We are back from our visit to Austin for SXSW Interactive, a town known for it’s BBQ, laid back attitude, and great music. The SXSW experience was a first for most of the Foodzie team. While overwhelming at first, we all walked away with big ideas, a ton of connections, and full bellies. It was hard to find a light meal in Austin, with BBQ and Tex Mex dominating the restaurant scene, both food coma-inducing cuisines. The rest of our time was spent sharing food.

A big thanks to Seth Ellis Chocolatier, Luca Chocolate, Das Foods, Botanical Bakery, Jake’s Granola, Kikas Treats and BonBonBar for providing tasty treats for all the hungry SXSWers. We handed out truffles, granola, cookies, lollipops and even spread goodwill in the long party lines, toasting up urban smores. Here are some pictures and videos of the fun we had courtesy of some of our smore recipients.

There were “Suckers for Foodzie” all over Austin. Even the TSA agent at the airport (who was close to confiscating our marshmallows), and our cabbie Jeff were in on the action.

If you’ve never attended the conference, the days are packed with tech-related panel discussions. We were happy to see two panels about food and the web. We learned ways to improve this blog during the session “Nom Nom Nom: The Secrets of Successful Foodblogging.” We also really enjoyed the panel “Sustainable Food 2.0″ led by Rachel Weldinger and learned about the other companies and organizations like FarmsReach out there working towards our common goal of helping people to eat better in this country.

Monday night we got to hang with Marla from Edible Austin Magazine and Leslie from the Eat Well Guide, both food organizations we admire.

And finally we topped off the trip hanging out at the Austin airport with the crew from Zappos, and feeding them Seth Ellis Chocolatier truffles, lollipops and smores. We had fun chatting with them about Zappos since we are all big fans and they were just thrilled to have bumped into a food company that treated them to such delicious food. They even chanted, “Foodzie! Foodzie!” as we boarded the plane, which totally made us feel like the Rock Stars we were getting ready to leave behind in Austin.

Definitely good times in Austin and at SXSW; we will certainly be back next year to ensure everyone is well fed!