South by South Suggestions [My SXSWi 2010 Recap] [TMI]

So this shit has nothing to do with Park Slope...or BK. It has to do with me and shit that's going on in my life (i.e. I just went to the SXSW Interactive Conference and now have some things to say about it). So if you think you wanna keep things strictly Park Slope-y between us, move right along.

So, I'm back from the SXSW Interactive Conference. Spring Break for Geeks is what they call this insanity, and much like every other Tumblr to Book idea out there, I'm pretty angry that I didn't come up with that description myself…cause its pretty right the fuck on.

Over 15,000ish people descended on from March 12-16th, and in case you didn't notice the metric ton of #sxsw hashtagged tweets (mine included, thank you very much), blog posts, twit pics, or the way better AT&T service in NYC thanks to the fact that all our asses weren't there, that was what was up.

For those not in the know, SXSW is an Interactive, Film and Music conference that takes place every year in Texas. Though "conference" is kind of an odd word for it as, trust me, its not like any conference you've ever been to. There are panels like this one: How to Be Black and this one: We Fucked Up. And there's more free beer, booze, PEPSI!, nuclear tacos, bing cabs, meat-themed gatherings, karaoke (and Zone bars! How could I forget the Zone bars!?) than you have ever seen in your entire fucking life. There are dudes walking around in ironic t-shirts non-ironically, geek girls proudly rocking their "I look like an indie filmmaker, but I'm actually a social media change agent" black eyeglasses, and just about every "cewebrity" you've ever heard of. Robert Scoble (hitting up the Techset part with scantily clad chicks)? Check. Gary Vaynerchuk? Yep, he crushed it. Clay Shirky? Obvies. Evan Williams keynoted, Guy Kawasaki moderated a panel, Pete Cashmore walked around looking all hot, and Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht from Diggnation were elected president…or something like that.

True confessions: I've lusted after SXSW for at least a few years now, and roll your eyes and make fun of me if you must, but I was stoked as shit to finally get a chance to go check it out, and immerse myself in five days of down-n-dirty geekery. It always seemed as if the most interesting people, talking about the coolest new products and services, with the most unique, cutting edge and/or controversial ideas were front and center at SXSW, and yeah: I wanted to break me off a little piece of that fried bbq chicken wing from Salt Lick too.

And so I did: and yeah, it was mostly pretty friggin delicious.

So let's just get this out of the way:

Q:  Did I think SXSW was a valuable, worthwhile experience overall?
A: Yes…most definitely.

Q: Did I have fun, party, and eat a lot of tex-mex and BBQ?
A: Yes…most definitely.

Q: Did I learn new things, make interesting connections and come back inspired?
A: Yes…most definitely.

Q: Did I think that some of the panels were lame/fluffy/lacked substance/were a total waste of my time?
A: Yes…most definitely.

Q: Did I think there were a lot of douchebags walking around the Austin Convention Center?
A: Yes...most definitely.

Q: Do I think there are a lot of douchebags walking around the streets of NYC?
A. Duh.

Q: Will I come back next year for SXSW 2011?
A: Yes…most definitely.

Q: Was there anything that could have been improved upon?
A: OMFG, YESSSSSSSSSS! MOST D-E-F-I-N-I-T-E-L-Y.

I'm going to spend some time on this last point, mostly because I'm a selfish bitch who wants things to be way more killer for me-n-all my friends the next time we come back to Austin. But also because I think so many of these ideas and suggestions would be so super, duper easy to implement. There was much at this conference that was great and really, really worked (the variety of panels, the amazing SXSW staff/volunteers, quality level of *some* of the speakers, AT&T service!, etc.).

I haven't ever been before, so I have nothing to compare my experiences to directly. And though I get that this whole SXSW thing has gotten big, and isn't as cool as it used to be (at least according to all the "super cool" people online who keep claiming that THEY were there when it was *really* cool), and blah, blah, blah, it doesn't make much sense to me to just whine and complain about that without offering up some suggestions on how stuff might be improved. So, yeah: this isn't me saying "hey, SXSW, I want to break up with you" (as some already do). It's more like me saying: "Hey SXSW, I really feel a connection with you and I think we could  take our relationship to the next level."

So herewith are some general thoughts as well as specific suggestions of how me and SXSW could potentially get to third base next year:

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS:

• While I love the idea of crowd participation, and actually feel it plays a more important role in this conference then it does at most others, the fact that panels/sessions are voted on seemed to result in a lot of crappy ass panels getting picked. Not sure if this should be done away with or not, but seems like this process could be fine-tuned? Like maybe you set up some sort of super hero social media "board of directors" that makes final decisions on panels? Cause I don't think "we" (as in the collective we) did as good of a job as I would have hoped pickin em.
• The flipside of this is, though, is that you guys picked ou the SXSW keynotes..not us. And I was not nearly as impressed with those. I mean, @ev would have been a killer, obvious choice, if you had not had him interviewed by such an incredible douchebag (that will now go down as the single worst interview I have ever seen in my 30+ years of life). And yet I saw some other speakers, that I think could have killed it at a keynote: Clay Shirky, Gary Vaynerchuk (yeah, I know he did one last year, but few people can motivate crowds like he does). I think you need to go for rockstar, big names for the keynotes

FONT:

Please, please, please for the love of God change your sxsw logo/marketing. I am, by no means a designer, so my opinion that its horrendously ugly in its current format is not even on the table here. My main problem (and the problem of 1,563 other people I talked to) is that the font that is currently being used is completely friggin illegible. I can barely read it if I walk up to one of those  screens in the panel rooms, squint my eyes, and pull my glasses down my nose a bit to better focus. Which means that every single solitary sign, map, brochure or powerpoint slide that sxsw uses featuring that font is completely illegible to everyone else too. This makes it all the more difficult to figure out where we're going, and what we need to do when we get there. If you really want to leave it for your logo, then at least change it for any informational/wayfinding signs. Please??

SESSIONS:

• EVERY SINGLE SOLITARY PANEL OR TALK should have a pre-created, pre-branded powerpoint slide with the following information in large, bold, clear text:
  • The name of the panel (as it appears in the schedule)
  • The room and time of the panel
  • The first and last names of all panel participants (INCLUDING THEIR TWITTER HANDLES).
  • The #hashtag for that particular panel.

These slides should be made by the SXSW staff (and should not be the responsibility of panelists), and should all look EXACTLY the same so that we can get used to the format and know what to look for as attendees. Also, MORE BRANDING FOR YOUR ASSES, SXSW!

I can't tell you how many times (wait, yes I can: EVERY SINGLE SOLITARY TIME) I walked into a panel/talk/session, and wasn't sure whether or not I was in the right place, because aside from tent cards displaying panelists last names, there was no clear, sign or slide indicating what was going on in the room. Unless of course, an industrious panelist made themselves one. But even then: it was a different design, using different fonts, and it was sometimes *still* hard to figure out wtf was going on. I am so passionate about this last point, I will agree to make them all for you MYSELF! FOR FREE. I'M SERIOUS, SXSW. Call me!

SESSIONS, PART DEUX:

While we're on the panel haterade tip, here are some other ideas:

• Every panel could have a separate screen with a visible tweet stream for that particular panel already running. I only saw this in two SXSW panels…over FOUR DAYS of panels. How is this possible??? I think it would be great to have a separate screen so that if panelists or speakers have additional slides to show, both could still be visible. However, if this is not possible, perhaps the tweet stream can always be available to panelists/speakers to put back up on the screen when they are not using their own slides (or if they don't have any). I know that panelists can do this on their own, but I think this should really be the default setup in any panel room so that there is less for people to have to worry/think about. Again, this could be a SXSW branded tweet stream. (sidenote: I get that there is a camp that might exist who thinks maybe this is sensory overload, but the bottom line is: everyone is already doing this on their laptops. And if this twitter stream were up in every room anyway, I might not find it necessary to bring my laptop).

• The panels I enjoyed most were all ones in which attendees were able to ask questions at the end. Some moderators were great about this and others were not. Why not build in a Q&A portion into all panels? This way, no matter what, the last 15 minutes or so can be dedicated to questions. Better yet, if you release the official hashtag list for all the panels several weeks beforehand, allow people to tweet in interesting questions in the weeks leading up to the panels/talks. Q&A can then be a mix of twitter questions and actual questions (twitter questions would work particularly well with larger, more prominent speakers). This would also be a great way for panelists to tailor the conversations toward information that people want to hear.

BADGES:

OK, Swissmiss offered some suggestions for redesigning your badges last year, as well as a call to get in touch with her for some more scoop, and I have zero clue why you didn't take her up on it. Cause as is, those things are H to the orrible C to the raptastical. There is also another great post here: Building a Better Conference Badge (that Swissmiss linked too as well). My first suggestion is: LISTEN TO THOSE PEOPLE. But if not, here are a few more I'm gonna throw out there:

• Ditch the photo. It's time consuming and unnecessary. The SXSW staffers who are checking for badges are not looking at your photos, and they don't help when you're talking to people, cause um, you are looking directly at their faces already. If you insist on making these necessary, require everyone to submit a photo with their badge. The rule would work like this: "hey moron: you just spent $550 on a SXSW badge. If you want to be able to legally pick it up in Austin, SEND US A PICTURE. If you do not send us a digital picture, you will not be issued a badge. Period. If anyone coming to the south by friggin west Interactive conference can't figure out how to send a digital photo, they don't deserve to be issued a badge anyway. This will then cut down on a lot of time spent awkwardly waiting in that holding pen at registration, and allow staffers to print em all out for attendees in one fell swoop.

• INCLUDE TWITTER HANDLES. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, JUST DOOOOOOO IT!. Every single person I spoke with at the conference wanted their twitter handle on their badge, and some of us actually wrote it on there our damn selves, all ghetto style-n-shit.

• If you ditch the photo, there will be way more room, but even if you don't: make our names bigger, and our companies and cities WAAAY bigger. Use a clear, easily readable font.

• One last note: our badges are super duper important. It might seem like a throw away type item, but in reality, out of all of the maps, programs, stickers, and assorted other free shit we got, my badge is the one thing I used the most, and had with me the most. Our badge is actually YOUR most visible piece of SXSW marketing! So if you guys do cool stuff like getting interesting artists to design the totebags every year, DO THE SAME THING WITH THE BADGES! You would likely have a line of killer, popular, well known artists and designers who would like to take that project on, and I think it could make all of the difference in the world.

MUSIC:

I noticed that there was music playing before most of the panels at the Austin Convention Center. Why don't you guys team up with Sirius and create a SXSW music channel? (have you done this already?). Like many of my fellow nerds, I am not able to attend the music portion of the SXSW conference, however I would have seriously loved an opportunity to hear some of the musicians that are going to be playing.

If you did do something like this, I would suggest having some sort of separate visible screen (or some sort of app that could run along bottom of main screen) that included name of band, name of song and THEIR TWITTER HANDLE. Yes, I am so serious. That would rock everyone's friggin faces off (while you're at it, why not set up some sort of special area in the itunes store for SXSW music? YOU GUYS COULD GET A CUT OF THAT CRAP!).

SIDENOTE: You could also have trailers playing from movies that are being show at the film portion of the conference! You know, just to mix it up a bit...

 
TWITTER LISTS:

How AH-mazing would be if there were Twitter lists we could all follow based on our interests (A: completely amazing!!). There could be:

• one mega speakers/panelists/moderators at sxswi list
• list for speakers of each "track"
• brands sponsoring sxswi list
• sxswi keynotes list
• sxswi attendees by state/city lists
• one mega gigantic sxswi attendees list
• local austin business/restaurants where sxswi parties will be at list 
• ETC!!!!!!!

SXSW iPhone App:
Ok, props to the SXSW folks for even doing an app, b/c I know that shit is a *major* pain in the ass. However, as an iPhone app for people attending a technology conference, that thing was pretty darn useless. I would have almost rather you not done an app, and spent more time on all of the other things on this list. But if you insist on keeping up this app crap, here are a couple of ideas:

• That thing was buggier than Windows Vista. IE 6 has a more pleasant user experience.  I could go on for paragraphs about all of it, but I'm guessing you guys already know all this crap.
• If you are allowing people to create profiles, why can't we access? Also, why can't we "follow" our friends to see their schedules?
• I know you have a list of "official" sxsw parties, but it's really annoying that all of the other unofficial parties are not visible on that schedule too. So I have my sxsw iphone app, parties I've rsvp'd to on eventbrite, parties I've rsvp'd to on Facebook, parties I hear people talking about and eavesdrop the location of, and I have no means of keeping them all straight. Why not charge other companies a nominal fee to include their parties on the sxsw schedule? You can have a special symbol indicating "official" sxsw parties, and then all the other chumps can pay you to just show up on the list.

PROGRAM:

Did you guys print this thing on sheets of carrera marble? Slate? It was so goddamned heavy I could barely lift it. And I'm not even obsessively "green" about stuff that like this, but that paper was so friggin bright white and lush, I can't imagine that one molecule of it came from recycled material.

Also, are you serious with your printed list of attendees? Cause that shit is totally unnecessary...keep it all online!

Personally, I don't see much of a need for a program if you can get your website and your app rockin, but I get that its mostly an advertiser type thing, and this whole event costs a crap ton of money to put on, so yeah. I'm guessing that thing isn't going anywhere.

MINI-GUIDE:

Mostly loved the shit outta that, though WHY did you not have the twitter hashtags for each session in there?? Since these were not visible in the room 9 times out of 10, I had to go searching through your site for those things and it was a GIGANTIC pain in the ass. PLEASE INCLUDE those next time around.

WEBSITE:

Oh man, I *know* you SXSW guys redesigned your website, and I know it used to be worse than it is now, but it is still sooooo bad. And soooo not intuitive. And sooooo cumbersome to navigate.

And there's some shit going down on there that drives me straight up a fucking wall. Like, HOW, HOW, HOW can you not include online links (to twitter profiles, web pages, etc) for your speakers?? Dudez: this is a technology conference!? I mean, what the WHAT?

I'm not spending any time on this here, b/c I'm guessing you guys just paid a million billion dollars to get your site redone, and you probably love it and won't be listening to anything I say anyway, but yeah: I hate it (sorry).

So, I guess that's mostly it. I hope we can still be besties, SXSW cause I really did love your ass. It's just that I want you to look sexier next time around (hint: don't wear underwear), and I'm a know-it-all marketer who really, truly, madly, deeply would love to see you make some of these tweaks and changes so that shit at SXSW 2011 is better for everyone.

Call me? Or not...