Sad story, but true: Last night at dinner, as I went to take a picture of my fabulous Shrimp Alambres at Guero's Taco Bar in South Austin, I realized my camera was gone. I panicked.

I ran through the events of the day in my mind. I had it for lunch at Las Manitas. I had it for the panel on lessons learned through e-commerce. I had it for my water and M&Ms break. I narrowed it down to losing it sometime during a panel in 18a at 5 p.m.

As soon as I settled to a computer after dinner, I used Twitter in a plea to find my lost camera. I explained where I was, what the case looked like and even offered money.

Luckily, there was a group of about four us of who exchanged pleasantries and first names in that 5 p.m. panel, and when I woke up this morning, my "tweet" had been read by one of the friendly folks in this group of four. In an email, she explained that she had found my camera and turned it in to SXSW lost and found.

So, in a giant building full of thousands of people, a simple line under 140 characters led to the return of my camera. Thank you, Twitter!!! And thank you, Anne!!!

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