I braindumped my rough, incomplete, and barely personal impressions from XOXO 2016 last night: #XOXOfest 2016: Independent Creatives Inspired, Shared, Connected. I encourage you to read the following well-written XOXO overview posts and personal perspectives. In rough order of publication (or when I read them):

(Maybe open Ben Darlow’s XOXO 2016 Flickr Set to provide some visual context while you read these posts.)

1. Casey Newton (The Verge): In praise of the internet's best festival, which is going away (posted before mine, but I deliberately didn’t read it til after I wrote my own first XOXO 2016 post).
2. Sasha Laundy: xoxo from XOXO
3. Nabil “Nadreck” Maynard: XOXO, XOXO
4. Matt Haughey: Starving artists / Memories of XOXO 2016
5. Courtney Patubo Kranzke: XOXO Festival Thoughts
6. Zoe Landon: Hugs and Kisses / A Year of XOXO
7. Clint Bush: Andy & Andy: The XOXO legacy
8. Erin Mickelson: XOXO
9. Dylan Wilbanks: Eight short-ish thoughts about XOXO 2016
10. Doug Hanke: Obligatory XOXO retrospective

There’s plenty of common themes across these posts, and lots I can personally relate to. For now I’ll leave you with just the list, no additional commentary. Go read these and see how they make you feel about XOXO. If you had the privilege of participating in XOXO this year, consider posting your thoughts as well.