Why isn't SXSW Wi-Fi perfect?

AUSTIN, Texas--Something struck me and a lot of the thousands of people here for the interactive portion of the South by Southwest festival, which drew some of the most notable folks in blogging, social media, video gaming, virtual worlds and the like. At an event so obviously centered around the latest and greatest in Web technology, there should be spotless wireless Internet.

And yet, throughout the Interactive festival, a common complaint heard everywhere around the Austin Convention Center was that the Wi-Fi sucks. And it just got worse as the event proceeded and more people showed up and jammed the network.

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Of course, even in 2007, most conferences are unable to handle the Wi-Fi demands of thousands of Internet-hungry attendees. Why that is is still a mystery to me since it has to be obvious to conference organizers that the folks paying hundreds or even thousands of dollars to attend will want to access their e-mail any time they want.

But there it is: it happens at nearly every conference.

Still, SXSW Interactive is special, and it should be able to handle the Wi-Fi demands. I know it's a logistical problem, but people need it, especially this crowd, many of whom are almost paralyzed without steady Internet access.

The event was a big success, with a never-ending supply of great talks and speakers, and its organizers and volunteers did a wonderful job keeping everything humming along. But for next year, I think a lot of people would really love to see this issue with Wi-Fi taken care of.

I'm just saying.