Each year in March, I have the opportunity to meet up with my favorite Aussies at the massive SXSW media conference in Austin, Texas. It’s an inspiring glimpse into the brightest minds of emerging technology, film, music and the internet. The first day of the conference is always a bit on the slow side. Lots of people still arriving in town. Some yet to register and pick up their badges. Others just using the day to catch up with friends and colleagues from afar.

This year, however, another distraction presented itself. The first day of SXSW happened to also correspond with the eve of the iPad2 launch. Now on any given day at SXSW, you’ll look out amongst the sea of people filling one of the halls at the Austin Convention Center and see a sea of Apple Computers, This year, the sea of computers was replaced by a sea of iPads as attendees tapped away on their touch screens to take notes, record keynotes and access their Twitter accounts – spreading their feathers like peacocks while essentially parroting everything the keynote speaker is saying on the stage in front of them. Yes, life on the internet has become about followers, and no one knows this better than Apple Computer.

Apple Inc, saw the opportunity to tap this market of 30,000 fanboys (and fangirls) by opening a temporary store in the heart of downtown Austin on the day of the iPad2′s introduction. Suffice to say that the Friday afternoon sessions were sparsely attended as lines of people surrounded the Scarborough building where Apple would purportedly peal the black window tape at 5pm to reveal their “secret” store. The secret seemed to be out and virtually everyone in line was a SXSW attendee. Yes. Apple = Brilliant.

Of course no Apple launch event would be complete without the guy standing at the front of the que. He’d been there since 6am. He was alone for the better part of 2 hours, but he was determined to be first and he came well prepared. “Sweet John” shared his enthusiasm for the iPad and SXSW in my interview with him that afternoon.

Just behind “Sweet John” was a group of guys who, after 35 hours of travel, had just arrived in Austin for SXSW. As soon as they made it downtown from the airport, they made their way to the Scarborough building. Only 2 short months ago, they were finally able to purchase their first generation iPad in South Africa. Now they’d be able to cash in on one when they returned home.

As I witnessed this epic event I had an opportunity to meet some interesting people, talk with some panelists about their upcoming sessions at the conference and even interview a few guys from South Africa. It was a community within a community. Everyone in one city for a conference and everyone on one street corner for their love of Apple products.