Some of the coolest stuff at South By Southwest Interactive takes place after the convention center's shut tight. One of the most interesting things this week was 20x2, an annual get-together where 20 speakers, from all corners of the Web and the tech world, get two minutes each to answer one very open-ended question. This year, "What's The Secret?"

The answers were as varied and off-the-wall as you could expect. Some took the question very literally (two said the secret was love, which another speaker made fun of). Andrew Huff collected secrets from SXSW-goers, written in lemon juice, which he would then reveal at the event. Unfortunately, you can't get that many pieces of paper singed in two minutes, so he was only able to reveal the secret "Huff is Hot!", and set another piece of paper on fire, before his time was up. But that's good, since Bostonist had a secret in the box. And it's still safe.

Kevin Smokler called for a two-minute game of Telephone, which in a crowded bar, went about as well as you could imagine. Jory Des Jardins read off a list of secret advice, including fun phrases to teach your niece and nephew (I am so getting my nephew to say "can't complain" once he's talking). Probably the funniest secrets of the night came from Dallas blogger/journalist Josh Benton, who put together a two-minute video of non-geek civilians revealing secrets like "If it works in IE, but not in Firefox...I don't care" and "I get up early every morning and vandalize Wikipedia."

Speaking of which, the 21st speaker (yeah, they bent the rules) was Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia's founder, who told a really touching secret about how the site got started. Bostonist won't reveal his secret here (it is his secret, after all), but it was a really compelling motivation for him to want to put together such a massive project.

Of course there are cool things coming out of the conference during the hours the convention center is still open. Another, now local, blogger tells us that the panel “Design Eye for the List Guy” revealed a new-look craigslist. While Bostonist would be lost without the simplicity of graphic-free site, the new look seems to make it all a bit more readable and put together. However, we still wonder why they won’t just put missed connections right up at the top.

Michael Femia made his way down to Texas and will be helping us keep up with the hep cats at the SXSW Interactive festival. For the next week Michael will be reporting for Bostonist on some of the best events he's been able to catch. Find more of his musings here, and images here. Post contributed in part by Michael Femia