South by Southwest: Day 2

Another good (long) day for Team Crowdstory. In fact, it was so long that I barely remember how it started.

Oh yeah. I took my PRAXIS test. Gag.

PRAXIS = test I have to take to teach in Alabama/bane of my existence

I woke up way too early and one of my teammates drove me into town to go take my test. I was so exhausted when I took the test that I don't have high hopes about it at all. I mean, I literally fell asleep during the test and had to take a bathroom break so I could walk around to wake up (I did about 50 jumping jacks in the women's restroom, which I think did the trick). Let's just say that the combination of sleep deprivation, inadequate studying, and high level of stress makes me pretty sure I'll be rescheduling to take that test in April.

But post-PRAXIS day was pretty awesome. The team split up and went to various panels on our own, and then met up after lunch.

Promotion time!

TJ pitching Crowdstory to a Gowalla developer.

On our way back to the Convention Center with banner on tow, we stopped by the Gowalla booth for free t-shirts and ended up talking with one of their developers. The guys had a chat about maps and things that I don't understand, but they walked away really excited, so it must have been good.

We then set up our gorgeous banner (thanks to Megan!) and started pitching Crowdstory.

Admiring Megan's work.

The team, minus Bryce and me, posing with our badass Crowdstory banner.

Overall people were pretty interested. It was difficult to get people to stop and ask about the app, but we'd set up near a truck with free ice cream, so we approached a lot of people in line and snagged them that way.

We're all getting pretty good at our short pitch for Crowdstory. Want to hear it?

"Crowdstory is a location-based audio storytelling app that allows you to tell a story and tether it to the GPS coordinates of where the story happened, which you can then share with friends.

Sha-Bam.

I'm not sure what kind of impact we are making, as our marketing is definitely small-scale guerrilla stuff, but it's been fun. And I am definitely learning a lot about how to approach people and pitch our idea. The atmosphere here at SXSW is unlike any other -- exhilarating, stressed, and fast-paced -- and everyone has something to sell. But there's also an incredible amount of partnership going on. We'll tweet at someone and they'll tweet at us back. And bam -- we're getting traffic from some of the guy's 2000+ followers. At the small level on which we're operating, it all becomes a sort of give and take. And while I wouldn't exactly call it commiseration, I do think we are all painfully aware of how alike we are -- passionate and hungry for success.