Final Day wrap up!
The 2010 SXSW Interactive conference has come to a close and the experience for me personally, has been an awesome one. Just writing and sharing these daily blogs has added a great deal to my overall experience and I’m glad I could share them with everyone that took the time to read them. This year the estimated attendance was at 15,000 for the interactive portion of the conference and my personal take is just one of those voices. The goal of my blog was not to try to offer an all-encompassing coverage of the conference; just my personal experience. So if you’re looking for “big story” coverage, these blogs won’t give you that. It is a” journal blog” and while those may be a bit out of date for the times; it is the format that I chose to offer up here. That being said I’ll get on with the final day of events.

Making Sure the World Doesn’t Suck:
How Independent Content Can Save the Media
An intriguing title and an intriguing panel as well, Sean Lennon – Chimera Music, Evan Shapiro – IFC, Marc Lieberman – The Onion, Harvey Smith – Arkane Studios, and Jake Dobkin – Gothamist.com, all representing the variety of genres at the conference. Each talked and discussed content and the value of community that surrounds it.  The major focus was on not trying to control and promote the content but instead letting the content, based on its quality, organically spread and proliferate through social communities.

Much of what they discussed was how todays indie content should have a new business model that is representative of this new web 2.0 strategy and unfortunately, where the income sources for the content may exist is still somewhat debateable. Everyone did agree on the fact that good indie content is founded on passion and all the new social tools for content delivery allow everyone to pursue what they are passionate about, without having to “quit the day job” and expect the passion to pay the bills. Man can I relate to that! While music is my passion, it really isn’t even paying for itself and I’m relegated to web and Information Technology services to “pay the bills”. Luckily, these things leave me a great amount of time to pursue the passion of music. Seems very appropriate to the times though. In the words of Sean Lennon “today especially, you have to be making your art from a place that is not financially motivated”. In essence, the panel could be summarized as such. If you are doing what you love, it will show in the work and that will bring forth the quality needed for it to proliferate and help to keep the world from sucking. Follow your passion and let it infiltrate the channels as best it can. In todays indie market, this is the best anyone can do.

Welcome to the State of Now
I spent pretty much the rest of my final day attending @jeffpulver‘s mini #140 conference. A conference within a conference, cool idea Jeff! He assembled an awesome group of speakers covering some broad angles but all centrally focused on the central theme of connectedness. The current state of now is indeed all about connectedness and the variety of panels Jeff brought together all demonstrated this in their own unique way.

Without going into depth about all the different speakers at the #140, I think the concept of “The State of Now” is a great overall note for me to conclude my blog series on for this years conference. My take on the whole experience is that today’s technology has us so obviously connected to each other, more so than at any other time in history, that the possibilities for collaboration and communication are endless. The new business is model is something that businesses today will either adapt or they risk losing their voice entirely in this vastly connected culture. The general rule of the road is transparency and the days of deceptive marketing campaigns are gone.

Every individual using these new tools now has just as much of a voice as a massive company with a million dollar a year advertising budget. Customer service is going to be what ultimately makes or breaks a business as well as each and every personal reputation online. We are all in the business of customer service now and we are all, each of us, our own brand.

It’s a real-time world and if a company falters in any way in terms of customer service today, a Twitter user with 15,000 followers can dramatically affect how that business does in the future. If they pull out their phone on the spot and document the service they are receiving, one person, one moment, one incident, dealing with one employee, can make or break the company’s reputation going forward. It’s a bit scary but it’s also empowering to know that the field has been leveled and that truth and respect now stands just as much of a chance as yesterdays deceptive advertising tactics. I say bring it on!

Day 4
Today was full of some serious tech revelations for myself based on topics and issues that I’ve never really taken the time to dive very deep into. The first panel was all about the future of Social Search and how search engine technology is adapting to the world of social media.

Social Search
I learned about quite a few sites that allow you to search twitter and other social networks such as facebook to pull in reports about how much a topic is trending in these online environments. I’m not going to go to deep here but I’ll list a couple of the most talked about, for you to investigate on your own. listorious.com, oneriot.com , Aardvark  They all do things in entirely different ways and it sounds like things are still evolving on this front for sure. The search zeitgeist truly hope that one day we’ll be able to search our friends and discover their favorite purchases so that you can use the information to make educated purchases yourself. Just one of many examples they were explaining this information could be used. Sounds like a privacy nightmare to me though, if you can search your friends purchasing habits, who else can do the same?

I have to admit, I’ve been a late adopter to Twitter and I’ve only done the bare minimum in the past to try to take part in the community. After this conference, which was essentially a crash course in how powerful Twitter is, I do see myself getting my Tweeting act together. For those of you not really into Twitter yet let me give you an example of how this tool is being used at the conference. For everyone that is attending the conference, or already in the twitter know, this might not be very news worthy but to someone who has not experienced a lecture with this technology in play, it really does demonstrate perfectly just what Twitter is and why it is so freaking cool.

Twitter 101
So in the world of Twitter, you have a hash tag “#tag”, which is used as a switch to denote a trending topic in the Twitterverse. Think of it as a bookmark that allows you to pull together the current live conversation about a specific topic. Say you want to follow the conversation for everything people are currently saying on Twitter about sxsw, you simply go to the search function of Twitter and enter the pound sign plus the tag for the topic. #sxsw. Then hit search. What you will then see is a real-time search stream for everyone currently tweeting with the #sxsw tag in their tweet.

In the lecture forums for SXSW interactive, every panel is given a hash tag. A laptop is placed on a projection screen with the search feed for the panel displayed so the entire room, as well as the world via the internet, can watch and participate in the trending conversation. What you end up with is a global stream of participants involved with the panel. Some will certainly find this distracting but what it does in my opinion is give you a real sense of community and a community where everyone has a relevant voice that is capable of being heard. It is almost as if you are witnessing an event, while being able to read whats on everyone’s mind about the event, without interrupting the event. Crazy? Cool? I vote cool.
So all you non Tweeters out there, what have you got to lose? Sign up start following some folks, they’ll more than likely follow you back and then join in the global conversation!

Only one more day of the Interactive Conference to go. So far it’s been an awesome experience. More tomorrow!
- John

Day 3
It’s Sunday and today was what should turn out to be, my earliest day for having to arrive down at the convention center. I’m glad to report though, that the first panel was well worth my effort of springing forward and getting down there early.

Social Heritage in Online Communities
The first panel I attended was put on by Dr. Sanjay Guptta and his brother who have started a social site called, The Kahani Movement, a very interesting take on how online social media can be used to preserve family heritage, while at the same time providing a wealth of media content for the Gupta brothers to take and edit into some powerfully moving videos where they can be shared with the world.

The entire concept of the site is driven around one central theme, that of family’s whom immigrated from India to the United States in the 1970′s. The stories are captured via casually shot videos, where family members interview other family members, then upload the footage to the social site where it can be viewed and commented on by other members.

It demonstrated a very powerful vehicle that if all family’s took advantage of this, forty or fifty years from now, genealogical data could all be derived from a family’s online social profile. It would probably even be a great idea if a family started a ning community based on their surname and started collaborating on historical as well as future family lineage. Uploading family member interviews, pictures as well as stories, an interactive family tree where your long-lost cousin twice removed and yourself could have a place to discuss anything you like, at any given time. Pretty cool concept!

Self Promotion?
Now I’d like to move ahead to what was possibly the best trade show talk I’ve ever been to. Given by Peter Shankman, aka @skydiver for everyone on Twitter, he delivered a very casual and insightful dialog , based on his life experiences, that demonstrated his attitudes and philosophies of self promotion. The talk was titled “Why Self Promotion Will Save the World”.

I found his take on the art of self promotion, without ever actually promoting yourself, refreshing and inspirational. It all boils down to being a good person and trying to help provide others with the things they are wanting or needing in business and in life, in turn you create for yourself the reputation of being the kind of person that can help out with most anything. This positivity breeds more positivity. Once you’ve created for yourself this “go to guy” reputation, all of a sudden people want to know more about you and what it is that you love to do. In turn they want to promote you and promoting yourself is no longer even something you need to do. Others will do it for you and this type of referencing is way more effective than when you toot your own horn, so to speak.

If you can manage to just be yourself, even if you have something you are trying to sell, just by being a nice person and by helping others with the things they need as much as you can, it is in that process that you sell yourself and the things that you are passionate about. Not by blatantly posting “Buy my new record, I’m awesome”. lol I’m a bit guilty of this myself at times so, to anyone I’ve offended by turning your social site into my own blatant advertising billboard, my apologies. Live and learn.

It’s all about creating win-win scenarios where everybody can get what they need. Once we’ve found that balance, well, I can only imagine that this balanced world will create just that in our lives; balance and harmony. By the end of his talk, Peter’s words had rallied the room to a standing ovation and supercharged some seriously positive energy that flowed back out onto the conference floor as the room emptied. Kudos and many thanks Peter!

Green Concepts
Speaking of positive energy, I saw this on one of my strolls outdoors today. It’s a solar-powered outlet on the street in the design of an old gas pump, for the sole purpose of charging your cell phone, laptop or electric bike. Talk about going green! Sol Design Lab has some very hip things going on, check them out! Austin is leading the way with movements such as this, I hope it catches on!

Till tomorrow! – John

Day Two
Saturday, day two, not so laid back as yesterday. The crowds have grown and it’s all too easy to get trampled under foot if you’re spending your time glancing down at your shiny new iPhone. Since my schedule, my email, my Facebook, my Twitter and my camera all now all reside on this miracle device I’m walking around with in my hand, I’m finding that it’s very easy to collide with the masses. I’m adapting though, it takes skill and a bit of experience to walk through the real world with one of these powerful devices distracting you at all moments of the day.

Socialnomics
I made my way to the Day Stage Cafe area of the Convention Center to hear Erik Qualman speaking on Socialnomics: How Social Media Transforms the Way We Live and Do Business. A great talk which started with a truly inspiring video of statistical data that can be viewed here! It really sums up many of the reasons businesses need to be tapping into this new market. Check it Out!!
For a humourous take on what social media means to customer service these days check out this video from a frustrated musician whom made in his grievances with United Airlines public via the social media of youtube! Over 8 Million plays to date! United Breaks Guitars. I hear United did offer to pay for his guitar afterall. Imagine that.

The next panel I wanted to see I couldn’t get into due to the massive swarm of humanity that was ahead of me. So instead, I hung out a bit, had some free bacon on the street courtesy of freshbooks.com and shot the walk through video at the top of this blog. Afterwards, I made my way into the trade show and gave it a quick once over.
A couple of the booths that caught my eye first were Bandize, a site geared towards organizing the planning aspects of a touring band, good stuff for a guy like me with goals of touring the band someday soon. The second booth that immediately caught my eye was a booth for imagespacemedia.com, with a keg of Shiner Bock front and center and free hotdogs. Hell Yeah bro! I had to see who was behind this. It was there were I met CMO Tad Davis (A former Austinite, hence the Shiner) and a truly nice guy to chat with. I immediately envisioned a way for a band website like my own to possibly start pulling in some revenue from more major advertisers and I’ll certainly be going back to chat with Tad again more. Especially since, for some reason, I left the house today without any business cards! Ooops.

Madmen
After a long lunch break, I made my way to a panel called “Rules of Brand Fiction from Twittering Madmen”. Essentially a panel led by the creative advertising director and the Technical Director for the AMC series Madmen. A hugely creative and succesful way of approaching social media using fictional characters. If you’re up on Twitter at all, you witnessed a bit of this, for those of you that aren’t, essentially the creative department for the show created Twitter accounts for all of the characters of the show and began tweeting “in character” to the twitter universe via 1963. I won’t go into all the ways they engaged the world of Twitter but it’s safe to say the campaign they pulled off brought many new viewers to the show. Many people who had never watched the show, wanted to check it out after following the fictional banter the characters added to the experience of Twitter. A brilliantly creative way of taking social media and engaging an audience of fans that are thirsting for more on a whole new level.

Support Group?
My last panel of the day, I have to admit felt more like an AA meeting than anything else. Entitled “Keeping Sane While Working From Home”. I swear it was like “Hello my name is John and I work from home.” I was amazed that the room was full for this one as well, another sure sign of the times. While I have my own reasons for attending this panel I truly did get some good ideas for helping out with the monotony of day-to-day life while working mostly from the house.

Well we’re almost half way through the conference and I’m sure the next few days will have more surprises in store.
More to come indeed! – John

Day One
Day one of the Interactive Festival started out pretty laid back and mellow. The panels didn’t start until the afternoon, so I spent the  morning strolling around, checking out all of the various lounges that were setup in the convention center as well as the Independent Film Channels Crossroads House a few blocks away, where there was a free brunch composed of  breakfast tacos and coffee, a Texas brunch for sure. It was here where I had my first celebrity sighting of the conference as Jamie Lynn Sigler (Meadow Soprano) came in to do an interview for her new Independent Film “Wake”. Yes guys, she’s just as adorable in person.

The Conference Buzz
The entire conference so far seems to be buzzing with Social Media. Everyone I talked to, it was the main reason they were attending the conference and the biggest thing that they are hoping to learn more about. This is such a big deal because, if you are selling a product and you are not engaging and quantifying in online social media of some type, you are soon going to be so far behind the marketing curve you simply won’t be taking part in shaping your own brand any more. It is the only marketing medium that allows instant, one on one, focus group type interactions with the audience of your product, and the tools are free. The time it takes to develop and implement a plan that everyone can understand, this is where businesses are currently struggling.
I came into the conference a bit ahead of this curve since I’ve already been through a series of sit down meetings with a client to discuss all of the how’s and why’s of social media marketing and many of the same issues we discussed, were talked about in the first panel I attended.

Social Media Marketing For Your Business
The biggest concept a company needs to grasp today is that, one on one customer engagement is now possible on a global scale utilizing social media. There is no other form of media that gives you this kind of opportunity for engaging and communicating with your customer base on such a massive and yet personal scale. It opens up a dialog for your company to listen to what the buyers of your product are saying directly in a setting that is not only “one on one” but “one to your entire customer base”. Companies and customers now both have the opportunity to put forth information about a product by participating in a conversational forum where everyone can have their opinions documented. While it’s surely not always positive feedback, it is invaluable feedback for sure. If the product does have a flaw; maybe the company needs to go back to RND and start again. If the company provides lousy customer support, everyone will hear about it, creating what I’d describe as a ”lifting of the marketing veil”. No longer can companies hide behind big marketing campaigns that only have a one way line of communication, it’s now a two-way dialog that requires utilizing honesty and complete transparency. It is the only way a company can operate and succeed within the social media model. Truth in information. Anything that is bull, will eventually get called out in a medium like social media, so make sure you can believe in your product before you venture forth. It comes down to the fact that if you want to be the ultimate authority on your product, then social media is the line in the sand where you can prove it.

Alright, that’s my rant on Social Media for the day. I have many more panels scheduled to attend that focus on many more aspects of this topic so I’m sure I’ll hit upon it many more times over the course of the next few days.

Fire Drill
The next panel I attended was called “Blogging Your Way to a Six Figure Income” by Darren Rowse. Unfortunately, we only got to hear him for about fifteen minutes before a fire alarm went off in the convention center. OMFG! The Austin Fire Department, while I’m sure concerned with everyone’s safety, owes a few thousand conference attendees a bit of a refund. It’s not cheap to attend a conference like this and to have it interrupted and miss out on turning my blog into a six figure revenue stream….well, you see my point. I heard they actually did this fire drill last year as well.

Tomorrow I plan on checking out “Screen Burn” and seeing what’s hot and new in the realm of gaming.
Stay Tuned! – John