That said, I’ve been credentialed as press both at SxSWi and as a member of the House-Senate galleries, and at the White House. The trick in Austin is to get your app in early and to prove your relevance. For many of the conferences I attend, I get questions about my employer’s bona-fides as a member of the media world, a show of my House-Senate or White House press pass suffices to get me in the door. Of course SxSWi has never seen a Hill pass (it’s as hard to get a Hill pass as it is to get into SxSW, I might add) and so they don’t care what it means, it our peers hav declared upiu

But if you want to know my opinion, I think CPAC has a vested interest in allowing as many journos and bloggers in so there will be saturation coverage of the event, plus foster growth of a “new generation of Conservative media” (whatever that means). SxSWi wants to be exclusive so the coverage will get covered, and coverage of the coverage will get covered, and so on. But so long as they only let in people they know to be good journos, the primary source coverage that the blogs pick up on will be good, leading to positive coverage of the event all the way down the blogosphere.

CPAC already knows everyone there agrees with them. SxSW wants to be treated well. That’s the bottom line.

So the difference between SxSWi and CPAC is in Austin, they care about the quality of coverage. At CPAC, more is better, especially if it fuels the “movement.”

It was literally easier to get cleared for a press pass by the Secret Freakin’ Service than it was to get a press pass for you at SxSW this year.