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.

Lessons Learned from SxSWi: Day Three

Day three started very very down...but then totally recovered and sailed through the roof. Why? I made the mistake of starting my day with a higher ed session. I figured that since I am in higher ed, a session about open source tools would be ... well ... useful.

WRONG.

Lesson Learned: DO NOT attend higher education panels at SxSWi. Period. I can get this kind of debate of Faculty vs. Administration and free learning vs. business practices in higher ed any day of the week at my college. Nothing new here.

However, thanks to AMAZING Tweets from @jeffjarvis and @carvin who actually got the point that this session went way too philosophical there is some great perspective on the hashtag: edupunk. Worth a read for sure.

So I went from that to a session on "spec work" for agencies and well...when two panelists who are competitors (threadless.com vs. crowdspring) spend the time arguing with one another I see no value. Seems like it was an important topic for the agency community but it was handled badly. Very badly. Frankly folks, if I wanted that kind of smack down I'd watch WWE.

From there the day got way way way better.

1. I got to use my POKEN. http://www.doyoupoken.com/. So very cool. I have the VooDoo. I connected with @renate who is the Global Branding Manger for Poken and @skydiver of HARO fame. Way cool. On a quest for the next few days to find others.
   
   
2. I got my learning on. Went to a session with the Society of Digital Agencies (SODA) where I gained some insight from professionals about the market: 1) business is up 2) students need to show they know the trends if they hope to have a chance of getting a job, 3) there is a glut of talent in the marketplace (makes #2 even more important) and 4) the same challenges I faced when I was at Bluehouse Group over ten years ago are still being faced by these agencies especially when it comes to pricing of services and contracts with clients.
   
   
3. Successfully stalked and spoke with (at length) Personality Not Included author Rohit Bhargava. Great convo about his book, my students reaction to it and education. I'll be seeing him again tomorrow and will get my book signed (grin). Best part was our discussion about the divisions that are so obvious here at SxSWi between interactive, traditional, PR, Advertising and Marketing -- it's all marketing folks so why so tense?
   
   
4. I got my learning on Part II. Went to a session entitled "Is the PR Agency Dead?" with Brian Solis (brilliant just brilliant!) who writes the PR2.0 blog and has written several great books, Karly Hand, Erin Portman of Erin Portman PR and Peter Shankman creator of HARO (aka @skydiver on Twitter). What are the key lessons from this crew? 1) the news release as we have known it is dead. PR professionals have to know how to leverage their content into social media releases with strong keyword density so it can get indexed by Google as well as utilize the right channels to reach the journalists. This means blogs, podcasting, Twitter, FB, email, phone, wherever your journalists are. 2) if you can't write, then you are in the wrong business. Period. There isn't anything magical to writing a news release. You must tell your story in an authentic way that is clear and to the point with no hyperbole. 3) Listen, listen, listen and monitor EVERYTHING. There is no excuse, given the tools that are available for not knowing what people are "saying" about your brand. From Blog alerts via Google, to Twitter Search you need to know what is going on AND you must respond...quickly. 4) Listening is not enough. You must respond and take action when necessary. You must understand how you can leverage the tools available to connect with your media channels in the most effective way. If people are talking negatively about your brand, you must respond. Listening without Action is almost as bad as not listening at all.

And there you have it. Day three concluded. Whew.

Lessons Learned at SxSWi: Day 2

Before I get into what I learned, here is what I did today. After breakfast with my Aunt and Uncle I went to:

1. Civic Technologies and the Future of the Internet with Jonathan Zittrain - Berkman Center for Internet and Society
2. Emerging Trends of Mobile Technology with Rob Gonda - Sapient, Juan-Carlos Morales - Sapient Interactive and Ryan Stewart - Adobe
3. Trade Show (W00T!)
4. Opening Remarks/Keynote with Tony Hsieh of Zappos.com
5. The Future of Social Networks with Charlene Li of Altimeter Group
6. Suxorz '09: The Ten Worst Social Media Campaigns

Then dinner at Manuel's (Mole enchiladas and dinner with @jackiekazil and @jenleereeves), then over to the Mexican American Cultural Center for a crazy wild party of amazing bike insects, chinese dragons and lot's o' technology.

Whew.

So what have I learned today that I would like to pass on?

1. From @Zittrain: We have created an online culture of becoming dependent on sites where we post our personal data on systems that are controlled by a few (think FB and Apple) and while we think we have some control, we really don't (sites change their interfaces without asking our permission, gov't blocks access and sites use our data for many different things). So much is happening that we, as consumers, are unaware of, that we often can't even vote with our feet. It's only when someone tells us what is happening (for example, the FB terms of service challenge) that we can take some type of control. But at the moment if we want to use the services we have to give up control of our information. The solution? A site (in alpha) called http://www.herdict.org where you harness the power of civic decision-making where the community provides information about what sites are accessible to all, and what's being blocked.
   
   My commentary on this one was it was much more of a history lesson about technology/computers and the web with too little on the future (as the title implies). However the points about how little control we really have over the sites we are relying on for so much information sharing was very important. He provided an example of having a two slice toaster and one morning you come down and suddenly there's a third slot for toast with a note that says, we've made an upgrade. Then a few days later you come home and that third slot is gone with a note that said there was a problem with the third slice, sorry if you lost any toast. And then you come down the next morning and your toaster is now a juicer. That is what is happening to us every day on the sites we use -- like FB (where it is quite obvious), or any blogging software. Amazing what we will put up, eh?
   
   
2. Mobile Trends. I learned a GREAT DEAL in this one. WOW. Since I don't spend a lot of time in the mobile arena, except for some articles here and there, I was blown away. The concept of Augmented Reality was new for me. In essence you take your iPhone and take a picture of a product or building and suddenly you get data that tells you about that item, by pulling in info from the web. OR, you might get a 3d model that you can manipulate. OR, you might play a game of ping pong with your phone and a friend with a phone in the middle of the park with no actual table (very Wii-like). All on your phone. Embedded audio and QRCodes allow you to utlize information in a bar code or in a film that then transmits information to a phone that will display URLs or directions or...whatever. Yeah, I know, Japan has a lot of this already and many around the world are more aggressive in their use of mobile phone technologies. Regardless this was cool. Very cool. Yo marketers -- what will you do with this trend?
   
   
3. From @zappos I learned how important customer service is in Marketing. Ok. I knew that already (grin) but it was great to hear from Tony Hsieh just how important customer service is to the company culture of Zappos. As a matter of fact, it was down right refreshing to hear how important the company culture and core values are to the success of this company. Hmmm...I know a Biz school that should be paying attention to this one. Now, what school could that be?
   
4. From @charleneli I learned about the future of social networks. Great contrast to the @zittrain presentation. The future of social networks is that they will be like "air". In other words they will be all around us and we will be connected easily -- we will manage our identies and decide what information we will share with our "trusted" partners (in Charlene's case that's Google) and then there will be single sign on (similar to OpenID or Facebook Connect) which will allow personalized recommendations at shoppings sites that come from our own circle of friends. Her examples was that a person could go to amazon and buy a pare of NineWest shoes. That information would be ported to all of her friends (like the FB wall) so they would know what she bought...and then her friends would also begin to see NineWest ads that are served up to them because of their relationship with her. Much more tightly integrated. This would result in a "personal cpm". Essentially if I have high social capital and am seen as an influencer, then when advertisers serve up ads to me, they would pay more per click or impression because of my influence and my circle of friends. In order to leverage something like this, and organization cannot be "top down". It must be focused on the customer. She showed an org chart with the customer at the top and the CEO at the bottom -- now that's interesting.
   
   My general thoughts on this. Yep. This is where we are heading for sure. We aren't there yet, but it will come and I think within a few years I'll be teaching this stuff in my classroom the same way I'm teaching about best practices with Twitter and FB.
   
   
5. As to Suxorz. Suffice to say I learned about some very interesting FAILs. Some I don't agree with -- the panel thinks Skittles is a Fail because they didn't get anyone to really engage and they compromised their brand by pulling in the Twitter stream, and others I do agree with -- like Belkin Marketing person who went to Amazon Turk and published an offer to pay people for writing positive reviews and to dis any other reviews that were negative. That one won by the way. Amazing what can go wrong when you don't think things through!

A busy day here at SxSWi. My brain is mushy with the possibilities.

More tomorrow.

Lessons Learned at SxSWi: Day 1

I've just wrapped up my first day at SxSWi. I'm a first timer here and am quickly realizing some important things, which, of course, I will share.

1. Leverage the Line. I am quickly realizing that there are lots of lines here at SxSWi. So far I have stood for about an hour in a line to get my badge, then about 10 minutes to get my bag 'o shwag, and another 20 minutes hanging out waiting to be let in to "Six" for an after party (or perhaps it was a pre-party for the after parties...not sure). I've met a web developer father/son team, a social change game developer, a web developer from Zurich, an interactive marketing exec from Expedia.com, and several blogger/entrepreneurs. Standing in line focused in on the device will NOT help you make connections. So leverage that line and get acquainted.
2. First day sessions are ok, Conversations are better. The most fun I've had so far today has been at the Tech Blogger Lounge where I connected with several interesting people. It was too hot in there, and very overwhelming, but I'll be back there for sure. Frankly I went to one session on how to figure out SxSW, and found it useless. Got more out of this blog post from Rohit Bhagarva (who I am trying to meet in person while I'm here).
3. Pace yourself and do some recon: There is a lot of ground to cover. The convention center is HUGE (I'm thinking VT would fit in there easy) and there's tons of stuff going on all over. Once I got my badge and my bag o'goodies I got the lay of the land. Now I sort of know where things are, so when it kicks off tomorrow I'll be ready.
4. Set goals. I've set clear goals which are helping me stay focused. and have already achieved one of them: See and touch and play with a Microsoft Surface (it's so freaken cool I cannot even TELL you how cool it is...I will say...time to start thinking about no keyboards!)
5. Don't bring your laptop. Yep...I said it. There are stations all over that allow you to connect if you need to, and if you have a good mobile option (like a crackberry, for instance) you'll be able to follow things you need to know via Twitter. No need to kill your back and hunt down plugs (saw lots of those today -- individuals sitting on the floor clustering around electricity like it was crack or something).
6. Be flexible. I went to only one session and walked out when it became apparent it wasn't what I expected. It was funny, but not functional for my time, so I bailed. Found other things to do.

So no big insights so far, although I got a load of great info about how a site like Expedia deals with SEM -- but I'll save that for the classroom.

Follow my twitter at http://www.twitter.com/ejyoung67 if you want real time updates of my experiences or just check in here each evening as I'll do a "lessons learned" post once a day.

Service In Action '09: Champlain Students Making a Difference

Alternative Spring Break is a wonderful thing. Last year we had a group of student who went to New Orleans and helped build houses for Habitat for Humanity. This year a different group of students are heading to Washington, DC to help out local food banks and homeless shelters.

Not only is this a way for our students to give to a community, it is also a life-changing experience for the students who go.

They are often, for the first time, seeing a level of poverty and challenge that they have never seen before. They learn just how much one person can make a difference in the lives of someone else and they gain a much more intimate understanding of how interconnected we all are as human beings.

They leave very soon (next week is our break) and while they have done a great deal of fundraising, they are still $1500 short of their goal. They are looking for help to raise that money so they can offset the cost of the trip. If you are able to help out, go here: https://secure.champlain.edu/annualfund/ and designate your donation for THE CENTER FOR SERVICE AND CIVIC ENGAGEMENT who helps to coordinate the Alternative Spring Break. Consider how your donation will help not just our students but the people that they will be helping.

Now that's paying it forward.

Real School Choice

I've been wondering a lot lately about school choice and the concept that parents should have the ability to send their children to an educational facility that fits the families needs.

Many families elect to send their children to the public school in their neighborhood/district because it makes the most economic sense and they want to be part of that community.

I am not one of those families. That's not to say that the school district where I live is not successful, but when it came time to select a school for my daughter I was very clear that it would be a private, catholic school. Why? Because I went to a private catholic school when I was a child and I believe that the education I received there built a strong foundation for who I am today.

Educating the "whole child". It's part of the mission of the school my daughter goes to and as I see her moving through her education I realize just how important that is today more than ever. The children in my daughter's school are well-behaved (for the most part), respectful and helpful in their attitudes. They are learning how to read and write and how to think both qualitatively and quantitatively. They are learning the basics. And their learning environment is safe and is something that I, as a parent, actually have a say in. No one is "making out" in the hallway. No one is afraid to go to school. The kids are dressed appropriately (I LOVE uniforms...even if my daughter doesn't). I can talk with her teachers and have access to the school in a way that my friends who have children in public schools just don't seem to have.

While public education struggles with budget shortfalls and continually "reinvents" itself I hear from other parents who have children in the public school system about how they worry about their children. It is often about an environment issue between smoking, drugs and pregnancy and violence. So legislative bodies bandy about the concept of school choice and we have "no child left behind" and our children are caught in the middle.

And we are left wondering if we have a choice.

I know we have a choice. I am an example of that choice. My daughter is an example of that choice.

Here in Burlington we are lucky enough to have several private catholic schools as well as several other different religious schools. They are located throughout the city. They are convenient and offer an education for the whole child. Regardless of your faith there is an opportunity here to explore your school choice -- if your public school isn't performing the way you want it to, take a look at what the private school's have to offer.

My daughter's school has small classes so she gets individualized attention, she's learning French and has access to computers and science. It's a traditional education without a bunch of bells and whistles and when she completes eight grade, I'll know she has a solid education that will allow her to take on anything in high school -- she'll be ready (not sure if I will be!).

As an educator myself, who sees what a difference a strong elementary and high school education mean for the students I teach, it's an investment in my daughter's future that I'm happy to make.

St. Joseph Catholic School, where my daughter goes, has an open house on March 2nd and 3rd from 8:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. You can call them at 802-864-5623 to set up an appointment. To find out more about other Catholic schools in the Burlington Area check out: http://www.catholicschoolsvt.org/

A club, a cause, an event worth going to

The Champlain Campus is starting to buzz about a fundraising event that is being organized by the college's International Development Club to help raise money for a local non-profit Global Reach Partnerships.

Students have gotten sponsorships, a venue, and are recruiting local high school basketball players to participate in a Slam Dunk competition -- all to benefit an organization that is focused on helping refugees connect with mentors and role models here in Vermont. The Slam for Sudan is the event and here is what they have done so far:

1. Created a Website: http://www.theslamforsudan.org/
2. Created a Facebook Fan Page
3. Created a Facebook Event
4. Created a Twitter Account

They have also garnerned some great sponsorships:

1. Ben and Jerry's


2. Jay Peak


3. Ralph Lauren


4. Bogner


5. Essex Shops and Cinema


6. The Inn at Essex


7. Eating Well


8. Late Night Saturday


9. CHAMP Radio Station


10. The Links at Lang Farm


11. Champlain College

What I love about this is the fact that students on campus are fired up about this. The organizers are passionate and excited. They are working to connect as many people as possible to a cause that they believe in. It's a great example of how passion can help drive forward an idea. The idea itself, to involve local high school basketball players from around Vermont and to get sponsorships for the different segments of the event and give out prizes...Wow! (note the different parts)

The BEN AND JERRY'S Slam Dunk Contest

and

The JAY PEAK 3 Point Shoot Out

It's a wonderful blend of marketing techniques for a good cause that is local and helps make a difference.

The event is on March 25th and it will be interesting to not only watch the club utilize different marketing techniques to publicize the event, but to watch the community get involved to help an organization that is there for a new group of people who have come to and become part of our community.

Two of Champlain's faculty, Tom Myers and Scott Baker are board members with Global Reach Partnerships and several of us have students from the club in our classes.

So take a few minutes to check out this charity event and if you are local -- sign up! And if you aren't local, plan a trip to Vermont at the end of March. And if you can't do that, use their PAYPAL donation tool to donate some money to help this important organization do their work. Friend them on Facebook, visit their website, add their event, follow their twitter!

Guest Post at Danny Brown's Blog: Small Business and Social Media

As promised in my last post, I have written a guest post for Blogger and PR Professional Danny Brown. It came from a Twitter conversation I had with Danny (who I follow on Twitter @dannybrown) late last year. He felt that 2008 was THE year for Social Media -- and I politely disagreed (smile). Out of that conversation came his request that I provide a guest blog post at his site.

I finally got it done today and he posted it lightening quick! Here's the link: http://dannybrown.me/2009/02/01/small-business-not-ready-for-prime-time-yet/

Enjoy.

Articles, plans and musings

Here I sit and it's already almost February and my "I'll blog more frequently" resolution is blown. Ah well, such is the challenges of squeezing in thoughtful commentary in the middle of the beginnings of a new semester!

Some interesting recent thoughts that have floated in my brain and floated out include...

1. I wrote an article for Business People Vermont on Blogging and Micro-Blogging. You can read it here: http://www.vermontguides.com/2009/01-jan/cc_blog.html
2. The White House has a new Website which you can see at http://www.whitehouse.gov. (make sure you put that .gov on the end...) BUT they do NOT have an official twitter account...yet. For that article check out: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9126660&intsrc=news_ts_head (Thanks to local Vermonter Morgan Brown for the heads up on this one!) Oh...and their blog...still sucks. No great changes there!
3. I'm working on a thoughtful blog piece for Danny Brown over at Social Media PR. We twittered about it around Christmas and now it's time for me to deliver. What's the topic? Small business and social media acceptance/use of course!
4. David Gibson over at Propeller Media Works has asked me to participate in a social media workshop sometime in February. I told him I would be there. It should be fun.
5. Finally, what the heck is happening to our MEDIA? (Note, this is a foreshadowing of a blog post that is formulating in my head.) There's so much chatter going on in the social media circles I follow about news media (especially journalists and print) and how they need to make a shift and then there's the changes at local presses all over the country. When the news is even more important than ever it is interesting to see it collapsing. I have some thoughts on this from a different perspective. But that folks...is another post entirely.

Well, it's off to the trenches -- getting students ready to lead the marketing decisions of the future!

What I read on my Winter Break

Being a college professor has some perks. One of which is the break between the Fall and the Spring Semesters. It's an Oasis. Really.

I've taken this wonderful break from all things social media related, work related and news releated. I can't really say I went "off-grid" since I did play Warcraft quite a bit and monitored my personal email....but work-related stuff went "poof" for a few weeks.

You should try it.

It is AMAZING.

Anyway, during this time I also read some books. One of which has NOTHING at all do to professionally, so I won't talk about that (smile). However I did read a new book (thanks to a friend's Amazon Vine) prior to "publication date".

Let me start by stating clearly that I highly recommend this book. I will be figuring out how to incorporate it into my classes -- most probably the Marketing Management class. The book: It's "The Designful Company: How to Build a Culture of Nonstop Innovation" by Marty Neumeier. It comes out on January 15th. Here's the Amazon Link (unfortunately I was unable to find the book site -- there is one for ZAG: http://www.zagbook.com/, but not for this one...yet).


Let's get to it...Why do I like this book? Because it addresses creating a culture of innovation and how to do it, points out the shift in business from linear/production line thinking to more design-oriented thinking, and it links successful "nuggets" to how designful practices have helped companies to innovate and foster creativity across all programs and departments and disciplines.

I liked the presentation of the book overall -- the "Whiteboard" concept that all three in the series from Neumeier (Brand Gap and Zag) have. Quick, to the point, and easy to take away information. As a marketing prof, it provides some interesting food for thought around the concept of wicked problems, the aesthetics of management, deep design, the use of metateams, the application of stage-gate investing, the "Thinking Hat" process for meeting management, brand training and the design learning loop (this one I REALLY like).

At the end of the book there are the "powerpoint bullets" of the book, how to use designful thinking to address wicked problems and a list of recommended other reads. Nice stuff.

Some important take aways for me included:

Design is rapidly spreading from "posters and toasters" to processes, systems, and organizations.

Agility is an emergent property that appears when an organization has the right mindset, the right skills and the ability to multiply those skills through collaboration.

A designer is anyone who tries to change an existing situation to an improved one.

The traditional management model is a veritable thrift store of hand-me-down concepts, all designed for a previous need and a previous era.

Companies don't fail because they choose the wrong course -- they fail because they can't imagine a better one.

While revolution must be led from the top, it rarely starts at the top.

In an age of accelerating change, how you learn is vastly more important than what you learn.

The ability to acquire new knowledge quickly is the fundamental skill that underpins a culture of innovation.

How do you measure talent? How do you increase inspiration? How do you crank up creative joy? The answer to all of these is the same: recognition.

Sweet book.