Another year, another SXSW festival coming up in just a few weeks. What will this year’s event hold? Last year seemed like a big shift for both the event and for attendees. The event was split up into many locations (I think this was a huge mistake), more commercialization than ever and it seemed like lots of people came to Austin but didn’t buy a badge – they just surfed the hallways of the convention center and also attended lots of Sixth Street non-official events. Each year the event grows larger and hotel rooms display sold out signs earlier and earlier.

I wonder if this will be the year that the registration/check-in process will be updated similar to how Google handled the IO event registration.

The SXSW group has released demographics for all of the SXSW events: music, film and interactive. You can find all of the demographics data here (would have been great as an infographic). Remember that the numbers don’t include people who just came to town without an official badge.

Some of the interesting stats include:

• Total conference attendees across all three festivals – 50,000
• Interactive participants – 20,000
• Sessions – 935
• International attendees – 10%
• 75% of attendees have an income over $55k
• 30% of attendees are over 40

Drop me a line if you are coming to town for the annual gathering – I will be covering the event for CN.

Find more stories about: Conferences, sxsw, SXSW 2011

SXSW is holding a panel picker kick-off party on Monday, June 20 at Hangar Lounge in Austin. The Panel Picker is the way that SXSW conference attendees can select which panels they are interested in and that helps the SXSW team determine which panels will appear on the agenda for the 2012 SXSW Interactive Festival.

The event is described as, “See a brief presentation from the SXSW staff about the new and improved SXSW PanelPicker experience, learn how to make your proposal stand out, have a complimentary beverage, and meet up with cool, like-minded, creative people.”

My questions for the SXSW team are: will there be any process changes to make badge pickup easier – similar to the Google process at IO? How did the split sessions around the city work – everyone I talked to was disappointed in the split sessions, what was the official feedback?

The panel picker is open from June 20th-July 15th so if you have a session you want to get on the agenda, make sure you submit the details during the registration period.

Find more stories about: Austin, sxsw, Texas

I’ve been to hundreds of conferences over the past few years and I am always interested in watching how the check-in process is handled at each conference. It always seems like the check-in process at the SXSW interactive festival is the worst in terms of time and length of line. SXSW has moved the check-in location a couple of times over the past five years to allow for more volunteer positions, but the check-in process is still a pain in the butt and frankly a waste of valuable networking time.

Most recently, I suggested that SXSW setup stations along the hallway where 50+ laptops would be setup to allow for individuals to check-in to the conference. You would enter your registration ID, confirm your name and company and submit. Since SXSW has so many different types of badges, you would then have a printer location displayed on the screen and when you get to that printer, the SXSW volunteer would hand you your badge. This would nearly completely eliminate the lines and the time involved waiting on the check-in line.

Well it seems Google was reading and listening because the Google IO check-in process was the smoothest I’ve seen in a long time. When I entered the Moscone West conference center, Google had 3 check-in pods. Each one had about 15 computers (apparently they were the CR-48 netbooks), a Google employee and a badge printer. You could scan the barcode from your printed receipt, enter the code manually, or scan the barcode image directly from your smartphone. After I picked up my attendee badge (I was attending as a CloudContacts employee no press pass for CN), I stood nearby and watched how long the process took for others who wanted to check-in. The process was less than a minute for almost of the test subjects with many completing the process in about 30 seconds.

The Google IO badge included a small barcode which was used to claim the freebies (i.e. Galaxy Tab, 4G modem, etc.).

I understand that SXSW prints a photo on the badge for security and also has more types of badges than Google IO offered. This is why I suggest that the printer stations be centralized to make it easy to manage the different types of badges – the check-in program would be able to tell that I am registered as press and send me to a different printer station than a person registered for the Music portion of SXSW.

As a side note, I also like the process CES uses whereby they send your ID card in the mail.

The check-in process that Google used for the Google IO conference is exactly the process all conferences should use. Reduce the time to check-in and get conference participants to sessions and to general networking as quickly as possible.

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Last week I attended a 15-minute presentation at SXSW 2011 by blogger Julia Allison titled, “Social Media or Sado-Masochism? Cyberbullying & Celeb 2.0″. I’ve posted the video from her presentation below. The takeaway for me was that people are picking on Julia and she wants the police to setup a “cyberbullying” group that will go after anyone who says mean things online.

Before I go forward, I think bullying of kids (and adults) is horrible. Bullying someone about their size, shape, color, ethnicity, race, sexual preference, etc. should not be tolerated at any level and it’s great to see the government getting involved with education and other ideas to help end bullying.

After I left Julia’s presentation, I was walking around the expo hall and started to wonder if a personal brand is any different than a corporate brand? Should we be expected to treat personal brands different than corporate brands? Technically a corporate brand is made up of individuals so perhaps it’s the same?

Julia refers to herself as a personal brand – last year she taught a class on how to create a personal brand for yourself. In session number six, Julia notes, “your personal brand is your business”.

Julia has cursed at United Airlines several times via her Twitter account. Did Julia “attack” the current 13 year-old YouTube sensation Rebecca Black for her music video last week by saying that Rebecca’s video is the reason kids shouldn’t be allowed to make music videos? If someone suggests that Julia shouldn’t make lipdub videos because she sucks at it (I am not suggesting she does or does not suck at it), is that bullying? Is it ok for people to bash a corporate brand but not a personal brand?

Julia closes her presentation by noting that perhaps it’s a “gendered” issue – that these Internet bullies only attack women. She talks about Gary Vaynerchuck- and she says that he is treated differently because he is a man. I don’t follow Gary anymore but when I did, I know that he rarely if ever posted pictures of his family. If you lined up 5 women, I couldn’t pick out his wife (although I am guessing she would be the only one wearing a NY Jets jersey). She says Gary doesn’t get attacks based on his looks – but playing devil’s advocate for a minute, Gary isn’t posting pictures of himself in 1,000 different outfits wanting feedback. She says no one is talking about Gary’s family – and the reason for that is simple, because other than him talking about his love for his family, he isn’t putting them out there for the world to see every minute. So I don’t buy Julia’s argument that Gary doesn’t get the same criticism or attacks because he is a guy – he doesn’t because he isn’t sharing every detail of his life – both public and private.

Clearly there is a fine line between criticism and attacks. While, it’s pretty easy to figure out what lies at the far ends of both sides, I don’t know the right answer as to exactly where the dividing line is. Could it be that if you set yourself up as a “personal brand” the line is further out than if you are a private person?

It seems like today, creating a personal brand is an important tactic for social media rockstar ninjas. Perhaps part of the thought process for creating a personal brand should be that you are opening yourself up for potential endless criticism and possible attacks.

Here’s the video from Julia’s presentation:

Find more stories about: social media, Social Networking, sxsw, SXSW 2011

Here are some good startup and entrepreneurial readings as you travel home or get caught up with post-SXSW.

• You can’t do that – Jacques Mattheij
• SXSW Interactive douchebags and chasing a $5 beer – JWZ
• What I learned pitching 300+ times in 4 days at SXSW (This is a must read) – Swayable
• Happy Birthday Zinch (a look back at 4 years) – Founder Diaries
• How can I tell if I am failing at my entrepreneurial venture or start-up? – Mark Cendella
• 31 days, 120,000 hits, and $462 in revenue. The Startup Foundry’s story. – Startup Foundry
• Have Less Funding Than Your Competitors? Good! – Seth Levine

Don’t forget to submit links that you think should be included in the next startup updates.

Find more stories about: Entrepreneur, startups, sxsw

Today I stopped by the SXSW 2011 expo hall – it’s definitely bigger than in previous years. Rackspace had a very large booth while Google and Microsoft had smaller booths (Microsoft had an end cap). The Google booth was pretty crowded while the Microsoft booth was empty (pics below). Mapquest also had a large presence. Apple had no presence which I guess makes sense since everyone already bought an iPad 2. The British startup area was also larger than last year – there were also a number of other countries that had booths (the only one I remember was Canada).

Here are my photos – click on a photo to view the larger size:

Pretty neat idea – a wall with chalkboard paint where you could write whatever you like – of course I had to represent with the yellow CloudContacts shoutout in the bubble – BatchBook is right above:

The British are here:

It’s Twonky – no idea what they do:

Are web designers sexy? This booth shook the 8 ball and the result was “yes”


Hugh MacLeod shows off all of his illustrations (I think you could buy them too)

Rackspace was providing free water with any cloud server:

It’s neustar:

This woman is holding three huge ice cream waffle cones – you think she might be a bit happier

These people make cute usb drives – like Hello Kitty:

This is Jason Calacanis’ favorite startup (they were awarded best presentation at Launch) – DOMO:

Lots of people in the meeting area – as you notice some people are showing how people communicated in the ’80s – they are talking directly to each other – shortly after this photo the people moved back to today’s standard of always looking down

Sonicbids had the coolest chairs

Foodstream – I didn’t stop for a demo but I assume it’s a stream of food-related content?

This ship takes you to mach 4 in under 4 seconds or one retweet

Looks like some people need to stop at supercuts

Microsoft showing off the “html 5 fish test”

AOL shows off their new version of mapquest – I beat everyone in air hockey

I think Izea has a booth at every conference in the world – it seems every expo I visit they have a booth

Find more stories about: Conferences, photos, sxsw, SXSW 2011

The Interactive portion of the SXSW conference ends tomorrow and the Music portion of the conference begins. This is my first year in-town during the music festival. If you are planning to remain in Austin for the next week but don’t plan on purchasing a music badge, here are a few ways you can still get in on the action.

The Auditorium Shores Stage Concert Series will take place this weekend and will feature a variety of bands. The concerts are open to the public although badge holders receive vip seating. Saturday is made up of bands that are family friendly. Make sure you read the notes on the schedule page as there are serious restrictions about what you can bring into the arena.

If you aren’t staying in Austin for the Music portion of SXSW, you can download a large number of songs from artists playing at the various events around the city.

• XRT Radio has a list of 140 songs that can be downloaded individually or in batches
• Amazon has a 12-track Don’t Mess With Texas SXSW music sampler

While I haven’t heard of any of the bands and artists playing at the SXSW events, I am looking forward to hearing some new music around the city over the next week.

Find more stories about: Conferences, music, sxsw, SXSW 2011

Check out the latest jobs posted on the CenterNetworks Job Board. Subscribe to the CN Jobs feed and get all of the latest Web industry jobs delivered directly to you.

Featured Jobs:

• Web Designer at Azavea
• Art Director – Soap.com at Quidsi Inc. Creators of Soap.com and BeautyBar.com

More Jobs:

• Strategic Account Manager at Eliza Corporation
• IT Web Developer – Job ID 1934 at California State University Northridge
• Marketing Guru at A Small Orange

Employers – Join other top companies on the CN Job Board. Post your jobs today – only $10!

Find more stories about: job boards, jobs, sxsw

While attending Lean Startup day at SXSW 2011, I met with Ask.com VP Communications Valerie Combs to learn more about their new group texting mobile app. It seems that this year you aren’t cool if you don’t have a group texting app. Ask Around lets you view and engage in conversations near you.

You select your radius and then you can see what’s happening around that zone. You can also change the location — for example, you might be at the SXSW conference in Austin but want to see what’s happening at the Berlin main train station. You can also select a “spot” which will give you a list of popular locations to monitor the conversation.

The app doesn’t appear to have topics so it looks like everyone is just bundled together – I wonder how that works in terms of conversation flow. I guess it’s like Twitter – everyone just messages in whatever they want with no actual focus – but in this case the idea is that the conversation should be focused around a specific location.

I asked Valerie what makes Ask Around different than the 847 other group texting apps that have recently launched. She noted that Ask Around is specifically focused just on location – there are no algorithms, no matchmaker services, just a focus on the conversation around a location.

The Ask.com Ask Around app is free for download and currently only available for iPhone.

Below is Valerie’s video demo of Ask Around – you can check out another demo with Abby Johnson of WebProNews who spoke with Ask.com Chief Product and Technology Officer Lisa Kavanaugh.

Find more stories about: ask.com, iphone, mobile, sxsw, SXSW 2011

Angel investor and 500Startups founder Dave McClure took to the stage during the Lean Startup Day at SXSW — his presentation centered around startup metrics for lean startups. If you know Dave, you know that typically every third word is a curse word of some sort – my counter had him at about 3.2 words/curse word across his presentation. It was three years ago at SXSW that Dave McClure introduced the world to getting booty by using his startup metrics techniques for pirates.

My favorite part of the presentation was when Dave asked the audience, “when do you stop adding features” and someone in the audience replied, “when you get acquired”. Everyone laughed and Dave quickly noted that was not the right answer – the correct answer is to stop adding features when your users are happy with what you have. I am not sure I agree – can you name one company that has actually stopped adding features?

Here are some of my notes:

• suggests you read the book Spent
• don’t bother pitching him or emailing him – if you want into his network, you better come via a referral (see slide 41)
• the important metrics aren’t uniques or cash – but visitor engagement metrics (see slide 11 below)
• disagrees with Chris Dixon and Fred Wilson around marketing and SEO (I agree with Dave)
• gathering customer data is good, email collection is great because you can “fucking spam your users” (see Dave’s comment below – just to be clear he was joking about spamming customers)
• if your customers pay for your product, you have MVP (minimum viable product)
• hate is more gooder than love (that was my Fake Grimlock impersonation) – basically what Dave means here is that when people hate your product they will tell you specifically what to fix – if they love your product, you will probably only get an “i love your product” response
• testing is cheap, coding is expensive – Dave notes that you are better off testing up the behind before you code because it’s easy to change a test, harder to change code
• Dave featured a slide about cartoons and noted that SouthPark is a really shitty product within a niche and that’s why they won

Dave also discussed pricing – in that you are better off starting with charging for your service and possibly moving free later on than the reverse. He said that way you will get customers initially who really, really want your product. I agree with his conclusion but for a different reason – it’s very, very hard to move to paid when you start free – just look at what the backlash when this is done – but if you go from paid to free, you look like a hero.

Below are Dave’s slides from the presentation:

Find more stories about: analytics, Conferences, metrics, startups, sxsw, SXSW 2011

I barely slept last night watching the absolutely horrible videos of the destruction following the earthquakes in Japan. The earthquake was the most powerful to hit Japan in over 100 years. And now CNN is reporting that there is another earthquake that just hit Nagano, Japan.

The organizers of the SXSW conference here in Austin have setup a special donation site located at SXSW4Japan. It appears that the funds will go to the American Red Cross. CauseVox is powering the site and notes that they will waive all transaction fees so 100% of the donations will be sent to the American Red Cross.

You can either make a donation or setup a custom donation page that you can share. So far $265 has been raised out of a $10,000 goal. The fundraising campaign will run 4 days through the balance of SXSW Interactive.

Find more stories about: Japan, sxsw, SXSW 2011

So today begins the annual event known as SXSW. I am just back to the office after grabbing my Interactive badge. I wanted to share some last minute SXSW 2011 tips and some changes that I noticed as I walked around the convention center. If you want a more detailed list of tips and suggestions, check out my SXSW Primer. I plan on attending the Lean Startup day on Saturday and the Google Developers Event on Sunday. My goal this year is to meet CloudContacts customers, meet potential partners for CloudContacts and conduct startup interviews for CenterNetworks.

• If you haven’t already posted your photo on the SXSW Social site, do so before you go to retrieve your badge. This will speed up the registration line and you will also get the picture you want on your badge versus some webcam photo.
• CapMetro transit is running their MetroRail service on Friday night and Saturday – this is the tram that stops right outside the convention center. If you are staying at a hotel near one of the MetroRail stations, it might be easier and cheaper to just use the tram.
• Austin360 has a list of parties on the “side” – meaning no badge is required.
• Apple is opening a pop-up shop near the convention center on Congress Avenue in case you want to buy the new iPad 2 when it arrives tomorrow.
• The registration location has moved to the Hall 1 – it’s near the far end of the convention center – near 2nd street or as far away from the big escalators at the front
• There are a LOT more food vendors than previous years – looks like everything pretty much starts at $6 – my suggestion is to make sure to pack a bottle of water so you don’t get robbed
• The lego pit near the escalators is gone – I really liked the designs people came up with and the good meeting location – it’s been replaced by Chevy.
• There are now about 30 tables near the big escalators at the front – the volunteer section has been removed
• Remember parking meters don’t run on the weekend so if you can grab one of those spots, you got a free pass (double check all rules, I am not responsible if you park incorrectly)
• You can call the conference “south by southwest” or “sxsw” – never “south by” – thank you for your adherence to this important notice
• It looks like everyone attending this conference is some sort of “social media expert” based on the conversations I heard in the registration line

Most of all – be safe and have some fun! The weather looks perfect for walking and relaxing here in Austin – keep it weird!

Find more stories about: Austin, Conferences, sxsw, SXSW 2011

So the big huge money maker for someone but no one knows who SXSW “interactive festival” is arriving in Austin next weekend. I am still working on my tips and tricks post and will probably gear it to those of us who don’t give a rats ass about some idiotic badge or sticker. If you haven’t bought a new pair of sneakers yet, you best to get moving this weekend – you need to break them in before you arrive because you will be walking more than Loic Le Meur did in the NYC marathon last year. And who knows how this whole “sxsw city takeover” thing will work. Lastly…if you call the event “south by” you will get a noogie.

One other important note – if you have used the “Dillos” (the downtown trolleys), they have terminated that service. With all of that said, here are 10 SXSW posts worth checking out this weekend (with some sarcasm added for a twist):

• Infochimps has a list of 100 parties taking place during the festival – I hear if you go to all of them and check-in you win some huge super mayorship of Austin.
• Susan Beebe from Dell has a post titled, “SXSW Chaos Management Central” – basically she has a calendar that shows you she will busy the whole weekend but if you want to contact her, she has 83 icons on the sidebar with every social service available so you can get in touch. Actually Susan is a cool NY’er so you should actually try to meet her.
• Rob LaGesse from Rackspace gives you his list of tips – he says you should get yourself a big Chapstick. He suggests you don’t shake hands but fist pump instead – if you blow up the fist bump, you apparently get a Gowalla Mashable sticker.
• Tessa Horehled made a ppt on 101 tips for sxsw newbs for some agency (shouldn’t they know this?) but she has opened it up to ya’all.  Tessa suggests you meet new people and stay away from people so you don’t get SARS. Having lived here six months, I say stay away from the tap water – smells like rotten eggs died inside a carcass and the resulting fluid was sent down your pipe.
• Dave Delaney has another exciting powerpoint with 25 tips for this year’s SXSW. He too suggests drinking water, he suggests washing your hands a lot, and wants you to bring extra batteries for your mobile devices. God knows what would happen if your device battery dies and you know, you actually have a nice calm, no twitter, no facebook conversation with someone! THE HORROR!
• Josh from Fanmail has come up with 7 tips you can actually use. He suggests you plan for any type of weather – I agree and I think it will be HOT next weekend. He suggests mid-afternoon naps so you can “go crazy” at night. Is there a badge for that?
• Jason Sadler (the guy who wears a tshirt you paid him to wear) has a list of 10 tips.  He (smartly) talks about how important business cards are during the event (something I know a lot about these days). He says you should get extra batteries and also tell everyone you know that you will be at the event.
• William Hertling hass a list of tips — he suggests that the bigger the room, the better the talk. I disagree, the Zuckerberg talk was in the largest room and we all know how that one ended :-P
• Stephanie Frost has a tips list for women – she suggests cute shoes, some sort of “Larabars” for energy, and having fresh breath (I think that’s a good pair for Rob’s Chapstick above). She does talk about safety and security which is a very important topic.
• Brisbane Sounds has a detailed tips post (I think from the music side but most still applies). Get your elevator pitch down before you arrive, drink light beer, eat some bbq (did you know bbq here is beef?) and don’t worry about sleep, just have fun.

Free business idea – stand outside the convention center and sell fully charged cell phone batteries and chargers – I bet you would make a killing!

Just found this video from Alex Blagg at IFC – well worth a watch (although I naturally disagree with the business card bit):

Find more stories about: Austin, sxsw, SXSW 2011

Here are some good startup and entrepreneurial readings…also, if you are attending SXSW in 10 days and have any questions, feel free to email me. This year seems to have 4-5x more events than last year which had 4-5x more events than any of the other six years I’ve attended. You can read my SXSW primer from last year and Rackspace’s Rob LaGesse has put together a primer as well. The top tips are:

• wear comfy sneakers as you will be walking a ton – even if you stay at the Austin convention center all weekend, it’s so poorly designed that you will walk about 5 miles a day
• bring a bottle of water with you each day
• you won’t do everything you plan to but you will do other things you didn’t – one thing I’ve learned about Austin since moving here is that you just go with the flow – and things will work out great

I will have another bigger SXSW update post later this week. Now on to the updates:

• When Smart People are Bad Employees – Ben Horowitz
• ShoeFitr: The company Amazon must buy immediately – Startup Foundry
• Working for a Start-up: Expectations – Dan Demeyere
• Paid to Eat Pancakes: The Truth about “Passions” – Brett Kelly
• 5(+1) questions before building your business on a freelancer – Terralien

Find more stories about: Entrepreneur, startups, sxsw

We are just a month away from the big SXSW weekend of parties. If you will be arriving into Austin early, or live in Austin, you might want to check out the Web Camp that Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) will host just days before SXSW begins. I have not attended a Microsoft Web Camp in the past so I can’t provide any reviews but the sessions look interesting and you will be fed.

You can register for the two-day event here – you must use a Windows Live ID (why I don’t know) and you must register for each day individually. From the course overview, “Microsoft’s 2 day Web Camps are events designed to teach you all about building websites using ASP.NET MVC, WebMatrix, OData and more. This event is a unique opportunity, partnering classroom learning on day one with hands-on-labs on day two, and leveraging experts to help you build new and exciting websites.”

The sessions include MVC basics, jQuery Globalization, data access and modeling, validation and testing processes. I don’t see any specific sessions around the Windows Phone but I have to image the topic will come up throughout both days. The event is free to attend and will be held at the AT&T conference center at the University of Texas in midtown.

Find more stories about: Austin, Conferences, Microsoft, sxsw, web, Web 2.0