It’s a little hard to explain XOXO to the people who ask you about it before you’re headed there. This year was my first and I realize I’m not any better at explaining what it is after having attended it. Luckily, Casey Newton does it better, so I can spend a bit more time explaining how it felt:
There are those times and places where all the things in the universe align and you leave with a blissful high and the hope that it will happen again. The ALC is one of those things that I’ve experienced before – people call it the ‘love bubble’. XOXO is like my non-cycling love bubble, and I’m starting to get withdrawal symptoms just two days after it ended.
- Erin McKean talked. She just talked and nothing more was needed. Only listening to her was enough – her words picked meticulously, her phrasing to the point and impeccable diction. She talked about her parasite son and how it’s possible to tell people to go to hell and still get them to enjoy the ride.
- Justin Hall talked about his past 20 years of having a personal website where he writes about his life and how the increasingly broad distribution and his relationships have changed the way he writes and the content he shares.
- Rachel Binx talked about the financial and mental toll of being independent
- Darius Kazemi spent 20 minutes fucking up with everyone’s brain, then did it again. He wins the conference part of XOXO.
- Anita Sarkeesian’s was the one I expected the most and the double standing ovation it received from the crowd made me quite cheerful.
Much of my time in the evenings was spent hanging out at Holocene. Pomplamosse put out a mad show – a lot more raw than I expected it to be. I mistakenly jumped on stage at what I thought was a request from Jack Conte, jammed there for half a minute then quietly stepped down in shame. Nerf Herder played the Buffy theme, which they only did because everyone expected them to and which lasted all of 45 seconds. They retweeted me, and the bass player started following me, and now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll just go and try my luck seducing Rosemarie DeWitt.
The Andys were very clear that XOXO isn’t meant to naturally repeat itself. This isn’t a tech conference, this barely is a conference. If I had to define it, XOXO is a deliberate attempt at getting incredibly talented and somewhat introvert people to spend as much time as possible waiting in line for their breakfast sandwich, and hoping they will start chatting. By that definition, it was a full success.