10 Things I Learned (or re-learned) at SXSWi 2010

Last year was my first SXSW and nothing short of a personal epiphany. This year’s Austin mashup of technology, creativity, and cultural tsunami has once again shifted the way I think about what it all means— to my work and to my life:

10. Crisis = Opportunity.
How do we take advantage of the disruptive innovation that’s toppling business models? Jeremy Gutsche is the founder of TrendHunter.com, the world’s largest network for trend spotting and innovation. He’s also the author of, “Exploiting CHAOS: 150 Ways to Spark Innovation During Times of Change.” There’s one question from Jeremy that I’m now asking myself every day; a question designed to help capitalize on chaos: Can I focus what I’m trying to do in seven words or less?

9. Technology is the new art. 

The notion of left brain/right brain is passé. My ability to adapt and thrive at the intersection of art and technology presents endless opportunities. My insistence on playing on one side, to the exclusion of the other, is an express ticket to irrelevance. What can I do to recast my skills and be ready for whatever comes next?

8. Be a student of “The Next Big Thing.”
Then, step back and see the big picture. There’s a “next big thing” breaking out every day. Great branding and communication isn’t about throwing stuff at every next big thing. It’s about being helpful, relevant, and genuine in the marketplace. I need to understand the difference between “thin value” and “thick value” and do the right things to be relevant every day, while strengthening value over the long haul.

7. Content is king.
So why has it taken us so long to figure out that content requires user-centered message architecture? According to Margot Bloomstein, the principal of brand and content strategy consultancy based in Boston, a comprehensive user experience shouldn’t be a carrot on a stick where we try to lure people to our content on our terms. It should be a big, delicious plate of cookies carefully crafted ingredient by ingredient.

6. Words won’t work.
Dan Roam has helped leaders at Microsoft, Wal-Mart, Boeing, eBay, and the United States Senate solve complex problems through visual thinking. He wrote the international bestseller, “The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas With Pictures.” Why do we spend so much time talking to clarify our ideas? The person who draws the best picture wins. My goals: Fewer words. Better pictures. Stronger stories.

5. I didn’t know Twit.
Twitter is my primary news source. The shape, speed, and value of information on Twitter is unlike anything we’ve ever seen. At SXSW, Twitter co-founder and CEO Evan Williams changed the way I think about it. The No. 1 company principle @twitter? Be a force for good. Why? Democratization of information changes the world. Tools like Twitter reach the weakest signals and can have profound impacts (think Haiti, Chile). Easy exchange of information gives people control. Everyone wins.

4. Corporate America is cautious.
Andrew McAfee is a research scientist at the Center for Digital Business, MIT Sloan School of Management. He researches and works extensively with corporations around the “2.0” model of communities, collaboration, and transparency. According the McAfee, the biggest corporate mindset challenges to embracing 2.0: We are risk-averse, busy, budget-constrained, uninterested in social revolution, hostile to auto-obsolescence, ROI-seeking, and overly convinced of our own uniqueness.

3. There’s no such thing.
There’s no such thing as social media or social marketing. It’s media. It’s marketing. It requires interesting, clear, helpful, user-focused content like it always has. There’s no such thing as Web content, mobile content, tablet content, Wii content. Everything is converging and users just want it to work and work right everywhere.

2. Technology = inclusion.
I tweeted. I posted. I photo’d. I video’d. I checked in. Got followed. Got retweeted. Direct messaged. Played contact and conduit. This is where I belong … with one foot inside the office and one on the path to the future of media.

1. After living in the future for five days at SXSW, I need to ask more questions:

•  What are the right levers for change?
• How do we create the right measurements of success?
• What can I do to help solve problems, not solve symptoms?
• How do I help strengthen our resolve as communication consultants that “less bad” is not the same as good?
•  What can I do to help move the friction of process to real momentum and flawless execution?

Every profession bears the responsibility to understand the circumstances that enable its existence.

Top 10 Things I learned from my SXSW Experience

1. Share your passion.  “Keep Austin Weird” is the motto of the SXSW home city, and it’s really about celebrating the passion people there display.  Whether it was art, films, music, or interactive, everyone wore their passion on their sleeve, and it’s a freeing, collective sense of, “these people get me.”  Whether you’ve quit your day job to pursue your passion (and you’re “crushing it” thanks to Gary Vaynerchuk), or simply geek out with others who share yours, it can be invigorating and life changing.
2. Tech Geniuses are people too.  It was truly amazing how accessible people were at SXSW, from bumping into new media reporter Robert Scoble, riding the social media bus with Social Media Club Founder Chris Heuer, riding the elevator with Jamie Lynn Sigler (although not a tech genius, it was still very cool!), meeting author and social media evangelist Gary Vaynerchuk, to meeting and chatting with Twitter CEO Evan Williams.
3. Location, location, location.  After Facebook and Twitter, everyone’s been wondering, “what’s next?”  It was evident at SXSW that Location Based Social Networking is emerging as the next big thing.  Like any social network, the power of it is in the number of people using it, and while it was estimated that only about 30-40% of the tech geeks at SXSW were using it, it showed some incredible potential.
4. Content, content, content.  People turn to the Internet and social media to get information that’s entertaining and immediately relevant to them.  If you’re a company, your product must be relevant (at least at one point in peoples’ lives), and fortunately, you’re an expert in that area.  Brands are already prepared with answers to questions when people call them, but they need to post it where people can find it when they go looking for it.
5. It’s how you use it (your content).  It’s not enough just to push your content.  As National Geographic pointed out, it’s using your content to provide a contextual experience.  Think about the user experience and how your content can enrich their experience.
6. Openness is the new Transparency.  Twitter CEO, Evan Williams, used the analogy of a door, “It can be transparent and you can see through it, but when it’s open, it’s about getting in, shaping it, and defining it.”  While most companies still struggle to be transparent, most consumers have moved past transparency and expect to be able to define and shape those they choose to work or do business with.
7. Sponsorships that make Sense.  Chevy sponsored by the “Volt Lounge” – a place to relax, get work done, and power up – as well as providing power-strips at many of the outlets around the convention center.  Not only did this provide a MUCH needed service to the many attendees who carried multiple devices, but it also had a very direct tie-in to the launch of the Chevy Volt, their new electric car.
8. You can’t do it all.  There were approximately 15-20 interactive sessions going on during any given hour at SXSW.  Despite wanting to learn it all, you can only do so much (although Twitter allows you to attend 2-3 sessions at a time).  Likewise, there are so many new technologies to try out, there’s no way to keep up.  Try as many as you (sanely) can and count on the other tech thinkers to help you filter the winners.
9. Mobile location still has a long way to come.  There are many, many different ways for a mobile device to access location – GPS, Cell-ID, Triangulation, etc. – and there are even more ways to try to use that information.  When building apps or programs that use location data, there are many different advantages and disadvantages to the way you choose to use it.
10.  You can’t fake authenticity… and social media is all about authentic engagement with your customers and prospects.  You can’t scale it and you can’t farm it out to someone else to do on your behalf (or worse, give it to the intern who doesn’t yet understand your culture).  As Gary Vaynerchuk put it, “people’s bullshit detectors are better than ever.”  You have to treat social media interactions the same way you would as if the person was sitting in front of you – they want to feel like you’re listening and genuinely care about them.