The streets of Austin, Texas, which is hosting the South by Southwest (SXSWi) festival, were flooded with hordes of people on Friday, March 12, which marked the commencement of the Interactive and Film segment of the geek-abundant conference.

In an attempt to offer some practical advice to the festival rookies about “how to rawk their SXSW experience”, a panel shared its suggestions, which largely centered around one common idea: ‘pace yourself.’

Most of the panelists suggested that the festival rookies should sleep well, and stay hydrated while partying; along with highlighting the countless social opportunities that SXSWi can virtually open up for them.

Panelist Denise Jacobs’ all-inclusive advice went thus: “You may end up connecting with people that you thought were completely unreachable or inaccessible, and it may turn out that you would end up driving across the country and staying at their house for a couple days.”

Noting that the new friendships initiated during the course of the festival more than makes up for the long festivity nights and hardly any sleep; the panelists are also of the opinion that the best time for breaking the ice with new people is ‘between the events.’ The feel that ‘down time’ is the perfect time to strike up conversation and start a SXSW adventure for the books!