We just got back from the South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive conference in Austin, TX. If you aren’t familiar with SXSW, it’s a jam packed weekend of panels, parties, great food, and a rare opportunity to hang out with fellow techies in real life. Here are some of the great people we met while giving out the very popular HipChat t-shirts.

Very cool UTexas HCI professor. "Even professors like HipChat."

Makeshift t-shirt shop. Garret and Chris talking to Brett Cupta of Venmo.

Brian Shaler with his genuine 1870's mustache, just like our t-shirt!

This is the third year I’ve been to SXSW. Over the years I’ve noticed an increasing presence of large companies. They’ve discovered that it’s THE place to see and be seen. This, of course, means that all of the actually interesting people will stop attending. If you’ve wanted to attend SXSW but haven’t yet, I’d do it soon. If you’re from a big company trying to be cool, SXSW is played out. Don’t go.