SXSW Interactive 2010
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People to follow on Twitter during SXSW Interactive
South by Southwest Interactive has felt for the last three years tailor-made for the short bursts of information on Twitter — or maybe it’s Twitter that feels custom-sized for the fest.
The festival is always a good time to add new people, whether they’re local or visiting, during the fest. Here’s a good mix of people to follow from Austin and from elsewhere during SXSWi 2010:
From Austin:
- Michelle Greer (@michellegreer) — Last year’s Statesman Texas Social Media Award overall winner, now representing San Antonio-based Rackspace
- Kate Buck (@katebuckjr) — Social media “Fly Girl” and one of the hosts of the highly anticipated TechKaraoke party on March 15.
- Jon Lebkowsky (@jonl) — Frequent SXSWi panelist and organizer of the March 15 Plutopia party.
- Clay Spinuzzi (@spinuzzi) — University of Texas at Austin associate professor of rhetoric who will be on a coworking panel at the fest.
- Eve Richter (@erichter) — Emerging technologies coordinator for the City of Austin’s economic development division.
- Tracy Mueller (@tracymueller) — Freelance writer and Twitterer for the UT McCombs School of Business who will be covering the fest.
- Chris Byrd (@chrisbatdell) — Dell Inc. “Digital Life Evangelist” and member of the company’s social media team.
- Stephanie Klein (@stephanieklein) — “Greek Tragedy” blogger and author; she’s on a panel about balancing your blog and wrote some great blog entries about last year’s fest.
- Josh Williams (@jw) — Founder and CEO of Austin’s Gowalla, which is hosting a big Tiki Room party and might have big announcements at the fest.
- Stacey Higginbotham (@gigastacey) — GigaOm reporter who’ll likely be keeping an eye on AT&T’s 3G network during the fest.
From elsewhere:
- Evan Williams (@ev) — CEO of Twitter, who will deliver a March 15 keynote at the festival
- Gina Trapani (@ginatrapan) — Founding editor of Lifehacker, now an author and software developer.
- Pete Cashmore (@petecashmore) — Founder of popular social media trends blog Mashable and the person most likely to be hounded after to post for party pics.
- Susan Wu (@sw) — Frequent SXSWi panelist and now an angel investor and CEO of Web games company Ohai, Inc.
- Leo Laporte (@leolaporte) — Popular and friendly tech expert will be carrying around camera gear and broadcasting live from the fest.
- Anil Dash @anildash) — Tech blogger, head of the Expert Labs technology incubator and host of the SXSWi unofficial kickball game.
- Doug Benson (@dougbenson) — “Best Week Ever” comedian and host of the 13th-Annual SXSW Interactive Web Awards.
- Tom Merritt (@acedtect) — CNET podcaster who’ll be recording at the fest.
- Chris Brogan (@chrisbrogan) — Popular marketing speaker and co-author of “Trust Agents.”
- Clay Shirky (@cshirky) — Consultant, teacher at NYU and deep thinker on Internet issues who’ll be doing a presentation at the fest.
Some of the American-Statesman staffers who’ll be covering the fest and are on Twitter include me, Peter Mongillo, Addie Broyles, Lori Hawkins, Chad Swiatecki and Deborah Sengupta Stith. We’ll be covering the fest on its own Twitter account, @360SXSWi.
You can find more Statesman staffers and Austinites to follow on our Statesman Twitter page, too.
Got more suggestions? Post them in the comments.
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Panel preview: “Does My Sh*t-Talking Really Help Your Brand?”
“Does My Sh*t-Talking Really Help Your Brand?”
5 p.m., Saturday, March 13
Hilton D
Customer service (and how to provide it well online) is a topic that pops up in several panels, including the subject of this preview as well as another one we’ll be featuring soon, “Customer Support in a 140 Character World.”
For “Does My Sh*T-Talking Really Help Your Brand?” we spoke to Ivan Askwith, director of digital strategy for Big Spaceship, a New York-based firm where he “Helps clients havigate the digital landscape and understand emerging behavior.” He’s got a master’s degree from MIT’s Program in Comparative Media Studies and has been a media analyst for the school’s Convergence Culture Consortium.
American-Statesman: We’ve all heard examples of ways that social media has helped companies (Dell, Whole Foods, etc…) but have there been any instances where social media has damaged a brand irreparably? Is that even possible?
Ivan Askwith: In general, it’s hard to imagine a brand being damaged beyond repair, because brands can hold their breaths for a long time, and can invest a lot of thought and money in changing their meaning… so even if a brand took serious damage, it’s hard to imagine that would shut them down for good.
That said, I don’t think that “social media,” in general, is what can damage a brand. Despite what a lot of marketers and advertisers seem to think — that social media is just a new, interactive, engaged channel for messaging — the real impact of social media is that it turns brands into something akin to people. People don’t have slogans (most of the time), and they can’t stick to scripts and isolated tactical objectives. Relationships aren’t just about what we say, they’re about how we respond — or don’t respond — when other people talk to us. And the risk that brands face when using social platforms is looking self-centered, indifferent and disinterested, even when they’re not.
Being in social spaces inevitably makes brands more transparent, for better and for worse. That means that if your brand doesn’t have more to talk about than itself, it will look self-centered — or, even worse, it will just look boring. The question isn’t how brands can “use” social media, but how brands have to change, at a deeper level, to be authentic when engaging in public interactions. If you can’t get past thinking that social media is just a targeted space for messaging to brand loyalists, you’re pretty much going to look like an (expletive).
One other point: “brands” themselves can’t really, fully engage in social media. Unlike television ads and Web sites, which sometimes seem to just appear in the world fully-formed and beyond question, brand participation in social spaces most often comes down to individual choices that individual people make, and make publicly. And those people have faces, names and titles.
So even when an exceptionally bad decision is made, and consumes respond, there’s a fall-back solution: distance yourself from the person who made a bad call, apologize and demonstrate your commitment to making better choices in the future. It’s like high school: people might push you into lockers for a few weeks, or give you silent treatment, but eventually they’ll get over it.
To circle back to your question: I don’t think brands risk damaging themselves beyond repair when they use social media badly. They do risk becoming irrelevant, or revealing just how unaware they are of the social conventions and expectations that govern interactions in those spaces.
What do you hope audience members will be able to take away from the panel to help their own branding efforts?
Well, each of the people on our panel will probably have a different answer to this question, but there are a few things I hope the panel will accomplish.
For one, we need to get past the outdated idea that social media is about reach, awareness and impressions. If people are talking about your brand 24/7, but everything they’re saying is negative, you’re not necessarily winning. In fact, you’re probably losing.
What we really need when brands engage in social channels is a clear understanding of how people behave in those spaces, why, and what brands can do to make their experiences better. We all talk about how social media is great for “building relationships,” but relationships have to consist of more than subscribing to a newsletter. I’d hope that this panel helps people think more carefully about what their brands are doing in social channels, and leads us to ask more meaningful questions about what we’re accomplishing, and how it is — or isn’t — helping.
The Web’s inherent anonymity seems to foster negativity. Do sites like Facebook, where someone’s identity is more clear, make it easier to weed out those kinds of drive-by Internet attacks? Is that good news for companies who are nervous about social media?
To the first part of your question, the answer is “yes.” Sure. It’s more difficult to make anonymous comments on Facebook, so there tends to be less trolling.
But there’s a more important insight hidden in this question, and I hope that our panel will explore this as well: brands shouldn’t be thinking about how to prevent people from making negative comments about their brands. If someone cares enough to make a negative comment, they’ll find somewhere to do it — they don’t need the brand’s help. And if they really want to say something, odds are they’ll still say it, even on a brand’s Facebook page.
The question is, what should brands do when negative comments surface? Delete them? Ignore them? View them as opportunities to convert, or at least show respect toward, antagonists? There’s no single right answer, but the different options have different consequences, and the choices you make will be factored into how your brand is perceived.
So to answer your question head-on: if brands are nervous about social media, the solution isn’t to find safe spaces. It’s to address that anxiety, figure out what’s causing it, and make intelligent decisions about how and why to move into social channels at all. Again, the most common problem brands face in social media isn’t losing control — it’s retaining control and realizing that no one cares enough to hang out with them.
Are companies that do controversial campaigns (Burger King, Skittles), ultimately winning out with the attention they generate?
Depends on how you’re evaluating success. They’re certainly getting noticed, but is that actually helping their overall perception? Depends on what the campaigns demonstrate about the brand’s larger set of values and goals. To use a recent example, Southwest Airlines got noticed after the Kevin Smith fiasco, but probably would have been just as happy if no one was talking about them.
To their credit, though, Southwest — which has a great appreciation for the uses and abuses of social channels — benefited from the chance to respond to Smith’s complaints through social channels. They got caught making a mistake — something that used to be a lot less public — but in the aftermath, were able to apologize and make amends.
What kinds of expertise are the different panelists bringing to this discussion?
The thing that excites me most about this panel, actually, is the range of opinions and perspectives we have represented in the discussion.
My work at Big Spaceship — and before that, with the Convergence Culture Consortium at MIT — focuses on understanding behavior in digital spaces, and helping brands learn to participate in those spaces and add value, rather than dominating and interrupting them with traditional messaging. I don’t think of what I do as “advertising,” but a lot of my potential clients do — so I find myself discussing and debating these topics on a near-daily basis.
Sam Ford, from Peppercom — and an old colleague and friend from the Convergence Culture Consortium — tackles the same challenges in the world of public relations, another area that (like advertising and marketing) is transforming in the face of social media. Advertising gives us one way of thinking about the value of social media; PR gives us another, which I think is often more useful. Sam is also a leading academic voice in fan studies and anti-fan studies, which provide a useful angle for thinking about these questions.
Emily Yellin adds another critical perspective: a deep knowledge of customer service. A terrific journalist and author, her book — “Your Call Is (Not That) Important To Us” — gives her first-hand insight into how companies are beginning to use (and misuse) social media to handle customer service. Which raises an interesting question: how does customer service differ when it’s conducted in public channels, rather than on private hotlines?
Michael Monello, from Campfire, also brings an interesting perspective to the discussion. As one of the original creators of the “Blair Witch Project” — which was more notable for its use of digital media to build and activate fan communities around the film — Mike has strong thoughts on how brands and the public can work together.
Finally, Amber Case — who, as a “cyborg anthropologist,” has one of my all-time favorite business cards — brings a range of perspectives. Until recently, she worked on digital strategy and PR for Wieden + Kennedy, which gave her a first-hand look at the challenges that global brands face in social media. Her broader background as an anthropologist gives her a unique approach in deciphering the possible meaning of social behaviors and relationships.
All in all, an incredible group of thinkers and experts. Combine that with the range of opinions and ideas that are always in the room at SXSW — since we’re hoping to open up the mics just a few minutes into the hour, to make it a full-on discussion — and I’m optimistic. I think it’s going to be a great conversation.
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Sony PlayStation 3 users weather the PlayStaypocalypse
Update, Monday evening: It looks like the PlayStation Network is back to normal and things are working again. It seems safe now to turn on your PlayStation 3 and the data-loss we feared didn’t come to pass.
Now, where’s that “Heavy Rain” disc?
Usually, companies send us video games to review, but in the case of the new PlayStation 3 game “Heavy Rain,” we didn’t receive a copy.
Based on some very positive reviews and the recommendation of my brother, who had already bought it and beat it, I took a trip on Saturday to a place of retail and paid $60 for the chance to play it myself. That night, I played the first hour or so and liked what I saw. It’s a solid game that does some very new things very well.
Imagine my surprise last night when I tried to play the game and couldn’t because something was wrong with the PlayStation Network, which the game connects to (even though it’s a wholly single-player experience). Imagine my further surprise when I found out that I was not alone. EVERY PlayStation 3 user whose console accessed the network was having the same problem. It started early evening yesterday and as of this writing, continues.
What did I do instead of playing “Heavy Rain?” I fired up the Xbox 360 and played “BioShock 2” instead.
A blog post on the official PlayStation Web site warns users of the older PlayStation 3 non-Slim systems (like mine, which I purchased the day the console launched) not to even turn their console on. That’s how serious the situation is — you could corrupt data on the console simply by trying to use it.
Truly, we are in a bold new chapter of the console wars where even turning on your system might ruin hours and hours of game saves.
My complaints with Sony over the years are too numerous to name here, but as a corporate entity, they are the Charlie Brown kicking the football of consumer electronics. Every time something good comes along to save the PlayStation 3 brand since its problematic launch (say, a game like “Heavy Rain”) some marketing faux pas or titanic network problem keeps the PS3 name mired in the thickets of pain for users. There’s a reason the console trails behind the Nintendo Wii and Xbox 360 in this generation of consoles after the PlayStation 2 dominated the last gen — screw ups like this one. Many of them. A $600 launch price of the PS3 didn’t help, either.
I’ll let you know when the situation is resolved, but as of right now (and possibly for as long as another day), PlayStation 3 systems across the world are now malevolent black bricks. Curvy, hulking, useless.
Oh, Sony.
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SXSW panel preview - Austin: Latino Internet Capitol of the World!
Austin: Latino Internet Capitol of the World!
12:30 p.m., Saturday, March 13
Courtyard Rio Grande A
The panel will also feature Paul Saucido of LatinoSlant! and Cindy Casares of Guanabee.com.
Digital Savant: What’s your job at Apple and how long have you been there?
Aldo Ramon: First off for clarification, I am not speaking on behalf of Apple Inc. in anyway in any of my replies, this is all straight from me personally. My job at Apple is to allocate and administrate all Apple products (CPUs, iPods, Software/Accessories) to all of Latina America and get our Great Product to Great People, and I’ve been doing so for almost give years. Got in when it was getting good, and haven’t looked back since!
Apple seems to keep a pretty low profile in Austin (apart from the Apple Stores) — are people surprised when you tell them you work for Apple? What kinds of questions do people ask you about your job?
Most people usually do get surprised and automatically think I work for the Apple Store. I usually tell ‘em I’m a custodian, so they don’t follow up with “hook me up with an iPod.” But I’m blessed to have a office job that allows me to work remotely if needed, because it goes hand in hand with my life, traveling all over the Latin Americas. Apple’s all about the music, and with what I’ve been doing for several years before I worked for Apple, I toured/recorded on bass with well known Latin acts such as Menudo/MDO and currently with Los Super Reyes and soon to tour these regions with my own group, Los Bad Apples.
I can say to myself at the end of each day, “Yep, I made thousands of people/crowds dance at all those shows, and with my job at Apple I feel as if I get to continue doing so, on a more personal level, with their iPods in their hands, etc…” I have an attitude of gratitude for what I do, almost like a Clark Kent/Superman life I seem to juggle.
Lots of people have been asking whether we might see some iPads at the festival. Any chance we may see some of them floating around, in the hands of reviewers or Apple employees?
Concerning the iPad… I can’t comment. Apologies!
Have you presented at/attended SXSW Interactive before?
I’ve attended and played some shows before; but don’t recall doing anything with SXSW Interactive, I’m really pumped and excited about it, to say the least!
Your Core Conversation is called “Austin, Texas: Latino Internet Capital of the World.” In 200 words or less, tell us why Austin is the Internet capital of the world for Latinos.
With my travels I know it is the Live Music Capital of the World, and the Cap City also has its finger on the pulse of technology and seems to have a high involvement of Latinos using the Internet and the virtual happenings of online communities. I believe Austin does have a pretty firm staple into the Internet when it comes to the arts/media,
What kinds of things do you plan to talk about in your Core Conversation?
I plan to talk about how there is a significant growth of Latinos using the Internet to stay connected, not just here in Austin, but worldwide, with my experience watching and monitoring market trends/growth in Latin Americas.
What are some things you’re most excited about seeing at the festival? Do you also plan to attend Music and/or Film?
I’m most excited about seeing the promotions and day-to-day hustles that are going to be done, be it from filmmakers, to bands, to artists to street musicians. I’ve set up shop on a street before and played for passersby and musicians from all around the world bust out their instruments to jam. I enjoy people watching and getting them to dance, and meeting folks that travel from other sides of the world to attend.
I also heard Esperanza Spalding is playing, so I’d like to check her out, along with Bomba Estereo from Colombia, and it’s always fun when my best friend Asdru Sierra of Ozomatli comes into town. We have hour long laugh sessions, while we post up in a studio and work on material.
As for films I’d like to go check out “Beyond Ipanema” by director Guto Barra, having to do with Brazilian music influencing the world, and of course, for me just people watching and seeing where and what the buzz is all about this year.
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Austin’s Google Gigabit efforts get organized online
Since we last mentioned Austin citizens moving to get Google’s attention on its Gigabit Internet project, quite a bit has happened.
The Austin City Council approved a resolution to draft and submit a response for Google’s request for information and a group called Big Gig Austin has formed, complete with a Twitter account, Facebook page and Web site.
Will it be enough to get Google’s attention? We’ll be watching and hoping.
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SXSW panel preview: ‘Seed Combinators: Startup Incubators 2.0’
Seed Combinators: Startup Incubators 2.0
3:30 p.m., Monday, March 15
Hilton C
The panel will describe “Seed Combinators,” which is defined in the panel description as, “…the concept of mashing up angel investing, OpenCoffee Club meetups, tactical workshops, and Coworking that is giving rise to a new class of software and new media startups.”
Here’s some background on Austin’s Capital Factory from our start-ups reporter Lori Hawkins, a follow-up from her, an article about Austin’s Demo Day from TechCrunch and an NPR All Tech Considered segment I did in which I spoke about the problem of spam. Joshua Baer helped me prepare for the segment by giving me some background on how Otherinbox works and how most e-mail filtering companies deal with spam in a phone interview.
Bear was also one of the American-Statesman’s 2009 Texas Social Media Award winners.
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SXSW panel preview: ‘I Don’t Trust You One Stinking Bit’
‘I Don’t Trust You One Stinking Bit’
12:30 p.m. March 13
9ABC
Chris Brogan and Julien Smith, authors of the book “Trust Agents,” are the presenters in this panel on online trust. Read up on their work in this interview on the blog Lateral Action. An excerpt:
We wrote a book about the soul of the new machine, not a manual for how to use some fleeting piece of software. Trust Agents is every bit a business book, not an instruction manual. Hopefully, it will stand up long after books about Twitter seem dated and silly.
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SXSW Interactive live chat, 2 p.m. today with Tammy Lynn Gilmore and Shawn O’ Keefe
Today at 2 p.m. CST, we’ll be holding a live with Shawn O’ Keefe and Tammy Lynn Gilmore of South by Southwest Interactive. Got questions about the fest? Want to pick their brains about some of the highlights of this year’s Interactive? Bring your questions and comments today.
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SXSW panel preview: ‘Building a Bullet-Proof Personal Finance System’
‘Building a Bullet-Proof Personal Finance System’
11 a.m. March 13
Hilton E
Organizer Ramit Sethi is the creator of the blog I Will Teach You to Be Rich and the book of the same name. He’s one of the most popular personal finance bloggers on the Web, and his writing style is informative, funny and blunt (he titled a recent post “Attention whiny complainers: Why you STILL aren’t saving money”). Get a sample of his speaking style here.
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UPDATED: Time Warner Cable rolls out mobile Road Runner in Austin/San Marcos
Update, 5 p.m.: A few more details from Time Warner Cable, following up on the earlier blog info.
The $29.95 price is for a package that includes free USB hardware for Road Runner Mobile, but is limited to 2 Gigabytes a month (or about two high-def movie downloads). This is only available to Road Runner users and is considered “complementary” to the home broadband service, said Time Warner Cable’s general manager of wireless, Alex Heien.
“That’s for customers who customers who may not be doing a lot of surfing or watching video,” Heien said.
Also available will be a “Road Runner Mobile Elite” plan for $44.99 a month with unlimited data on the Clear 4G network. That plan also includes free hardware and the activation fee is waived.
Rounding out the packages is a $64.99 “National” plan that includes dual-mode 4G and 3G service (which has a wider coverage area). With that plan, the USB hardware costs $49. A $10 discount brings the price to $54.99 for six months.
Now the bad news for those seeking stand-alone unlimited mobile Internet service: both the Elite and National plans require bundling with another Time Warner Cable service, like cable TV service or a digital phone. A basic cable plan costs about $20, so you’re looking at about $65 a month for the cheapest unlimited option with Road Runner Mobile.
“We don’t have (stand-alone service),” Heien said, “we may in the future.”
The service does work with Macs and there’ll be a separate accessory available to create a wireless hotspot for up to five devices at a time by plugging in the USB modem. Coming soon is also a modem/Wi-Fi router built into one device, Heien said.
The coverage area will also continue to expand as more towers are put up and the network is tweaked.
Thoughts? Questions? Let us know in the comments.
Earlier information is below:
This morning, Time Warner Cable announced the official rollout of its 4G wireless data service, “Road Runner Mobile” in areas that include Austin, San Marcos, Waco and Killeen.
TWC says the service will start at $29.99 for existing Time Warner Cable customers and will offer speeds of up to 6 Mbps, similar to what Sprint 4G mobile customers can get (they share the same Clear 4G network).
TWC said the service includes data storage, Web mail and “Internet security.” The Austin coverage joins rollouts in Dallas, San Antonio, Wichita Falls, Corpus Christi and Charlotte, N.C.
We’ll be talking to Time Warner this afternoon to get more details and taking the hardware for a test drive soon (we’re told it’s Mac-compatible) and will post more details soon, including whether that $29.99 has a data limit and what it will cost for non-TWC subscribers. Stay tuned!
Click on the image below for a bigger view of the 3G/4G coverage areas:
Edited to add, Wednesday a.m.: Here are some photos of the Road Runner Mobile hardware:
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Rumblings: Twitter may announce ad platform at SXSWi
Several business blogs are speculating today that Twitter chief executive Evan Williams may announce an ad platform for the social media service at his keynote next month at South by Southwest Interactive.
The rumors stem from statement’s made by Twitter’s head of product management and monetization, Anamitra Banerji, who reportedly told attendees at an interactive advertising conference Monday that Twitter is about a month away from rolling out a way to incorporate ads into the service. This would be one answer to a question Twitter has faced since it took off at the SXSW Interactive festival in 2007: how would the company, which has millions of users, make money?
A blog post on GigaOm cites an anonymous “Industry insider” as saying the company “may” make the announcement at the festival. The timing makes sense, but would SXSW be the appropriate place to make such a move?
Perhaps. At last year’s festival, Facebook rolled out “Facebook Connect” at a morning panel and Dell introduced its Adamo thin laptop.
Despite the sketchy sourcing, if what Banerji said was accurate, the timing makes perfect sense.
Edited to add, Wednesday a.m.: TechCrunch takes a look at what these ads might look like.
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SXSW preview: “The History of the Button”
2 p.m. March 12
Ballroom C
While the SXSW Interactive conference is generally about looking forward, Bill DeRouchey, Director of Interaction Design at Ziba Design, will be offering a look back when he visits Austin in a few weeks. At first glance, a talk about the history of the button may not seem terribly exciting, but as DeRouchey explains below, there is a lot to be learned from an idea that has remained a central element of technology over the last century, even as almost everything else has changed.
How did you get the idea to study the history of the button?
The initial idea came to me because I spent most of my career working in Web and software, and about five years ago I switched over to a product design firm, and noticed that most of what I knew from working on Web sites was out the window. With product design, you’re working on physical interfaces. I noticed that the one thread that was common between them was buttons. Of course buttons are all about how we interact online, and they’re also how we interact with physical products.
What was the first button?
Two questions I always get are what is the button, and what was the first button. The way I look at it is, what was the first device that people commonly carried around with them in everyday usage that actually had a button? It was either the flashlight or the light switch. They’re the crudest buttons possible. They do one thing, they turn a light on, whether it’s in your pocket or on the ceiling. It was the first common thing that people encountered that had the magic of a button.
There’s really no logical relationship between pushing a button and a light coming on from a physical standpoint. Before electric push buttons showed up, the way that we interacted with technology was mechanically based. Buttons are when the magic showed up of performing an action and getting a completely different type of reaction. Turning on a light was a magical thing. That led to all kinds of promises of the future of leisure: appliances, blenders, washing machines, radios. The 1930’s were a very magical era for technology because people were very excited about the future. The phrase push-button itself was code for easy, leisure, the future.
Now, buttons can do amazing things. I can actually click once, say at a place like Amazon.com, and that initiates an entire process of books going into boxes, boxes being shipped to my house, money being deducted from my bank account, and so on. It all comes down to the very simple action of poking things. What I’m fascinated by is how our relationship with the world has changed over the last hundred years in terms of what we can do with the simplest of motions and how that changes our psychology, how we view the world and even relate to each other as people.
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TEDxATX wrapup: good vibes, say attendees
Judging from the Tweets and blog posts of those who attended on Saturday, it looks as if the first Austin TEDxAustin event (a licensed version of the popular TED conferences) was a success.
Although it was very easy to be cynical about the event based on some of the choices made beforehand (and I am nothing if not a cynical jerk about these things), attendees expressed quite a bit of uplift after the event, which took place at the Austin City Limits studio.
I followed the first hour and a half via the event’s live video stream and was baffled by the choice to open the event with a diet guru (despite positive word from attendees about speaker Rip Esselstyn, when I hear the words “Diet” and “Guru” together, I usually run the other way — toward Whataburger). I was amused by giggles, sighs and whisper I could hear from those who apparently were in charge of streaming the event. (Some on Twitter asked them to stop. I begged them to continue the unofficial commentary; it was very entertaining.)
Nancy Giordano opened the conference by thanking attendees for taking a leap of faith that the programming would be worth their time. Jen Spencer then told attendees that despite an earlier message on Twitter, TEDxAustin was asking attendees not to use Twitter or to live-blog the day’s proceedings. It had something to do with not interfering with the live video stream, but you’d think that people’s 3G-enabled phones wouldn’t rock the boat on that front.
But what I apparently missed by not attending (I was taking my daughter to “Sesame Street Live,” a whole other kind of life-affirming experience) was a very good cross-section of Austin thinkers, philanthropists, scientists and do-gooders. Good vibes do not tend to translate well over online video or through Tweets, but it’s clear from the feedback I saw from people whose opinion I trust that the event struck a chord with them and left them feeling good. I imagine that is more than worth the $50 attendance fee and the expensive of one’s Saturday.
Believe me, if people felt ripped off or displeased with the way their time was spent, people would have been pretty vocal about it online.
So here’s a wrap-up of what people are saying about TEDxAustin. Congratulations to the organizers for putting on an event that seems to have resonated with those who were invited and many who watched online.
- Our quick-hit Saturday wrap-ups from here on Digital Savant.
- I Am A Connector lists all the speakers and organizers with links to more information on each of them.
- Jon Lebkowsky’s take.
- Eugene Sepulveda’s take.
- Laura Lorek’s take.
- John McElhenney’s take.
- Thom Singer’s take.
- Carla Thompson’s take. Edited to add: Ashley Brown’s take.
- Event planners The Simplifiers give some background on helping put it together.
- Photos from Kirk Tuck.
- And via Community Matters, this amazing video of visual notes from TEDxAustin. Very, very cool.
And one more, a video from Paul Terry Walhus of the Conjunctured TEDxATX rejection party:
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SXSW panel preview: ‘How to Unplan Your Business Idea’
How To Unplan Your Business Idea
5 p.m. March 13
Hilton E
Ian Sanders, who’s presenting “How to Unplan Your Business Idea” with David Sloly on March 13 at SXSW Interactive, took some time to answer questions from us via e-mail (we kept his British spellings) about his Core Conversation. Sanders is the author of ‘Juggle! Rethink Work, Reclaim Your Life’.”
First, could you talk a little bit about your background and how the “unplan” idea evolved?
I’ve been in business for 20 years; 10 years working for myself and 10 years in organisations. Through all that time, I’ve focused on launching new business ventures, taking new ideas to market and helping clients with start-ups. If there’s one thing I’ve learnt - both as a manager/ entrepreneur launching my own ideas and an independent consult advising others - it’s the importance of putting your ideas into action rather than over-planning them. There’s this tradition in business that if you’re launching a new venture you must have a long-term plan and 3 or 5 year financial projections. I think now, more than ever, that’s flawed. It’s much more important to get your idea out to market, to prototype and test it as you go.
What can people who come to your SXSW session expect?
We’ll be setting out to bust the business planning myth, encouraging people to greenlight their ideas rather than keep them sitting on a spreadsheet. We hope to provide inspiration and ideas to give people the confidence to put their ideas into action. And arguing that having the right attitude is more important than a plan. But this isn’t me and my collaborator standing on a stage talking at you. It’s a ‘core conversation’ and we’ll be hosting a discussion, getting the audience’s take on their own experiences and answering questions people have.
It seems like two of the reasons too much planning might be increasingly futile are the economy and the speed of technological changes. How have those two factors changed what launching a business means now?
Absolutely. How can we predict economic and technological changes? If the last 12 months of economic turmoil have shown us anything it’s that the landscape can change in an instant… just like that. Big corporations and institutions can crumble overnight. That provides some challenges and also opportunities for entrepreneurs. But it also means trying to predict the future is futile. The same goes for technology. Who could have predicted how much of a game-changer the iPhone would have been, or what the next game-changer might be? If you’re launching a business now, you need to be open to whole host of new opportunities that may be around the corner; and you can’t forecast them. Sure, have some goals but don’t have a fixed linear plan for how you might reach them.
Could someone who isn’t an entrepreneur and who works in a more corporate setting apply your ideas?
Good question! Sure, ‘How To Unplan Your Business’ is not just for entrepreneurs and start-ups. It’s also for management teams and executives in corporate settings who may have got stuck in inertia; too much analysis may have paralysed their businesses, and they need to focus on putting ideas into action. Because an idea not put into action has no value!
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PSA: New RSVP deadline for SXSWi pre-party is Monday
Edited to add, Sunday, noon: SXSWi organizers say the deadline to register for this pre-party has been extended to 12 p.m. CST Monday. Original post (with RSVP links) below:
Fair warning: if you’re planning to attend Monday’s South by Southwest Interactive pre-party/networking mixer at Lustre Pearl, you need to RSVP today.
The event is from 7 to 9 p.m. and is the culmination of pre-parties in six cities including Atlanta, New York City and Chicago. We’re running a story in Sunday’s paper about these parties, but by the time you read that, the RSVP deadline will have passed.
You can RSVP at this Web page or on Facebook. If you’re going, I’ll see you there!
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TedxAustin: Carrie Contey, Turk and Christy Pipkin
Carrie Contey connected what we know now about how babies learn to what we need to thrive as adults.
She said babies are “big beings in little bodies” who have an imperative to learn and grow. And their process of doing this involves alternating doing and being. Time to rest is crucial for new learning to take hold.
As adults, Contey says, we aren’t much different. We need to pause to take stock of where we are and to regulate ourselves — if we take in more new stuff than we can process, we start to feel irritable and anxious. Taking a break regulates our nervous system. It also helps us integrate what we’ve learned. Creativity happens when we pause, Contey said. She added that although technology makes it possible to be doing something every minute, we have to remind ourselves to take that pause.
Turk and Christy Pipkin talked about their work with the Nobelity Project and showed a trailer for their latest film “One Peace at a Time.” Their projects include building a school in Kenya.
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TedxAustin: Mark Rolston
Mark Rolston, chief creative officer of Frog Design. just wrapped up what, judging by Twitter reaction, seemed to be one of the conversation-provoking talks of the day. Ralston talked about the evolution of computing — how innovations go from “weird” to normal parts of our life. He talked about how our “second lives” in the virtual world are growing so much that they’re becoming equally if not more important than our first lives. He talked about how the next step is a future where we interact with computers in 3D space and showed an animation of what this could look like, with colorful graphics moving down a street. He envisioned a future where the human and the computer become blended.
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TEDxAustin part one recap: Go small to play big
The first part of today’s TEDxAustin event is over, and even though the theme of the talks is “Play Big,” a lot of the speakers have emphasized that the small things are what is important. The day started with former fireman/health guru Rip Esselstyn talking about healthy eating. Next up was Livestrong CEO and cancer survivor Doug Ulman. Ulman talked about the increasingly blurred line between non-profits and for-profits, and pointed to the popularity of the yellow Livestrong bracelets as proof that a community is the key to fighting cancer.
After Ulman was playwright and economist Steven Tomlinson, who offered an inspirational speech about achieving goals. Tomlinson’s talk was the most Twitter-ready of the morning, full of lines like “lead with what you love.” Computer scientist Chris Muller, on the other hand, gave an informed but not so Twitter-friendly talk about mapping the human genome. The audience was then shown an archived TED talk from 2007 by Gever Tully, “Five Dangerous Things For Kids.” We should apparently give children fire, knives and spears.
Following the video talk was business consultant Chris Shipley, who focused on how small businesses drive innovation. Finally, the morning portion ended with Suzanne and David Armistead, who offered an interpretative dance/multimedia performance about dealing with grief.
If you would like to watch the afternoon portion of the talks, the live stream is embedded below. You can also join in on a conversation about the event on Twitter by searching for hash tags #TEDxAustin or #TEDxATX.
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Learn more about Engine 2 Diet
If your’e watching the stream of TEDxAustin and would like to learn more about Rip Esselstyn, who’s speaking right now, read Fit City columnist Pam LeBlanc’s story about the Engine 2 Diet from last February after the jump.
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TEDxAustin streaming online: watch it here
The TEDxAustin conference is today — since the event was announced, it’s generated buzz online not only for the mystique of TED (a popular technology, entertainment and design conference), but by some odd choices in its inaugural outing.
It’s not an official TED event — it’s licensed. Also, a list of speakers was not released to attendees, who each paid $50 and were required to apply to be there. Instead, a mysterious (and interestingly worded) list of speakers was posted on their Web site with such descriptions as, “A dancing storyteller” (Usher?), “A sage from the streets” (Oscar the Grouch?) and “An international tastemaker” (the inventor of General Foods International Coffee? IHOP?).
Given the number of varied, free social-networking and tech-related bar camps that regularly happen in town, some cried on Twitter that the event, with its tight invite list and $50 admission fee, was elitist and not keeping with the spirit of Austin. (Funny, you don’t hear a lot of that when it comes to what people pay to attend SXSW Interactive.)
TEDxAustin made an odd choice in an e-mail sent to registrants. It read, in part, “No blogging, texting, tweeting, filming, etc. will be allowed in the Austin City Limits studio during the event. Odd concept these days, we know. But we ask you respect not only our request, but the space and rights of the speakers, performers and fellow attendees to be entirely in the moment.”
Definitely odd for a tech-related conference in 2010, which you’d figure people would want to share insights to the rest of the Web as the event is happening.
I posted about it on Twitter and after several attendees raised concerns, the conference organizers relented. Now they’re asking frequent Tweeters to sit in the back. Some will sit VERY far in the back — as far away as a separate “TEDxAustin rejection party” happening across town at Conjunctured coworking.
But, hey, who knows? We hope the event is great for those attending. As we mentioned before, the day’s events will be streamed live online, thanks to the Texas Evening MBA Program and the Texas Executive MBA Program at McCombs.
We’ll be keeping an eye on TEDxAustin and posting our thoughts on a blog post Monday.
You can see the stream embedded below. Post your thoughts in the comments:
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SXSW panel preview: ‘Rules of BrandFiction from Twittering MadMen’
‘Rules of BrandFiction from Twittering MadMen’
3:30 p.m. March 13
Hilton D
Panelists Helen Klein Ross and Michael Bissell were part of a panel last SXSW on their experiences tweeting as characters from “Mad Men.” At that panel, they talked about the emerging idea of “brand fiction” as a marketing tool. Their SXSW 2009 session was entertaining, and it should be interesting to hear their updates. Below is our write-up from the original session.
Panelists: Helen Klein Ross (Supporting Characters), Michael Bissell (Conquent), Carri Bugbee (Big Deal PR)
The gist: Last summer, characters from the AMC series “Mad Men” started showing up on Twitter, talking to each other and to fans of the show. A Twitter hit was born. At this panel, three of the people behind the characters talked about how the whole phenomenon came about, and what it might mean to the future of marketing.
Bugbee, who Tweets as secretary-turned-copywriter Peggy Olson, said she started the Peggy Tweet as a whim just because it sounded like fun, but, as followers poured in, she quickly realized it was on to something interesting.
She and fellow panelists Ross (suburban housewife Betty Draper) and Bissell (ad executive Roger Sterling) talked about the research that goes into their Twitter project. Bugbee watches episodes repeatedly and even transcribes dialogue; Ross is now the owner of a collection of 1960s cookbooks. When they make a mistake, Twitter followers let them know.
Ross said the “Mad Men” Tweeters aim to extend the lives of the characters between episodes and between seasons of the show. They strive to remain parallel to the universe of the show and not to do anything that conflicts with the show’s actual storylines.
Quotes: ““I took it upon myself to get inside (Peggy’s) head.” — Bugbee
“I really looked at it as a form of fiction.” — Ross
“We’re transforming fan fiction to a new form of marketing.” — Ross
Takeaways: Panelists said social media projects like theirs can enhance fans’ loyalty to a show. Ross calls what they are doing “brand fiction” (instead of “fan fiction”). Bissell said that what they did with “Mad Men” is not set in stone as a model for how to do this kind of marketing because the social media universe changes so rapidly.
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