Like most good things the RVIP lounge was a solution to a problem: we wanted to go to South by Southwest and have the best party of the year, but our budget would barely cover the cost of a hotel room. So we ditched the hotel, tricked out an RV with a karaoke rig and cases of top-shelf liquor, and parked outside other people's parties. It worked, and each year we make it bigger and ballerer.
We are the self-appointed renegade VIP lounge, complete with spotlight and red carpet, for all the fancy tech parties, film premiers, and rock concerts of SXSW, and we often end up having more fun out on the street than the actual party attendees have inside. As people move from one party to the next, our lounge became a kind of late night drunken public transportation karaoke carpool, shuttling our friends and colleagues to the the official events, the unofficial afterparties, the late night city tours, the early morning breakfast stops, and finally back to their hotels when the sun got too bright to keep going.
Creativity in all forms slops around the RVIP lounge like so many spilled drinks. You never know if that guy singing "I Wanna Know What Love Is" is the founder of disruptive tech company, a visionary director, on an award-winning T.V. show, or a bartender heading home from work. The hot girl belting out show tunes might be a grammy-winning musician, a Rails engineer with some mobile experience and crazy mySQL skills, a VC, or a random Canadian who rolled in off the sidewalk. We might be heading to the Facebook party or to a little barbecue place we know of that's only about 30 miles from here, but you won't care, because you are in a wonderful world, on a crowded RV that won't necessarily take you right where you want to go, but will always end up where you want to be.
WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE?
Kestrin Pantera (Executive Producer & Co-Founder): Actress & musician Kestrin Pantera has performed with ground-breaking artists Weezer, Soko, Cary Brothers (Grammy Award winning "Garden State" soundtrack), Rob Dickinson (The Catherine Wheel), Adam Freeland, Twiggy (Nine Inch Nails), Brandi Carlile, The Fray, and Beck. She has starred in numerous award-winning films, music videos, T.V. shows, and sings the theme song for ABC's "Roommates"... but what she really wants to do is direct. KIDDING! She currently works on the Nickelodeon cartoon "Ni Hao, Kai Lan" and plays cello, percussion, and sings in the band, his Orchestra with Douglas Smith (Big Love). As official hostess of the lounge, she will talk to you in a soothing stewardess voice, cue up your karaoke tune, feed you delicious snacks, and will likely do a shot with you. She loves Freddie Mercury, Gn'R, and is surprisingly good at rapping to the Pharcyde.
Jonathan Grubb (Captain & Co-Founder): Jonathan is a veteran of both internet booms and busts, and though he always makes more money in the booms he has way more fun in the busts. Jonathan co-founded web startups Get Satisfaction and Rubyred Labs, and shares responsibility for famous money-losers such as Valleyschwag and Cereal Bar. He designed many of the core mobile applications for Yahoo and Vodafone, and probably worked on the phone that is in your pocket right now. He is currently Head of Product at Lookout Mobile Security, working to keep the mobile world safe from viruses, hackers, and thieves. Jonathan is an Austin native and spent 10 years in San Francisco before finding his current hometown of Los Angeles. As the RV captain he can't drink a thing for all of SXSW, but that doesn't stop him from singing some David Bowie, some olde-timey country tunes, and maybe a little Slim Shady.
And why do you do this again?
Like the Web 2.0 industry that birthed us we started out giving everything away and hoping things would work themselves out. It turns out there are lots of cool companies that want to sponsor us to do exactly what we would do anyway, except with their logo on the banner. So everything we do is free to attendees; if you'd like to sponsor a future event or have us do something fun for your event just get in touch with Kestrin.
