Lessons Learned from SxSWi: Day Four

It's day four and I am like a marshmallow that has been in the fire too long -- brown and smokey on the outside and a mushy puddle of goo on the inside.

I realized that I missed a session I went to yesterday. Whoopsie! So I'll start with that. I think it was because I was so frustrated by the two earlier sessions that I forgot this one. It was Design for the Wisdom of Crowds by Derek Powazek (aka @fraying on Twitter) and it was very very very good. Yep. Very.

Lesson Learned? Design is important. Not just any design but considering the interface and language design is wicked important when it comes to harnessing the crowd. Make it easy for them to rate and rank and give them simple tasks that can be completed quickly is the big message here. So now marketers need to be good at providing clear and simple direction AND work closely with interface designers to make sure it comes together visually. Here's the slideshare from that presentation: http://powazek.com/posts/1872

Now, on to today.

I went to several GREAT presentations and spent the rest of the time "stalking" people. I feel a little weird actually, but I had pretty good success meeting with some great people today, it's just they way I did it that is a bit, well, unlike me I guess. Perhaps all the social media buzz has finally gotten to me... I'll start with the sessions I went to.

1. Shift Happens: Moving from words to pictures with some amazingly talented artists and visual information designers. Wow! To get the full sense check out the twitter stream during the session. Highlights for me? In order to communicate complex information we need VISUALS. You do not need to be an artist to create the visuals. You need the essential tools: Paper and an implement to write with. The goal is to be able to breakdown a process into a visual representation. Ha! Told you students in my Marketing Management class! Visual representation of your information MUST be something you can do. Resources can be found through the panelist websites:
   
   Sunni Brown - BrightSpot Info Design (be sure to click on the Zappos drawing -- I watched her do this live during the presentation -- it was mindblowing!)
   Tom Crawford - VizThink
   Dave Gray - XPLANE
   Lee LeFever - Common Craft
   Dan Roam - Digital Roam Inc (be sure to check out Dan's definition of Visual Thinking)
   
2. Curiosity Marketing: Using Secrets to Create Engagement with Rohit Bhargava. Great session. Very engaged with the audience bringing in examples of great ways in which to spark curiosity through "secrets" so you can hook your customers. Lot's of great examples, all of which are a big secret so I can't tell you here. I will say that if you are ever broke in Vegas go to Mr. Lucky's and ask for the Gambler Special. What was great about this session was how Rohit got the group in the room to provide examples. It was the most interactive session I've been at -- tapping the wisdom of the crowd in the room to bring it all together. Nicely done for sure.
   
3. Bruce Sterling. Um. So I went because Bill Simmon told me to go. I sat right up front. It was a packed house and I soon learned why. I'm not a reader of Sterlings, but his delivery and focus on the issues he wanted to discuss (the death of authorship and journalists at the hands of a fickle social media twitteratzi with the attention span of a gnat) made me think...a lot. There are great things happening because of social media...but we are losing important connection of a different sort. You can follow Bruce on Twitter at @bruces and you can read more of his stuff here: http://blog.wired.com/sterling/. Check the twitter stream on this one for some great stuff and a live blog from Snarkmarket.

In the middle of all of this I met face to face and had conversations with:

1. Micah (pronounced Me-Ha) Baldwin of Lijit (@micah) (Cause Grace Boyle told me I had too): Great connection which I think will lead to some interesting opportunities.
2. Erin Kotecki Vest (@queenofspain) who I Poken-stalked throughout the day. I was her first Poken.
3. Rohit Bhargava (@rohitbhargava) who gave me cool stuff AND signed my copy of his book. (Students, if you ask nice, I will let you touch it.)
4. Beth Harte (@bethharte) a rock'n cool professional who is also an adjunct teaching PR with a Social Media focus. Love her stuff.
5. Lauren Vargas (@vargasl) another rock'n cool professional who is adjunct teaching. We had LOT'S to talk about.
6. Lauren Cook (@laurencook) (Cause Gillian told me I had too -- Lauren is her cousin!)

I had brief run-ins with others as well. It's a bit of a blur.

So tomorrow is a busy day and I'm not sure between sessions and the flight home if I'll be able to post my day five experiences. Will try. Will not promise.