Current mood:	excited
Entry tags:	sxsw

SXSW - Day -2
This year, several teams got to move in to the convention center a day earlier than in the past. The "tech team", as we're called, didn't have access to our normal space, but instead moved in to a room on the mezzanine level, along with about 70 rented iMacs.

These iMacs will be used at the badge pickup and wristband pickup areas, and must be preloaded with the software we use for these purposes. In the case of the badge pickup line computers, this process is quite detailed. Several plugins and scripts need to be installed, and each one has to be configured to run on that specific computer. There are many opportunities for error, and when you think you're done and go to test, it sucks when it doesn't work, because you basically have to start over and see what you missed or got wrong. It took us about eight hours to get 37 of the machines ready. Luckily, the wristband pickup line computers don't need to take and store photos in the database, so they'll be much easier to set up.

Tonight is my last "early" night, wherein I got to come home at a decent hour and get some last-minute housework done. Tomorrow night, we'll do a dry run on our badge pickup process, with SXSW staff and volunteer crew chiefs picking up their badges, and the Austin Chronicle staff getting their badges printed, to be delivered to them later. Traditionally, a large number of staff and crew chiefs gather at a club after this dry run, and have snacks and drinks, so a late night becomes a later, inebriated night. Good practice for what's to come, I suppose :-)