs through direct conversation. Many were surprised that they had access to such a large directory of events and activities via our APIs, as well as the database for 97% of the state and national parks within the US and Canada. 

We had two of our API users stop by our demo pod to showcase their apps and demo how easy it is to integrate the ACTIVE APIs. The team that built CouchCachet (Harlie Levine, Brian Fountain, & Justin Isaf) hung out at the ACTIVE demo pod to show off thier award-winning app. Cunningly, this app allows you to be the person that you want everyone to think that you are online. By mashing up the Foursqaure API and the ACTIVE API, this app won the Mashery prize at the recent Foursqaure Hackathon by allowing users to check-in at thier house, spend a lazy day catching up on Downton Abbey, while the app checks you in at various hot spots around town... Later, sending you a list of activities via the ACTIVE API, in case you want to get off the couch. If you're interested in fooling some friends, check it out: http://www.couchcachet.com/.

Jeff Linwood stopped by to show off his RV Trip Planner app that he built in a day at the HackDay hackathon in Dallas, TX. His app also won the Mashery prize at this event for his clever use of the ACTIVE Campgrounds API to help his retired friends plan thier RV trips and check out campgrounds in the local area.

We also gave away lots of swag to excited SouthBy attendees! If you came by to check our API demo pod, you may have walked away with a nice new tshirt, some stickers, and great ideas for a new app!  We quickly ran out of this popular shirt and noticed attendees wearing them a couple days later during the event. If you were a lucky raffle winner, you may have been hooked up with some premium backpacks to carry your hacker gear.

Some of the most valuable experiences were at the after-parties where everyone is mingling. Startups are pitching on every street corner and making use of every interaction to promote their brand/idea that you are bound to run into someone that you can work with. We definitely walked away with some conversations that we will be continuing back in the office. All in all, we had a successful trip to Austin with the purpose of exposing our ACTIVE Access API program to the tech community as a whole.

Did you attend SXSW Interactive this year? If so, let us know how it went for you. We'd love to share your story with the community. Leave a comment below.