Amazing people everywhere. That’s the summary, as simplistic as that sounds. The overlapping of all my various circles and networks of people: DC folks interacting with Canadian friends interacting with the PodCamp circle of friends interacting with b5media folks. Not to mention the vast presence of my Twitter friends everywhere I looked. As I said, it was truly amazing.

The past few days, if you’ve been keeping up with this blog, you know that I’ve interviewed six fantastic folks: Brian Solis, “Pistachio” Laura Fitton, Frank Gruber, “Copyblogger” Brian Clark, Christina Warren and Rainer Cvillink. Obviously a very productive day. Those were just the quick video sit downs that I did. We also did our regular weekly District of Corruption live from Austin, appeared on a variety of videos and podcasts by Chris Brogan, Scott Stead, and Kris Smith to name a few.

Though I met many, many new folks this week, I was very pleased to get the opportunity to meet (for the first time), Shel Israel, Erin Kotecki Vest, Micah Baldwin, Grant Robertson, Christina Warren, and Mark Cuban. Yes… I did just say I met Mark Cuban. It was only for a brief handshake as he breezed through the Washington VC sponsored Rock Band party Tuesday night.

Old friends reconnected include the inimitable Loren Feldman, Brian Clark, Darren “Problogger” Rowse, Scott Brooks, Alex Hillman and, as usual, many more.

On a light note, I’m a little miffed that the bulk of the coverage of the “Beacon Sucks” heckler moment during Mark Zuckerberg’s keynote wasn’t properly attributed. Christina did, but CNET, Valleywag and the rest of the coverage did not. It was me, of course, which makes me either the voice of the thoughts of all of us or just rude. Not sure which. You be the judge.

I want to thank the b5media crew that made the event a lot of fun for me. Thanks to Steph Agresta (aka, Internet Geek Girl) for being the face and voice of the Bloghaus. I know you’re wiped out from it, but it was great and I hope for you it was worth it. Lijit and Outbrain for sponsoring the “b5 ranch” – yes it was a real ranch. Grant and Christina for dinner, drinks and so much more with myself and the b5′ers. It’s a pretty cool dynamic to work for a competing blog network and still be some of the coolest people around.

Austin, I’m out. You were wonderful. Until SXSW ’09, stay weird Austin (that’s a tee shirt I saw today).

I might point you to several other very good SXSW photostreams from:

• Tris Hussey
• Randy Stewart
• Lisa Brewster
• Jesse Thomas

Fantastic first day at SXSW yesterday. I did no less than 6 interviews in the b5media sponsored Bloghaus. Met with dozens of people. It was literally the best conference day I’ve ever had. This morning, my neck hurts as I spent my second night literally camping under the stars at the “b5 ranch”. Yes there have been parties. Mostly the main ones have been blown off by the b5 crew as we made our own. Yesterday’s impromptu party was spent as well in unison with Weblogs Inc bloggers Christina Warren and Grant Robertson from Download Squad.

SezWho is here. SezWho is a great comment and rating system. The theory is commenting on a blog builds reputation in a particular area. The more reputation you have, the more weight you carry. We’re trying SezWho out at b5. Very, very early in the process on a very, very limited scope. I have a meeting with the CEO shortly. Again, just fantastic people here.

Eddie Vedder, from Pearl Jam of course, has a Texas top-rated gulf coast style seafood restaurant. Absolutely amazing. The food that is not listed on the menu is the best along with the non-menu’d “upgrades” to the steak etc. If you’re in Austin and need a middle-to-upper class quiet venue away from the 6th St bar scene, Eddie V’s is the place to go. Check it.

b5media’s new tagline, by the way: 300+ blogs, 10M pageviews, one accordion. Welcome Joey deVilla to the b5 team. This is 4th day on the job and is experiencing SXSW life for the first time. Everyone loves the accordion!