Having had a couple of days to mull over SXSW since returning on the worst flight ever, Continental Airlines C034 from Houston to Heathrow, here is my last post on the event. In short some of my takeaway thoughts, advice if you are planning to go next year, what came out well in 2010, what is going nowhere still and ones to watch. The fact is SXSW is about learning, mixing and joining in. There is a lot to listen to, but if that is all you do, you are going to miss out on about half of what is achievable.
Ask questions at panels either during or at the end. All the speakers are more than happy to talk. Just so you understand the scale of SXSW, there are about 15-20 events (panels, keynotes, lounges, trade show events) starting simultaneously each hour of the day from 9am to 5pm from the Friday through the weekend till the Wednesday. Then there are the evening sponsored mixer events of which there were about 3 or 4 each night, dotted around Austin starting early doors 6-8pm. The major sponsored events started at 8pm and went on till 2am. Believe me its a marathon not a sprint and there were several who peaked too soon!
My advice would be to pick a mixture of different types of events in advance. So some panels, some keynotes etc and try new topics or events with weird titles or unusual speakers. Have second choices as well because some get full quickly. Don’t get drawn into attending just events that you have a personal specialism in. Some people did that and came away frustrated that they already knew the stuff they had just listened to. The fact is if you are a bit of a social media guru already for example, you should be on top of your game anyway, so perhaps go to some of the more geeky stuff about SM and try out a few other new topics. You’ll be amazed who you sit next to and what you learn. Also I learned that if you don’t like what you are hearing it is perfectly acceptable just to get up and politely exit stage left.
Street art Austin style
Austin is a compact city and the convention centre, where the trade show and most of the events are, is central with some events spilling to the adjacent Hilton or Radisson Town Lake. Bottom line is you can walk everywhere as long as you stay in either the aformentioned Radisson Town Lake as I and most of the Digital Mission did or the Four Seasons or the Hilton or the Marriott Courtyard. This also affords walking in the evening to the famous 6th Street where most of the mixer events are hosted. Beware hotels out of town or near the airport as taxis take their toll. As I have said in previous posts about SXSW, Austinness is extremely important to the success of SXSW. The city and its people are fantastic.
I now appreciate the US market and how to set up business there. I also learnt that usefulness is often better than innovation because of the sheer scale of the opportunity in the US.
Smart/engaging/ pioneering people to follow (There were so many but here are 4 less well known)
1/. Brynn Evans – Social Anthropologist
A great slideshow from Brynn http://www.slideshare.net/bmevans/designing-for-sociality-in-enterprise-search
@brynn
2/. Max Ventilla – Rich smart guy whose business was bought by Google
User driven design http://ventilla.posterous.com/preaching-user-driven-design
@ventilla
3/. Valerie Casey – Inspiring co-founder of Designers Accord
Graphic of Val Casey's keynote
Surely the most inspiring speaker all week
@valcasey
4/. Clara Shih – Author of the Facebook Era and CEO of Hearsay Labs
@Clarashih
What is going to be huge (if the following are obvious to you then apologies)
Spotify when they break into the US (No brainer, but Android mobile app looked great)
Twitter’s @store – Because everyone loves Twitter
Mobile video and open source video technologies (Down with YouTube and Flash etc) – Especially as mobile devices will overtake PCs globally as the method of choice for viewing video by 2013.
Social search – Not only on the basis that networked people prefer to consult their network first before Google for knowledge, but there are now technologies out there that will select from your network based on social graph, your combined intimacy and their expertise who is best placed to answer your question.
Sustainability in interactive design – As interactive and technical designers begin to consider the overarching sustainability of the systems they are scoping and implementing.
What’s still got a way to go
Location based services – monetization, monetization and monetization, yep same old same old. However I believe privacy is a bigger issue here.
Thanks
Chinwag team for organising a great Digital Mission – Sam, Emily, Juliet, Benjamin and Ed. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rki37vgGmwk[/youtube]
Shawn O’Keefe (no relation I think) - Along with Hugh Forrest, Shawn is Event Producer for SXSWi, which means he is quite a busy chap but he still found time to come and speak to the Digital Mission on the opening day of SXSWi to give us some tips for getting the best out of the event.
Miles Galliford of Subhub, Chris Lee of Qhub, Rob Smith of Blueleaf, Jonathan Palmer of Mobilized, James Mayes of TweetJobs, Ted Han of VideoJuicer, Karen Barber of AudioBoo, Jasper Westaway of OneDrum, for keeping me entertained
Rackspace, Mashable, Rudy’s, the worst BBQ in Texas (their line not mine)
Rudy's - Worst BBQ in Texas (Their line not mine)
Until next time. Its been memorable. Goodnight SXSW, Jon Keefe has left the building, please move towards your nearest exit.
Finally I will leave you with the Unicorn Kid, great headgear. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tQ7ZYo7a3s[/youtube]
