Rob Goodlatte

I arrived this afternoon in Austin for South by Southwest Interactive 2007. This year brings more people, more panels, and more events - the atmosphere is very exciting.

I’m amazed at how approachable everybody is - it’s easy to strike up a conversation with anyone, and everybody is very down-to-earth. For example, I met a Yahoo developer, Steve Marshall, in the badge line and had an interesting conversation about YUI. Later I met Shaun Inman and Leslie Jensen-Inman, two incredibly talented people, who invited me to dinner with a large group of web geeks. About 25 of us ate at the Moonshine Grill with some interesting conversation ranging from Apple rumors, Star Trek superiority, to Faruk’s insatiable love for jalapeno steak. I decided to pass on breaking bread with Brad (or breaking Brad with bread) to finish up some work. I met a lot of genuine, nice people today just by starting conversation - a trend I hope to continue throughout this week.