Robots, nostalgia and pups: SXSWers feed our Lion with their Austin experiences

One of the unique attractions of South By Southwest is the incredible range of workshops, lectures and meet-ups.

Festival-goers are sharing details of their favourite sessions – and the ones that weren’t quite what they expected. Post your stories in his mouth online or at the Great Britain House.

Mickey G: Lots of interest around this awesome robot that was walking around the SXSW trade show earlier. I wonder how many years it'll be before nobody even bats an eye to robots walking freely around the trade show floor and greeting us at the door?

Steveo: I watched a great talk today about 80s movies. It was looking at the importance of location in movie making which was fascinating, but it had a much bigger impact on me. It stirred up forgotten childhood memories of iconic 80s movies I grew up with and suddenly I was 12 years old again. I can still remember the theatre and experience of watching the movies for first time - and I still never tire of watching them on repeat having probably clocked up a few dozen showings of each one since. Ferris Buler's Day Off, Footloose, Back to the future, Indiana jones, Weird science, The Goonies, The Breakfast club, Stand by me, Jaws, Star Wars... They're all remembered with incredible fondness and I can't think of a recent movie that has resonated with me in the same way. As a 40-something film fan - I can't help but wonder what are the iconic 21st century movies that kids today will look back on and remember with the same fondness, in 20 years from now.

Fur Stimer: My first session at my first ever SXSW and I was beyond excited. The title promised much, but it was an intimate audience (read: small) yet I still had high hopes. Oh boy, what a mistake. Being an early session, on day one, the technical teething problems were perhaps understandable (that’s me being very charitable by the way) but once we eventually got going I soon realized that I’d been sold a pup. The promised discussion never really materialized. They sort of danced around what I thought the main thrust should have been. Some of them were talking about things they clearly didn’t really care about. Only one of them had any real authority on the subject. But they couldn’t carry the session alone. I sat there hoping that this was an anomaly. The other sessions I was looking forward to would be better, right? They had to be. Please. Onward and upward!