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Looks like the best presentation I missed at SXSW 2012.

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Keep Austin Weird

This was my fourth year attending SXSWi, which I think makes me a bit of a veteran. While what all the haters have to say about the event is true - it was indeed too crowded, too rainy, and too over-hyped - it is still the best interactive conference around, and I’ll be there next year.

I’ll be sharing a few of my key learnings over the next few days as part of my annual “let’s get blogging again initiative.” Stay tuned.

Shifting deck chairs on the Titanic

There’s a strange undertone at many of the advertising-related SXSW panels this year. The past few years have involved discussions of Twitter, platforms, transmedia, etc. This year there’s still a lot of that, but it feels like a fundamental misunderstanding of the real issues.

Communication has changed, media has changed, and yet advertisers are still living in the agency-client model that has been consistent for the past 50 years. I don’t think that hiring a social media expert, or creating a new department, or using a few new shiny tools is going to get us far enough.

I don’t have a solution. But the situation for advertisers in 2011 is starting to remind me a lot of the music industry in 2001. There’s a sea change coming, and I worry that all the little changes we’re making are blinding us to exactly how huge it is.

What will be trending at SXSW 2011?

Today the latest batch of panelist, core conversations, and presentations were selected for SXSW interactive 2011. I was honored that my session, Haters Gonna Hate: Lessons for Advertisers from 4chan, was selected to be one of these. But would you like to see what topics are going to be getting the biggest buzz in March? Here’s a word cloud:

SXSWi 2011 Word Cloud

Some of the biggest topics match with the trends in digital design and technology: social, games, web, and media. Others are interesting: health, meetup, and brands all make an appearance. But above all, it seems that we’re focused on doing our jobs better; topics of interest include future, innovation, collaboration, and engagement.

This visual was created by feeding the list of selected SXSW interactive panelsinto Wordle, minus the author and agency information.

SXSW Highlights

As an addendum to my SXSW recap yesterday, I’d like to share the slidedecks/video from some of the most interesting presentations. Enjoy!

danah boyd’s keynote on privacy and digital culture

Web Video Thunderdome, by Mike Arauz and Bud Caddell

Program or Be Programmed, by Doug Rushkoff

The inimitable Gary Vaynerchuck, talking about companies and love

Clay Shirky’s presentation would definitely be here too, if I could find a video of it online.

Enjoy!

SXSW 2010 Recap

I returned from SXSW last Wednesday, and I’ve just now reached the point where I can sort through all the panels, BBQ, tex-mex, and alcohol I consumed and come to some semi-salient conclusions. Read on!

So much has been written about the incredible atmosphere of SXSW that it’s almost pointless for me to recap here, but I’ll try anyway. The simplest way to put this into context is just to imagine that all your Twitter friends - people you engage with but never met offline, old friends from real life, people you admire and would love to meet - are congregating within a 6 block radius. This provides immense opportunities for interaction. As one might expect, the audience at SXSW is generally young-ish (late 20s, early 30s), tech-savvy, hipster-esque, with iPhone and Macbook constantly in tow (I can’t wait for next year when I can give my back a break by toting around my iPad instead of my Macbook). This environment feels simultaneously electrified and jaded, but it’s something I wouldn’t miss for the world. It’s the single most important technology event of the year, and the only one I know I will be attending annually.

The panels, however, are a different story. It’s shocking and disappointing to me that so many of the presenters - chosen by a social media voting process earlier in the year - seem completely unprepared. Panels with more than 2 people tended to be completely disorganized, and one session I attended was nothing more than the capabilities deck for the company the presenter works for. It seemed like most folks were afraid to commit to anything other than what everyone already believes in, but at the same time, did their best to avoid touching on a topic that even one person in the audience was already familiar with. This, to me, was sad, and shows a negative effect of the Twitter echo chamber and cliquey-ness that we see in social media.

(Note: based on my experiences this year and last I am committed to submitting a panel for next year; I may not be the brightest digital rock star out there, but I know how to prepare a non-trainwreck presentation. Get in touch if you’d like to collaborate.)

Aside from some of the duds, SXSW offers the opportunity to see some of the best digital thinkers - Clay Shirky, danah boyd, Moot of 4chan - in action. I’ve read much of their work online, but it’s a pleasure to see them bring their stories to life. But even more valuable is the opportunity to interact with peers and leaders who work all over the country in a variety of capacities.

SXSW Days 3, 4, 5, etc.- I’m a Procrastinator

Okay, so my daily SXSW wrap-up idea didn’t end up happening. I guess, given my history of procrastination, that’s not too surprising. So that I don’t get so overwhelmed with the idea of these posts hanging over my head that I stop blogging altogether, I’m doing a quick, one-post wrap-up.

Before going into the details of what I saw, did, etc., some stray observations:


Marci’s Final SXSW Wrapup:

Sunday 3/15/09

  • Journey to the Center of Design - Jared Spool rocked my world on this one (slides). Highlights:
    • “User-centered design never worked.” Whoa.
    • How Design Teams Work:
      • Process = how you get something done
      • Methodology = common rules for processes
      • Dogma = unquestioned beliefs/ practices
      • Techniques = building blocks of processes
      • Tricks = what you do when the right technique is too hard
    • Unsuccessful companies increase their methodology while successful companies use lots of tricks and techniques
    • We need to ditch UCD dogma in favor of informed design:
      • Vision - can everyone on the team describe the experience of using your design 5 years from now?
      • Feedback - in the last 6 weeks, have you spent more than 2 hours watching someone use your design or a competitors design?
      • Culture - in the last 6 weeks, have you rewarded a team member for creating a major design failure?
  • After listing to Mr. Spool (and watching him dance) I punked out and napped like a maniac. In the evening, I hooked up with some NYC peeps for BBQ at Stubb’s and some aimless party-hopping.

Monday 3/16/09

  • What Can We Learn From Games - Increased complexity in games creates opportunities for user-based designs (implicitly, through the choices they make). This has been common in games for some time, but is now happening in other media, e.g. the way in which ARGs related to Lost.
  • Advertising is Entertaining - Who’s Selling Out? - This conversation was kind of silly, as it was moderated by content providers and I more frequently find myself on the advertising side. It seemed to populated mainly by advertising douches (“why won’t The Onion feature my movie in a sketch?”).
  • The Decider Party - Best party of SXSW, mainly because I got to pat Eugene Mirman on the back (even though I arrived to late to see him perform).

Tuesday 3/17/09

  • The Future of Visual Storytelling is Interactive - Or Is It? - Cool discussion on interactive storytelling that primarily focused on interactive video and ARGs. I do think that as computers continue to take over mainstream media channels (most notably TV), these sorts of distinctions will be less relevant.
    • “Filmmakers think that digital is trying to displace their medium and we’re not.” - Victoria Ha. I completely disagree with this - I think digital WILL displace traditional film/ TV as they are now.
    • Types of interactivity discussed include:
      • Choose-your-own-adventure-style storytelling that adapts through audience participation (e.g. lonely girl15)
      • Environments in which users can create their own story through their interaction with a open-ended environment (e.g. sandbox games)
      • ARGs (alternate reality games) incorporate live elements and live events that users can selectively participate in.
    • An amusing afternote to the panel was a very irate audience member who didn’t like how their definition of “interactive” varied from the one she used in her thesis, or something.
  • Tuesday Keynote Interview - Chris Anderson interviewed by Guy Kawasaki - Inspiring (and ambitious) discussion about the meaning of “free” and how it’s affecting businesses and user expectations online.
    • The way to be free: Step 1. Create Celebrity, Step 2. Monetize Celebrity
      • Which is harder: achieving or monetizing popularity?
      • Our job is to build an audience the right way: by providing value.
    • What is “free”? It’s a very loaded word. Atoms get more expensive as they increase, bits get cheaper.
    • Models for free:
      1. Media model: advertising subsidizes costs.
      2. Freemium - give away 95% to sell 5%. E.g. MMORGs. Only 5% conversion is necessary for profit. People misunderstand how hard it is to get 5% of any population to pay. Switching from Free to Freemium breaks a social contract.
    • Is there any scenario in which this generation will pay for digital content? NO, but people will pay for convenience.
    • FREE/ CHEAP has no negative connotation on the web.

Aaron is mad I went to SXSW without him

SXSW Day 2 - Beef and Booze

As I should have foreseen, I am already behind on my SXSW roundups. Here’s a quick look at the awesome on Saturday 3/14/09:


  • Curating the Crowd-Sourced World - Okay, I have to admit: I ended up at this panel accidentally thanks to conference room confusion. But I was psyched to hear Gina Trapani.

  • Opening Remarks by Zappos.com’s Tony Hsieh - So many people have written volumes on Tony Hsieh’s speeches that I don’t want to go into too much detail. But some of my favorite points were:

    • A company’s culture becomes its brand.

    • Chase the vision, not the money: whatever you’re thinking, think bigger.

    • Happiness is the ultimate life goal for EVERYBODY - so take time studying your own happiness.



  • From Freelance to Agency: Start Small, Stay Small - So far, my favorite panel of SXSW. This is a topic that has been near and dear to my heart recently, as I figure out what my own business path will be. Whitney Hess is my better-known, better-spoken döppleganger.

  • Comedy on Television and the Web - Fun and funny panel with some celebrities (web and IRL). Interesting how people still differentiate between media channels - to me, both the web and TV are distribution channels, nothing more.

  • Fogo de Chao - Awesome Brazillian churrascaria with @Bescka and @Chateau.

  • SXSW Interactive Opening Party Hosted by frog design- Quick stop by the big frog opening party, which was pretty much how all big parties are: crowds, plastic cups, loud music, strangers.

  • OK! Happy Cog’aoke - Fun, backyard-keg-party feel sponsored by the cool kids at Happy Cog.

SXSW Day 1 - Panels and Party RVs

I am endeavoring to take notes on the conferences, panels, and parties I find interesting at SXSW, so that I might say that I got more out of the event than a series of hangovers (which I’m already dreading).

I arrived late Thursday night, so a lazy Friday morning putting the final touches on my new web site seemed in order. By the time I got to the convention center at 1pm, the line for badges was about an hour long. Fun!

Much later, badge in hand, I attended my first session: Oooh, That’s Clever! (Unnatural Experiments in Web Design). It was presented by Paul Annett, of Clearleft Ltd., and discussed the “clever little tricks” and easter eggs that can make design fun and bring consumer opinions up from satisfaction to delight. Lots of great examples, and the main idea, although simple, is something that people tend to forget in the realm of daily client projects.

The next session was a topic near and dear to my heart: Try Making Yourself More Interesting. All the panelists were fantastic, but Kristina Halvorson, of Brain Trust, completely blew me away with her insights on interactive brand engagement and the concept of building brand love as an indirect way to foster eventual consumer transactions.

Sessions complete, I parked myself next to a power outlet to put out some work fires and mess around with Twitter (I’ve had several people ask me my Twitter username before asking my real name, a fact which makes me feel old). While browsing through the #sxsw feed, I saw this:

@GirlGamer tweet about Rock Band RV.

Um, okay. People who know me will instantly understand why this made me excited, for those of you who don’t, suffice it to say that I am very into video games, Rock Band/ Guitar Hero, feminism, and party buses.

At 7:45, the party bus was no where to be found. I circled the (enourmous) conference center a few times, all the while weirdly nervous that I would see a party bus leaving without me. Finally, I found a parked RV on the side of road. Feeling a bit shady, I rapped on the window. Luckily, I had the right vehicle, and not some travelling porn video studio or child molestation outfit.

The party commenced, and although my bragging about my Rock Band skills overrepresented their actuality a bit, good times were had. Nachos, Jack Daniels, and Bon Jovi is an equation that can’t go wrong.