Friday 12th March 2010

So I packed up and headed south west (with a slight detour east) to Austin for the world famous South by South West meeting of the minds. Lesson number one; book early and come prepared (to avoid going east when your goal is west). With the Bourne NYC doors very newly opened, it was imperative that we attend the interactive gathering of all gatherings. Being new on the SxSW scene can be quite daunting. This is a mass meeting of the most creative, technical and media savvy minds in the business and it seems gurus know how to "do" SxSW very well. Lesson number two; in the biz it's referred to as "south by", I felt like quite the geek referring to it as South by South West to all and sundry. After registering and getting my bible (the South by attendee guide), I settled in Starbucks to grasp what was going on. The bible talked through some helpful hints: don’t forget to eat lunch (which I'd forgotten), wear comfortable shoes (which I hadn't) and stay hydrated (which I wasn't). The first two sessions I was interested in were very popular and fully booked. So I set about my next task - NETWORKING. And boy is this place all about the networking. I make many contacts as I drink tea and wander around. It seemed that everyone was doing the same thing. I asked one of my new contacts if anyone ever actually went to the sessions? His reply: "you learn more in the corridor". I think he is spot on. Early(ish) evening for me as my feet were sore. I will wear flats tomorrow.

Saturday 13th March 2010

Still clutching my guide, I head into the craziness with my flat boots and to-go breakfast (lessons learnt). Once again I manage to pick up three business cards at Starbucks, it gets me thinking, perhaps we should strategically do more business in starbucks. I am hell bent to attend sessions of my choice today, so I get in early to Lost in Translation | Social Media in Europe. The room is filled to the brim with global marketers. I have several takeaways after the session. Firstly, confirmed Facebook is the number one social media site in Europe as well as the US, there is also a good certainty that it leads in APJ too. Secondly, Anglo companies should seriously consider "Super Bloggers" in non-anglo countries that they are trying to do business in. Translation is tough to master in the social sense and English can often be risky. Lastly, although Twitter is growing in popularity in the global markets it's still early, so it shouldn't be the sole tool applied when running social media strategies in Europe.

My next session was the event opening keynote with danah boyd (she prefers no caps) , danah is a Social Media researcher by trade and also a very knowledgeable soul in the social media world. danah focused her speech around the Privacy issues that end-users face with the likes of Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Google Buzz etc. Highlighting that end-users don't know what they're sharing and in some cases the providers don’t know either. danah focused on the fact that where end-users can be aware of their actions around privacy, companies need to take responsibility. An article on danah's SxSW keynote address.

The fun continued into the evening. I did some party hopping, namely flying by the Piryx party at Speakeasy and then onto the Digg party at Stubbs. I ended the evening dancing in a caravan bar... I think you had to be there.

Sunday 14th March 2010

The party scene at South by is a little wild. Even danah boyd told everyone to watch out for the tequila in yesterdays keynote. After waking up feeling slightly fuzzy, and not in the least bit impressed with daylight savings, I bet Mr Fran $1000 that I wouldn’t party again while I was here. I vow to take a few hours to catch up with life and make sure I’m still alive. I am alive and Mr Fran clearly knows me well. As soon as the brunch invites come rolling in from my new acquaintances, I get back on the wagon (or off I should say) and start planning the evening's happy hour. My usual motto for high octane travel is a party on (one night), party off (the next) rule, allowing myself at least some time to feel fresh, I wonder if this scene even allows for that.

I head off to the convention center, minus my SxSW bible - quite the pro these days. I head to today’s keynote on Sustainability by Valerie Casey. Val leads the charge in Design Sustainability, her project Designer Accord is a space where designers worldwide can come together with a commitment to reverse some of the damming effects of waste to our planet. The speech was great and is very relevant to the here and now. There were a lot of shock pictures and facts, but I found her point around re-producing very interesting. Imagine a world where nobody reproduced something that already existed. Many companies are coming out with the next generation XYZ that is "green", but they are missing the point; by creating product XYZ in the first place they are causing more harm to the planet. Food for thought...

Next up was a dual session with John Gruber and Jim Coudal on Online Advertising | Losing the race to the Bottom. The session was probably my least favorite so far. There is no question that these successful men have managed to make lucrative careers from selling ad space on their websites, but I didn’t feel the session to be particularly inspiring. I was worried I was alone in these thoughts, but watching the audience haemorrhage confirmed I was not alone.

Next up was a wander around the trade hall. I was actually pretty impressed. South by has an amazing energy, something I've not experienced many times before. Very smart, bright people, who really are taking the interactive world to its next level. The trade hall is this in a vacuum. Although I will admit some of the concepts I saw are unlikely to change the world. The main trend in the trade hall was definitely the amount of companies selling smart phone apps. My favorites had to be Funmail and Toodolu.

Finally it was off to the Lizard Lounge for some drinks and a little more networking.