How Did SXSW 2011 Impact You?

Still recovering from over a week of sleep-deprived days this month, but it was worth it. Attendance was up this year for Interactive, rumors have been flying that perhaps it was up around 30% over last year. There were so many events and panels this year that some even spilled out of the traditional convention center to neighboring hotels, as far as 6+blocks past to the Sheraton. Which as it has also been stated is where the "real" technology panels and talks happened, away from the fray of wild crowds and parties that surrounded the convention center.

Making a broad statement off of all the panels I attended this year. I have to say most were definitely either a hit or miss...none of which fell in-between, often dependent on the quality of the moderator or ability of the moderator to draw out insights and guide the panel, and since SXSW deploys the scalable way of voting up panels to determine who will speak this leads to panels that have popular speakers (but that doesn’t guarantee the best speakers) or topics, perhaps just ones that are deemed mainstream. One primary example, well based off my experience, that stands out in my mind is the "SXSW panel: Fan to Fanatic: True Blood’s Marketing Hook" I will admit, I am a fan...Why else would I go, right? In short all I have to say is, Alan Ball was missed/needed.

I found that for a show with such vision and impact, that has become so well known, and has such a brilliant marketing team behind it, that they couldn't carry the attention of well... ironically, their audience. Fortunately, given the vast assortment of panels, the opportunity to find certain topics is available, providing you can easily get to the physical location. I did find the SXSWi app with schedule updater so very handy in planning my day-to-day activities and was able to jump topics on certain panels that ended up not capturing my interests for very long. I found the importance of networking during SXSW and understanding various social networks very useful and almost bordering as a complete necessity.

I attended SXSW when Twitter* first launched, yet this year there were no clear rivals or new-kids-on-the-block/breakout technologies. In my opinion it is because there is an over saturation of products, currently–while innovation certainly isn’t stifled the number similar or ‘like’ products is hard to fathom let allow encourage novices to sift through. (*however that being said Twitter is in it's fifth year, and coined at hitting over 140 million tweets a day, that's one hell of a network. Happy Birthday Twitter!) Among some of the coolest tools I found was SMS/app chat, GroupMe (enables intimate discussions with your most immediate circle) and to which admittedly I have been using for over half of a year now and am pleased to note that it keeps my monthly texting costs at bay within my social circle, but it is NOT new to me. However, during SX it was definitly being heavily used and promoted by this so to speak "early adopter crowd", even the press picked up on this new trend. * Check out Group-Me Panel highlight reel for info

What about mass broadcasting panels and topics to networks like Twitter, Facebook? Well again, I congratulate the developers behind the SXSWi app, as it was not only a fantastic tool for scheduling, but also went a step further to integrate Gowalla's location check-in and direct topic post to feed through both Twitter and Facebook. I was impressed almost more-so than with the panels I attended.

This brings me to another point. I found my off-line networking experience to be more prominent in providing me with new resources and contacts then I had experienced in quite a while. While I feel that at times some clients express that online networking can seem like a bizarre and mysterious world to traditional ‘offline’ professionals.  That world is moving at such a rapid pace, but my response is you know more than you think. All social networking leads back to you, me and our interrelation. Many social networking users are loosing site of that including myself at times. It very easy to hide behind the screen. Upon doing a little discovery on this progression, after one of my many social networking events this SXSW I came across a neat study that boils down off-line to on-line networking to a few base principles.  Here are five ways to translate your existing networking skills onto the Internet environment and vise-versa from Pundit’s entrepreneurs a guide for social media. *Side note, being a member I have to state my excitement, that the AIGA Launched Design for Good this SXSWi, Asking Members to Donate 5% of Their Time to Social and Civic Causes. NOTE: A positive way to promote your company through social networking is to engage your followers!

1. Never Sell at Networking Meetings (over saturation): On the web, forums, comments, and social media sites are your ‘networking meetings’.  Leaving shallow comments at every tangentially relevant site and only recommending your own stuff is the online equivalent to that guy working the room with a thousand business cards.  It’s better to make just a few quality contacts who don’t think you’re a jerk.
2. Perfect Your Pitch: Offline we learn to craft our speech, a 30 second commercial so to speak to get across who we are and what we do.  On this point, the Internet is definitely your friend.  The profile is your online counterpart to this high-speed sales pitch.  The wonderful thing is you have the opportunity to get these first impressions just right and to adjust them over time.
3. Give Before You Get: The surest way to foster goodwill both online and off is by being generous with your support.  Want more traffic?  Post lots of links.  Need help with your site design?  Give away what you’re good at.  The key is to offer without expectation of reciprocation.  When you make a habit of giving, the help you need seems to show up automatically just when you need it.
4. Make Appointments to Network: The Internet is 24/7.  There may be some live chats or forums where people agree to attend during the same real time, but for the most part your networking is not going to be done concurrently.  In other words, you’re likely to have conversations over a staggered period of time.  In order to carve out the necessary time to catch up with online contacts, schedule networking on your calendar just as you would the business building breakfast organized by your traditional professional association.
5. Patience is THE Virtue: It takes time to build up a network, any network.  It can be difficult at first to observe the effects of your diligent networking when you don’t see your new contacts out for drinks or in line at Starbucks.  How will you know you’re making progress?  The truth is networking is an art, not a science.  It’s difficult to measure – online or off – how your efforts are paying off.  But ask anyone who makes networking a regular part of their professional life and you’ll get a handful of anecdotes about the power of schmooze.