Day 1 in the books and I have to say this pilgrimage delivers… endless stream of mind bending and expanding content from some of the foremost minds in art, culture, tech and their intersections.I traveled here to consider these topics with an eye toward a bold future for Mansfield and to push myself toward exponential, 10-X thinking relative to our opportunities both overt and hiding in plain sight.+1 Cameron Haring.The day began with a discussion on startup incubators and the metrics of success used to evaluate their impact, coming from the point of view of the institution itself, the entrepreneurs and the local economy. Enlightening, practical, but just a warm-up.From there it was onto hear from the co-founder of the Blockchain platform and popular crypto investment – Ethereum – and the many ways it is viewed as subtly taking over the world through the decentralization of many transactional processes (cutting out the middleman) and exchanges of value.If you aren’t aware, I recommend 30 minutes of YouTube on this. It's pretty wild.Part of the strategy for this event, I believe, is to learn but also to drive creativity in considering practical application, so I decided to mix it up with session that was a little more right brain and borderline uncomfortable to be honest – The Future of Love, Lust & Loneliness as told by Esther Perel. Let’s face it, sex sells, and this too delivered. In a world of so much freedom, what truly drives happiness and how can you find the “one” with 1,000 choices on Tinder? Not sure I left with the answer but one thing is for sure, there are tradeoffs in the increasingly digital world that will actually drive more demand for authentic personal interaction and community as traditional daily interactions are disrupted or automated. Can we bake this phenomenon into a new development plan?Lastly, I took in a discussion about the digital renaissance and what comes next.The summary is: the best is yet to come. Now off to score some killer BBQ.Stay tuned and follow the process via #SXSW419. Or watch for more blogs starting Saturday, March 10 at richlandsource.com/rising_from_rust/sxsw.