My voice went hoarse last night at the Cree Sustainable Media Happy Hour, and it was so worth it. I had a chance to show off the power of itty-bitty LEDs and spread the good word about energy-efficient LED lights to dozens of South by Southwest attendees and Austin, Texas residents who care about sustainability.

It was eye opening to see how little many of these folks knew about LED lighting, especially considering it was a group of people who care about sustainable living. Over and over I got to tell people about how energy efficient LED lights are, how there’s no mercury inside (unlike toxic CFLs), how long they last (Cree’s LR6 and LRP-38 are designed to last 50,000 hours aka 17 years if you run them for 8 hours a day), and how beautiful the light can really be.

But everyone I chatted with was open to the technology and wanted to learn more.

I met Brenda T. Horton, a northern California resident who lives in a straw bale house, which was built using sustainable building techniques and materials including earth plasters, natural cotton fiber insulation and recycled wood.

I chatted with Kristy Graves, a self (and aptly) described social alchemist whose many hats including raising awareness about Hub, which works in 20+ cities to inspire and support imaginative and enterprising initiatives for a better world. We talked about what people who retrofit their homes or businesses with LED lights should do with the incandescent and fluorescent bulbs they’re replacing. (More details on this in an upcoming blog post).

I met one of the women behind the Sol Design Lab, which brought a solar charging station called the SolarPump to SXSW. The solar electric charging station lets you charge everything from your laptop to electric scooters. Also in attendance was Elliott McFadden, editor of Austin on Two Wheels, an online magazine of Austin cycling culture; Steve Goldman, an Austin-based blogger who writes at sustainingability.wordpress.com and oh so many other interesting people.

It was a fun to break away from my fellow SXSW Interactive geeks and hang out with other folks focused on taking steps to make this world a better place. A big thank you to Rachael Joy, a green vlogger who helped organize the party and secure goodies from Joyful Bath Co., Honest Tea, Filter for Good, Hail Merry, and Herbalogic. As well as a thank you to Nick Aster and Jen Boynton of TriplePundit.

I loved bringing the LED Lighting Revolution to Austin. I’m feeling very inspired and can’t wait to do more to help spread the good word about this energy-efficient technology.