Where are the best parties at SXSW? Let Localmind tell you

A year ago, Localmind launched its crowdsourced location app to the public around SXSW, allowing users to ask local “experts” anything about nearby bars, restaurants and other venues. This year, the startup will be back at SXSW — and it hopes to alleviate some of the frustration that happens in a town filled with dozens of parties and tens of thousands of partygoers.

It’s a first-world problem, I know. But one that needs to be solved, or else everyone’s SXSW event calendar will look like this:

(Actual Google Calendar of an actual SXSW attendee last year)

How does Localmind plan to solve that? By making sure that its app lists not just bar and restaurant locations in Austin, but that every SXSW party will be viewable in the app as well. To do so, it’s hooked into Eventbrite’s API and has been scraping public party listings to become the definitive source for events happening on the ground.

But here’s the fun part: Localmind isn’t just a directory of stuff happening at SXSW. It also lets you communicate with people hanging out at various places, in order to find out exactly what’s going down. This crowdsourced model is really the whole point of Localmind, but apply it to an event like SXSW and you can reduce a whole lot of friction by answering some pretty simple questions, like:

“Is this party worth going to?”
“Is the line long to get in?
“Are there hot girls there?”
“Are they checking RSVPs?
“How’s the music?”

Etc., etc. You get the point. Attendees can avoid lame parties and all the travel and lines and whatever else that comes with them. Everyone wins, everyone’s happy… Except maybe those people who don’t know how to throw a good party.

Anyway, SXSW — and the party scene there — is really just a testbed for something bigger that Localmind is working on. CEO Lenny Rachitsky was a little cagey on the details, but you can probably imagine how this kind of Q&A could be applied not just to bars and parties but to events, conferences and the like.

Oh, and this is partially unrelated, but Localmind has also partnered with the {RV}IP karaoke lounge for SXSW. So if you love karaoke, Localmind is the way to find out wherever the RV might be at any time. Chances are I won’t be too far away.

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