It’s finally here… THE South by Southwest (SXSW) road trip.

Shawn McEntyre (@tehshawn) is joining me for the trip to Austin, TX for 5 days of Film and Interactive Media goodness. We’ll be throwing updates on Twitter and hoping they stick like cooked spaghetti on a refrigerator. Twitter was featured at SXSW a couple of years ago. Last year it had trouble keeping up with SXSW attendees. According to all the reports I’ve seen, SXSW is expecting a larger crowd than last year. Combine that with Twitter’s ever increasing userbase and it spells mondo trouble for getting updates out in a timely manner. If I can’t get Tweets up, I’ll be blogging from WordPress mobile and updating with pics and video later.

A few interesting events taking place:

Saturday, March 14th:    Diggnation Live Show at Stubbs. Part of the Bigg Digg Shindigg. Kevin Rose (@kevinrose) and Alex Albrecht (@alexalbrecht) are taking the thunder to Austin for a night of loud, rauccous entertainment.

Tuesday, March 17th:   Total Rad Show (TRS) Live Show. I don’t have the exact location and time just yet. It’s more of Alex Albrecht (@alexalbrecht), with Dan Trachtenberg (@DannyTRS) and Jeff Cannatta (@JeffCannata).

With the live shows, multiple screenings and film and Interactive Media panels I have on the intinerary, I will be exhausted when I get back Wednesday morning.

If you’re going to be there, hit me up. I’d love to meet you.

See you in Austin

Going to drop some nuggets of wisdom on the Internet courtesy of the amazing Dave Ramsey who just spoke at Catalyst.

First his leadership message:

• Few churches or organizations experience real unity.

There are 5 main enemies of unity:

1. Poor communication
2. Gossip
3. Unresolved disagreements
4. Lack of shared purpose
5. Sanctioned incompetence

• Poor communication can take many forms, but when the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing, strife sets in.
• Gossip is degrading and will destroy a church or organization.
• a successful leader develop-s and maintains a culture in which negatives are handed up and positives are handed down.
• by definition, gossip is when a negative is discussed with anyone who can’t help solve the problem.
• Unresolved disagreements happen when a leader doesn’t know they exist or when that leader avoids confrontation.
• A little confrontation cleanses the wound and allows the parities to go forward in a spirit of unity.
• When you are aware there are hurt feelings and/or disagreements, act quickly and decisively.
• Lack of shared purpose is caused when a a leader doesn’t restate the goal, the vision and mission early and often.
• It has been said that sanctioned incompetence demoralizes.
• Team members will eventually become demotivated when someone else on the team can’t or won’t do their job and a leader will not take action.
• For the sake of unity in the entire group, the leader must go to battles early and often with any of these enemies of unity.
• When unity is valued in the culture, the team will also at to keep these enemies from the gate.
• The only way to penetrate the market place for Christ is extreme excellence

As for his financial advice in these turbulent times:

• Knowledge and perception removes fear.
• Gold hasn’t been used as an on-the-street currency since Roman times.
• Over the history of the last ten 10 year stock market cycles, the market has delivered a 33% increase over pre-crash value.

We’re heading home. I’m writing this in the car courtesy of my trusty EVDO card which works surprisingly well in West Texas….even if I’m not actually getting EVDO speeds. This trip has been a very good getaway from life, but stress seems to follow me regardless of where I go. Whether it was making a decision about where to eat or what to do, nobody could seem to agree on what to do in a stress free manner. I ended up sitting back and just staying out of it for the most part.

On a separate note…New Mexico and West Texas are flat….very flat. I’ve seen more elevation changes in a sheet of notebook paper. Somehow people find a way to live out here, but I don’t think I could handle it. Lack of decent high speed, enjoyable activities, and an Apple Store within decent distance would be an instant no go for me.

We’re heading to Lubbock right now, then to Amarillo and finally home. I hope to get some rest for tomorrow. Easter Sundays are always busy busy. Granted NORTHchurch.tv isn’t anywhere near as busy at LifeChurch.tv, but we definitely have a huge influx. We’re not expecting the normal size of an influx this year due to Spring Break coinciding with Easter.

That’s it for now. I’ll fire up another entry before I get home tonight probably. If not, check back for the pics and vids.