Blog
Enabling New Experiences Through Check-ins
Dennis Crowley – Foursquare & Pete Cashmore – Mashable One of the big keynote presentations was with Dennis Crowley, the founder of Foursquare (he’s the one waving in the picture with me to the right). He talked a lot about what it’s been like at Foursquare during their growth over the last year or two. However, he also gave some interesting information about what they’ve learned and where they’re headed. They currently have over 7.5 million users, and over 250,000 merchants who use their system. ...
read more12 Slides, 3 Writers – Different Approaches to Writing
Presenters: Jim Coudal, Michael Lopp, and John Gruber As a writer, I’ve learned that anyone can write, but it’s your approach that sets you apart. In this presentation, three different writers walk through the same set of 12 slides. Each explains their approach to getting started, editing, getting unstuck, and understanding when they’re finished. The only way to really illustrate this presentation is with the video...
read moreHow to Personalize Without Being Creepy
Panel: Hugo Lin – Hunch, Jen King – PHD UC-Berkeley, Mat Harris – BizGreet, Vijay Ravidran – Washington Post, Noah Weiss – Foursquare Hashtag: #SeeNoCreepy The point of personalization is to put something more relevant, and therefore more delightful in front of you. In the opinion of the panelists – “Life is too short, and time is too valuable, to have something random/irrelevant in front of you.” However, there’s a fine line between giving you something you might like to see and knowing...
read moreThe Legal Ramifications of Saying “I’m Sorry”
Panel: Chris Morran – Senior Editor, Consumerist.com, Daniel Goldman – Legal Counsel, Mayo Clinic, Fred Taylor – Sr Mgr, Southwest Airlines, Margaret DiBianca – Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor, and Moderator: Paula Berg – Digital Media Leader, Linhart PR Working in a highly regulated industry, I was very interested in this presentation. The panel was incredible, with folks from the medical and airline fields, as well as a commentator from The Consumerist.com, and I was very excited about all of the...
read moreWhy QR Codes will Die
After publishing a blog post a couple of weeks ago – QR Code Use Explodes – I discovered that they’ll likely die as quickly as they’ve grown. As I watched hundreds of geeks clammoring around girls in tight shirts walking the sidewalk at SXSW a couple weeks ago, I began wondering what the fuss was all about. The women were wearing t-shirts with QR codes strategically located on them, along with the phrase “Scan Me.” I’m not sure whether the guys were taking pictures or scanning the bar codes on...
read moreAnother Giveaway – You Might be a Zombie Book
I haven’t forgotten about all the giveaways I promised! You still have time to enter these giveaways – Flipboard T-Shirt, the Will it Blend? DVD, the Square device, the Delivering Happiness Book, and the Eyeballs Out book. I will select the winners near the end of the month. Now you have a chance to win You Might be a Zombie and Other Bad News from the editors of Cracked.com. The book is rated 4.5 stars on Amazon.com, and appears to be a great book. I just don’t have time to read it and wanted to give it away to one...
read moreAugmented Reality for Marketers
Presenters: Lynne D Johnson – R/GA, John Havens – Porter Novelli Hashtag: #arsxsw There’s been a lot of talk over the last few years about augmented reality (AR), and the increasing adoption of smartphones and portable devices has accelerated predictions about its possibilities. In fact, Juniper Research expects global revenue of AR to reach $1.5 billion in 2015. Much of this is currently being driven by location based apps. Those which have been successful for consumers have focused on utility and ease of use,...
read moreOutsource Social Media?
This wasn’t necessarily a presentation I attended at iMedia, the Social Business Summit, or SXSW, but among the many brand people I got to meet, it was an extremely hot topic of discussion. The discussion was further fueled by something that happened the day before the Social Business Summit. If you hadn’t seen the news, an employee from a company called New Media Strategies, accidentally dropped an f-bomb on behalf of their client, Chrysler’s twitter account. As you can imagine, the employee was immediately fired and...
read moreFamily Emergency
I had a family emergency and had to leave SXSW yesterday. I still have several blog posts that need to be edited for posting. I’ll get to them as soon as possible, so please check back over the next week or two. In the meantime, please pray for my mom.
read moreTalk with Paul Ruebens / Pee Wee Herman
Like last year, I’ll periodically attend a session that’s a little more self indulgent (like the Booze and Blogging session I attended last year). This year, it was attending this session. It was an interesting perspective in several ways. I learned about his background a bit, but also a little about what it takes to make it. Ruebens started with the Groundlings, an improve troupe, and developed the character of Pee Wee because in a performance one night, he had to play a bad comedian. It all came out that night – suit,...
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