British Digital Missionaries at SXSW

One of the interesting social network effects of SXSW was the hub that became the BritPack. It's designed aim was to function as a way of showcasing the 30+ startups who came over as part of the Chinwag/ UKTI Digital Mission, and to allow UK Trade & Investment staff to talk to interested people from the US (and elsewhere) at SXSW.

However, it had two interesting secondary effects of network expansion and enrichment:

- Expansion: By dint of being there, it became a home from home for all the "Rest of the Brits" at the conference (British power plugs were a great boon for example) and thus created a larger British social network at SXSW as we all met each other, and which was further expanded at the second order as all of us Other Brits introduced our Non Brit friends to the delights of the various events. I think this larger secondary network provide the impetus for the #Kebab NonConference sessions as well as many smaller things

- Enrichment: The events - the BritBash (music) and British Breakfast (hangover cure) especially, fostered lots of interesting conversations with the many non Brits who attended them. I think some of these will reverberate into lots of (unpredictable, unmeasurable but useful) actions over the following months

In addition, we hijacked the site for 2 hours on Sunday to do "Tuttle does Texas", introducing as many non Brits to the delights of Tuttle style social networking (get a coffee and sticky, and talk to interesting people without trying to stuff a bizcard down their gullet in 5 minutes)