Day #3 was probably the most exciting of my SXSW experience - definitely the busiest! I had back-to-back sessions in the morning with some pretty noteworthy speakers. The first was the founder of Instagram, a hugely successful photo sharing app for iPhones, and the second was a sports panel moderated by Mr. Jimmy Fallon. Here we go...
"Is Photo-Madness Creating Mediocrity or Magic?"
How many people can say they have an Instagram photo of the man who created it?- Instagram spans generations and languages, a way of speaking and seeing the world without really speaking.
- It's a very unique platform and can be used by people who don't normally use social media. The founder (Kevin Systrom) said that his parents can't comprehend the purpose of Twitter and they'll never get the value of "checking in" via FourSquare, but they understand the importance of capturing moments on camera.
- Good advice from the photography panel: disconnect from your phone for at least 30 minutes a day in order to give yourself creative space.
- "The risk with digital photography is that we are less deliberate. Let's make sure we remain thoughtful."
- Some of the most meaningful photos in our history aren't taken by professional photographers.
- "One of the biggest challenges will be to sift through the many millions of photos we take in order to find the most meaningful ones."
- Mobile photography will continue to spread. But edit more and be more thoughtful - "don't share your ugly baby photos!" -Koci Hernandez
- Other awesome photo/editing apps include: ProCamera, Filterstorm, ScratchedUp, Lo-mob, and The Amazing Typewriter.
"Digital Sport: Know More, Do More"
Jimmy moderated the panel and was downright funny, just like he is on television. Other panelists included Fred Santarpia of VEVO, Andrew Wilson from EA Sports, Stefan Olander of Nike, and Olympic gold medalist Allyson Felix.
- There are two types of people - those who purchase/own music and those that experience it. The future is about consuming music. This gives artists an opportunity to interact with fans with no filter. That's going to change the way that music is even released. Artists want direct connection and may look to release music continuously. We may see the traditional "album release" go away.
- Nike has evolved into a service business. "We can no longer say, 'just do it.' We have to help people do it."
- Nike's mission has evolved from "a better shoe" to "a better you."
- The majority of the session was about how technology drives sports, music and games. Pretty fascinating stuff, but a lot of it I didn't write down. I was too busy being entertained by Jimmy Fallon!
Side note: Ogilvy PR joined forces with the artists of Image Think to create some powerful visuals for some of SX's key sessions. An artist listened to the panelists and sketched these story boards in real-time. They were displayed in the room for our next session, and Ogilvy also printed out copies for attendees to keep! Cool, cool stuff.
"The B2B Social Media Book"
We took a break from the usual hour-long sessions to attend a 20-minute book reading by Jeffrey Cohen of Radian6 and Kipp Bodnar from HubSpot. We got so much out of that short period of time, and afterwards we bought the book to add to our marketing library and had it signed by Jeff and Kipp. Can't wait to read the whole book.
- 60% of the sales cycle is over before a buyer talks to a salesperson.
- 73% of CEOs don't believe marketers drive revenue.
- "Prospects don't care about your products. They want solutions to their problems." - Jeff Cohen
- The shelf life of a link shared via social media is 3 hours (!!).
- Publishing and sharing content online is the single biggest lever to lead generation.
- Your goal on social media: get people to share your stuff.
- Create awesome content and reduce the friction around sharing it. Put calls to action (CTAs) everywhere!
The afternoon continued with free tacos for lunch and free sweets in the Ask.com Sugar Rush Lounge (cake balls from Holy Cacao, triple berry pie from Sugar Mama's Bakeshop, and chocolate covered popcorn from Cornucopia).
The sun FINALLY came out after two days of rain!
"How to Be an Idea Factory"
This session was led by Matthew Diffee, cartoonist for the New Yorker and Texas Monthly. The ideas he shared had little to do with my exact work responsibilities, but everything to do with workflow and keeping your creativity!
- "I'm not talking about sustained, long-range creativity, say, for writing a novel. And I'm not talking about casual creativity every now and then. I'm talking about day-to-day, being creative when you have to be."
- Even if you do collaborate with others, there are times when you just need to step away and think by yourself.
- Why are some people more creative than others?
- Influencers of creativity include: you, your environment, your process.
- You... what you think, what you feel, what you know and what you do. You need to be patient and not let your emotions get the best of you. There's nothing more difficult than trying to be creative when you're angry. Be self-disciplined and persistent.
- "The worst enemy to creation is self-doubt."
- "Despite the carefree air that many creative people affect, most of them work late into the night and persist when less driven individuals would not."
- Your environment... right place, right time. Find what/where works for you.
- Starting is the hardest part. Don't leave your desk cluttered with yesterday's stuff.
- "Unplug yourself. You don't know what you are capable of until you shut it all down."
There wasn't much that caught my eye for the last session, so a coworker and I walked to Rainey Street where the Google Village was set up. Free drinks, koozies, fun Google bags, and cupcakes at Bar 96. It was a lot of fun! From there, we walked to The Stage on Sixth Street for The Interactive+Film Fusion Party for free tacos, as well as the live music of the John Evans Band.
Treats compliments of The Cupcake Bar
Later that night, I met up with my sister and we were able to experience some of SXSW together. We walked around downtown a little bit and then got free ice cream at the Coolhaus trailer. You get to pick your cookie and your flavor of ice cream to make an awesome ice cream sandwich. Sarah and I had a potato chip and butterscotch cookie (sounds weird, but so good) with a vanilla bourbon ice cream.
We ended the night at Alamo Drafthouse where we saw the premiere of the movie "Nature Calls," starring Johnny Knoxville and Maura Tierney. It was a pretty stupid-funny movie, but it was fun to experience some of the Film portion of SX and see Q&A with some cast members afterwards.
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