SXSW: Reflection

I saw and learned a lot of things.

In career focus, perhaps the most valuable things that happened were my mentor sessions. Of particular note was my discussion with Jay Skinner, the head of a music library called Sound Arsenal Music. We talked about my desire to work in the scoring business, and I took a bunch of notes.
Most of the panels I went to also centered around my focus of writing music. I learned that sync licensing is one of the most lucrative things in the entire music business. I learned that indie video game developers are trying to get good music for their games. I learned the importance of audio in immersion of games and movies.
I decided that my primary focus after getting back, which was cemented when I talked with Jay, was to make my "reel," the body of work to represent a composer. Basically a listenable portfolio.
Despite all the talk about following up on contacts, and I suppose I made a few, without this reel, trying to make something of those contacts seems pointless to me.

Speaking of contacts, I often found it difficult to talk to people. Maybe it was subconscious; I knew that everyone I talked to had far more experience than me. But maybe it was a lack of communication skills. I fancy myself a good talker, I could manage during the mentor sessions and could hold the occasional conversation, but during this trip, it was getting the conversations started that I found the most difficult. 
The most salient example would be when I was at the grammy association party. I managed to talk to a whole 3 people, 2 of which I relied on Sarah and Dwight to talk with. I was referencing what I could remember from that networking article that Eric posted a while ago, but nothing seemed to be helping. My presence at the party felt similar to stage fright.

Thankfully though, I still have one more SXSW trip left, and I have 2 main goals to achieve for myself before then. I need to develop a reel, and I need to polish my networking skills.