How can I find out which of my friends are going to SXSW?
If you’ve ever gone to SXSW (aka NerdFestival 2012) or a music festival like Coachella you’ve probably asked yourself this very question. Well, it turns out there is actually an app that solves this problem, and it is launching at SXSW this year. It’s called Shortlist.
I just downloaded it and it’s pretty awesome so far.* The app syncs to your LinkedIn contacts and lets you know who else is coming to an event, conference or music festival like SXSW.
What I like most about Shortlist is that it facilitates serendipity. Sure, part of what makes SXSW cool is meeting all sorts of new, interesting nerds. But you know what’s really off-the-wall-fucking-cool? Finding out that two of your close college buddies who have been running a hostel in Panama for the past eight years are randomly going to be at SXSW too. WTF??? Let’s meet up! (David Harmatz and Dan Saxe I’m talking to you. Let’s go get some beers and breakfast tacos and catch up).
Moral of the story: Old nerds > New nerds
Shortlist just launched yesterday so there are only a few hundred users on it right now, but even within this small group of early adopters, I’ve already identified about a dozen friends who are at SXSW, all of whom I had no idea were coming. Mucho awesome! I can only imagine how sweet this app will be when everybody is on it…so…i guess that means let’s get everybody on it.
So here’s what I’m asking you to do:
Step 1: Download Shortlist
Step 2: Re-tweet this post so your friends download Shortlist too.
Step 3: Find long lost nerd friends + catch up over fine Mexican cuisine of the breakfast taco variety.
* Startups and Burritos gives this app five sombreros out of five sombreros ( <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> ) on the S&B sombrero scale of awesomeness:
