Ah, yes. Little did I realize what the day held for me at SXSW Interactive. Another beautiful weather day. Now this is the Austin I know and love.

My 10 Highs & Lows for Monday.

1. Again I am disappointed when I arrive at my first chosen session and I’m turned away because it was over capacity. It was a session for non-profits, and EVERY session designed for non-profits has been over capacity. SXSWi has some serious pre-organizational work to do. So frustrating! Agh!!

2. Again, it seems every time I am frustrated and saying bad words, my friend Vince Marotte comes to the rescue. He texts me and says he is at Frank Restaurant with a group of non-profit peeps, do I want to join them? The answer of course is YES!

3. What is better? A talking head telling me how to do digital storytelling for non-profits, or talking to real live people from around the country who are in the trenches of non-profit businesses! Especially over a beer and a Chicago-style hot dog. Awesome!

4. We then head back to the Austin Convention center to hear the keynote speaker for the day. The streets of Austin are filled with creative human beings and creative companies seeking to woo those creatives to their creative wares. It is truly like heaven. Even if they are all so stinkin’ young looking.

5. The next session up is a featured session. Legendary visionary Ray Kurzweil joined writer Lev Grossman from TIME Magazine for a mind-expanding keynote conversation about our future. This session was officially my favorite session so far at SXSWi and one of the most extraordinary of my life. You can follow the Twitter hashtag session HERE. Two of my favorite quotes out of myriad: “A kid in remote Africa with a cell phone has as much technology as the President of the USA had 15 years ago.” “Art creates knowledge.”

6. Lev Grossman is hands-down the best interviewer I have ever witnessed. For him to so gracefully and skillfully handle a genius such as Kurzweil says volumes about his knowledge and self-awareness.

7. Following the Twitter hashtag for these talks has revolutionized my learning and retention of talking head sessions. Every pastor of every church and every public speaker should have a hashtag designated for every one of his/her sermons and talks and let the people formerly known as the audience participate and interact. None of us are as smart as all of us. Revolutionary.

8. Instead of taking notes by hand, I am using the third party Twitter web app Hootsuite to save the hashtag and then follow everyone’s comments and add my own. Amazing!! (HT: @m_vince)

9. Next up was the front man for the rock group Smashing Pumpkins Billy Corgan who has the enviable Twitter handle @Billy . See the details and info for the seminar HERE and the Twitter feed HERE. Billy was interviewed by Brian Solis who was a bit uncomfortable with the very emotional and opinionated rock star. This session officially has the record for the most F-bombs I have ever heard in a public setting. I might add that many of them were well-placed and aimed at the archaic and foundering music industry. Very similar to the many stories I have heard from artists in Nashville. Painfully so.

10. The day ended with me giving up trying to fight the neverending line to get in the session with the inventor of the Internet Al Gore and Napster’s Sean Parker (notoriously played by Justin Timberlake in the movie The Social Network).  I retreated to an isolated and stunning dock at sunset on Lake Austin and tried to take in all that I had seen and heard this very extra-sensory day.

More tomorrow…