Our very own @sheilakressler went to SXSWi (a.k.a. South By Southwest Interactive, for all of you non-acronym speaking people), so I wanted to get some advice from her, since I'll be attending next year. The following is a quick Q & A session with the lovely Miss Sheila, who graciously answered all of my questions.

What was the most interesting presentation you went to, and why?

My favorite presentation was "Why Self-Promotion Will Save the World," presented by Peter Shankman, founder and CEO of HelpAReporterOut.com (HARO). He was passionate about what he does and was very inspiring. There were several key points that I think are worth mentioning:

1. If self-promotion is done correctly, it's helping someone and giving people something to talk about.

2. It's being "that guy" whose e-mails you always read and forward on, the one you recommend to people and who you go to for answers.

He summed up his talk with four points for us to adopt:

1. Transparency: Be honest.

2. Relevance: Does it make sense to your audience?

3. Brevity: Be clear, be a good writer.

4. Top-of-mind presence: What are you doing?

One idea that kept making an appearance throughout the entire presentation was that if you are helpful and thankful in what you do, then you are successful. This is applicable to any business or organization, and even in your personal life.

If you could bring back one piece of valuable information to tell those of us who couldn't attend, what would it be?

Follow the hashtag! Everyone was twittering in real time during each presentation, so if you're unable to attend but still want to know what's going on in real time, you can follow the panels remotely via hashtags on Twitter. None of the content was exclusive, it was all shared... so you can still gather a ton of information no matter where you are in the world. Actually, search the hashtag #selfpromosaveworld to see some of the tweets from the presentation I mentioned previously.

What would you do differently next year?

Pack a lunch! The food lines were ridiculous.

Did you meet any interesting people? Who were they and why were they interesting?

Actually, while I was standing in those ridiculous food lines, I met some of the most interesting people at the event. There were people from all across the country, doing really interesting things. For instance, one girl I met was working out of Brooklyn for a company that does interactive and public relations for other companies that practice sustainable business practices. Another guy was a web developer who traveled all the way from London just to be at this event in Austin. So maybe... disregard the packing your lunch advice, because you might miss out on chatting with some really fascinating people while you're stuck in that long line.

So, now that you've been to SXSWi, what is your advice for first-timers interested in attending next year?

Go with a purpose! I went with the intention of going to as many panels as I could in one day, and tried to absorb as much information as possible. It was a total brain fry, and by the end of the day, I was ready to just eat dinner and go to bed, while everyone else was attending parties. That's OK, though, I got what I wanted out of it, and the experience exceeded my expectations.