And so ends another South by Southwest Interactive. SXSW is the conference filled with countless panels, educational book readings, incredible meals with amazing people, late night parties and early morning breakfasts.

I believe leaving SXSW with no voice is a sign that you made good use of your time. It means that you were talking to the wee hours of the night with plenty of new and old friends. This is the conference that we celebrate all things geek and it feels so good (minus the sore throat of course).

Now I’m home. While I’m happy to be back in Nashville, a part of me still longs for the organized chaos in Austin. It feels weird to come back to earth after a week at SXSW. In case you’re having trouble realizing that you are in fact back home, here are ten signs that South by Southwest is over.

1. Celebrities won’t openly converse with you anymore.

2. Foursquare isn’t pushing a new check-in every three seconds.

3. Your drinks are no longer free and strangers on the street aren’t handing you copious power bars.

4. You’re not freely checking tweets on your phone, while you’re in a discussion with someone who is doing the same thing.

5. You are no longer lost in a convention center, only to run into friends along the way to a panel that is already over by the time you find the room.

6. Nobody around you is wearing a lanyard. How are you suppose to know their name?!?

7. People you talk to don’t know what a tweet is. I recommend not mentioning location-based services to them either.

8. You aren’t hanging out offline with your online friends anymore.

9. You are not openly encouraged to participate in creating a viral video (I’m the last guy in the second row on the right, behind the woman in the red).

10. You are in bed by 9:30 PM (which is when I am writing this post).

I have to hand it to Hugh Forrest and the rest of the SXSW army. You guys have thrown yet another amazing conference. My hat goes off to you all. Thank you!

Did I miss anything on my list?

The trick with participating on panels is that you need to pitch your idea to SXSW nearly one year before. If your pitched panel is selected it then gets added to a public voting page where YOU give a thumbs up or thumbs down.

I’m happy to announce that the two panels I suggested were both approved! Here’s the part where I ask you to kindly give them a thumbs up please. Just click the links below and hit the thumbs up please. It’ll just take you a minute, I promise. Thanks!

1) RoadTwip

2) You’re Nowhere Without Passion

I’ve also been invited to participate on Dave Peck’s panel on building community offline. I’ll be joining Michelle Greer and Chris Pirillo on that one, it should be tons of fun. If you’re so inclined a thumbs up there would be lovely too.

Thanks for your thumbs.

Image By: vernhart