I’m back from SXSW, which was fantastic this year. Each year I go I meet great new people and get a good vibe for what people are working on and are excited about.

But unlike previous years that had breakout startups (Twitter, FourSquare), this year nothing major took over.

Highlight was poised to be the big winner with a ton of installs the week before SXSW, but battery draining and not enough of a value-ad to the SXSW experience made most people who had installed the app switch it to “pause” mode.

So who did win ?

In my mind it was Mophie and EventBrite.

Mophie, the external battery/case for iPhone – was something I picked up on Brian Lam’s suggestion, and it was awesome and very popular at SXSW. With battery life at a premium, and outlets even more so, having an extra 75% charge on demand meant I never ended up with a dead phone. At SXSW you are constantly on your phone — checking-in, tweeting, posting photos to your blog, etc.

Eventbrite was used for probably 90% of the parties and events that I attended. With it’s super slick and simplified iPhone app, I never had to print out tickets or check for some random email to see a location of an event. In a crowded space, feels like Eventbrite is becoming the standard. My only wish list is that it had slightly better google calendar integration — right now it’s event by event as best I can tell, instead of a full feed the way Tripit and others work.