Are you heading to Austin for SXSW this year? Well, me too - just for one day, but I'll be speaking. So I hope you'll find time to squeeze me into your schedule.
I'll be taking part in the SXSW Interactive book reading series. I'm pretty sure I won't actually read from the book, but I'll spend 20 or so minutes talking about some microMARKETING topic or another then sign copies until by hand cramps. Bring your copy if you have one - or buy one onsite from the SXSW book store.
Here's just about everything you need to know:
When: Friday, March 11th at 2:00pm
Where: Austin Convention Center, Ballroom G
What: microMARKETING (of course)
Who: Me (and you - let's definitely include you)
Why: Fun book talk, sloppy sigs and lots o' South By goodness
For the past couple of years, I've been at the South by Southwest Interactive conference for clients (Panasonic in 2009 and VeriSign in 2010). But this year, I'm going for me.
Well, that's the plan but I'll need your help to get there.
The good news is I'm not asking you to drive me in your second-hand Chevette. I'm just asking for your vote.
Here's the backstory: For those of you that don't already know this, each year, thousands of social media folks submit their ideas for sessions they'd like to present at SXSW for consideration by the organizers. The ones that make the first cut get posted to a panel picker where you (in the 2006 Time Magazine Person of the Year sense) vote on the ones you like best. The most popular sessions (this is crowdsourcing in action people, although let's be honest -- it's a popularity contest, right?) have a shot at making the agenda.
And here's the story itself: This year, I have a session based on microMARKETING up for your vote. Basically, I'll talk about the book (like I do at conferences since this is a, well you know, conference), maybe hand out some free copies, possibly take off my shirt, almost definitely snap a few pictures with the folks in the room. You can get more information HERE.
And here's the part you can play in that story: Well, first of all I'd love it if you could show your support and VOTE (thumbs up, please) for my session, even if you're not sure you'll have the opportunity to attend South By next year.
Second, if you'd really like to see my session happen please share the love. TWEET the link. SHARE it on Facebook. REBLOG this post. SPREAD the word.
Thanks for your help. And while you're feeling helpful, you might also feel like showing some love to my fellow Poweredistas. A bunch of us -- including Jaffe, Quigley, Maltoni, van der Meer, Strout -- are up for some stage time. Get all the details and links on Aaron Strout's blog-like-object and, as Aaron himself writes ,"Vote Early and Vote Often." (Actually I think you can only vote once per session but you know what he means.)
Imagine you work for a small digital shop (one among hundreds, no doubt) and you want to attract attention and demonstrate that you've got the social media chops to stand apart from the pack. What would you do? Roll out the obligatory social media tactics -- like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, find us on Foursquare? Put a couple of "we get social too" pages in your creds deck and slap a "share this" icon into the footer of your agency site?
Or pile your team into a Ford Flex and drive 'em around the United States to meet with some of the most creative and interesting people in media, marketing, business and technology?
If your answer sounded more like the former, then you're probably -- well -- you (and that's OK; there's nothing wrong with being you). But if your answer sounded more like the latter, then you're probably Darryl Ohrt.
Darryl is founder of the Connecticut-based interactive agency Humongo (formerly Plaid, recently renamed following its acquisition by Source Marketing), and for four summers-running has been taking his show on the road -- literally -- for Humongo Nation: a rolling real-world demonstration of social media in action. When so many agencies are talking (and only talking) big about social, Humongo has taken a decidedly different approach by putting their media where their mouths are. With just one small idea that any agency might have come up with (but didn't), they have created a proof-is-in-the-pudding showcase of the current batch of social media technologies, a demonstration of their own chops at putting the tools to work in compelling and relevant ways, and a non-traditional forum for earning the attention of not only raving geek Humongo fans (yes, they're out there and they've got the t-shirts to prove it) but also innovative companies that might be interested in securing the services of a shop like Humongo.
This year's Humongo Nation kicks-off on July 19th and takes the team on a 10-day trip down the east coast, from Maine to Miami. Along the way, they'll be hanging out with cool people and visiting with companies as diverse as Wingate by Wyndham, Paul Deen Enterprises, NASCAR and the Miami Heat. As in past years, the whole thing will be streamed live from a pair of in-car video cameras, live tweeted and blogged. New for this year, you can also track the tour's progress as the crew checks in on Foursquare along the way.
We'll be hanging out at the Doughnut Plant (doughnuts for lunch? it's only fitting if you've eaten your Brand Flakes for Breakfast) and talking about microMARKETING and whatever else strikes our fancy. In fact, if you're planning to be in NYC on the 21st feel free to swing by the Doughnut Plant, grab a glazed, and say hey.
In the meantime, for more details on what Humongo Nation is all about, check out the pre-tour trailer (if you're reading this in the feed or on email, you may need to click through to the post to watch the video.)
Disclosures: I've been on the Plaid/Humongo blogger outreach list for several years, which means Darryl and team have outfitted me with a few free t-shirts (including one my fiancee keeps "losing" because she finds the bright orange color a bit too over-the-top), lapel pins and air fresheners. Also, the consultancy formerly known as crayon worked with the agency formerly known as Plaid on some programs for the video chat service still known as ooVoo. Also also, in a past life I worked with a couple of Source Marketing's key executives but that's neither here nor there (but hello to Rich and Mark, regardless).
With social media usage approaching something like ubiquity, it's not surprising to see creative endeavors that are are hatched and nurtured in social find their way into the more traditional mainstream media. To name just a few: Twitter's @shitmydadsays has been optioned for television, countless writers have gone from blog to book including the successful and surprisingly good horror send-up John Dies at the End, more still -- like J.C. Hutchins (who is profiled in my book) -- go from podcast to print.
It's practically harping on yesterday's news to talk about social media projects making the jump into the so-called real world. But I'd like to call your attention to a crossover that is near to my heart and for which I'd love to solicit your support (hey, I don't ask for much - the next time I do, it will be to ask you to buy my book - so indulge me for a few minutes.)
Enter David Niall Wilson: a horror and science fiction novelist turned Twitter fanatic. Early in 2009, a couple of chance remarks made on Twitter got his creative juices flowing and, as often happens with creative types, before long those stray remarks had inspired the basic plot for a horror screenplay that is equal parts slasher movie, serial killer story and ecological thriller. David called his script Killer Green, began publishing it to his blog one scene at a time (the first two scenes are still online), and letting his Twitter followers know when they should tune in for more.
With the script written, David quietly went about optioning the screenplay to a small indie production house that, in turn, secured commitments from sometalent to play key roles. And so the movie sits, awaiting production which -- as you undoubtedly realize -- costs money... More on that in a second but first:
Why am I telling you all of this?
Well, for one thing David is a friend (disclosure: he has also sent Amanda and me some free stuff over the course of the past couple of years and suffered through a very bizarre phone call on Thanksgiving 2008). For another, taking his inspiration from Twitter in more ways than one, David loosely modeled Killer Green's cast of characters after people he had gotten to know 140-characters at a time. One of the film's main protagonists -- Professor Gregory Verdino -- is, well, inspired yours truly; Professor Verdino's love interest is inspired by my love interest; and other social media notables like geekosaurus Chris Brogan feature prominently as well. So hell yeah I'd love to see this thing on the silver screen.
Cut to close-up of you: It's fitting that a movie inspired by the social media community find its funding in the social media community as well. And that's exactly what the Killer Green crew are aiming to do -- which is why I'm writing this post, because I'm hoping you can help.
How?
Most of all, I'd like to encourage you to check out the Killer Green fundraising page on IndieGoGo -- if you're familiar with social fundraising startups like Kickstarter or the music-focused SellaBand, think of IndieGoGo as something similar, with a big focus around helping indie producers get their movies made through small financial contributions from regular people.
You can learn more about the movie and, if you like the idea or just want to support it, you can contribute toward its $50,000 fundraising goal.
Even if you can't contribute money, you can certainly help to build the buzz. I'd love it if you would share this post on Twitter, Facebook or with your friends. Point people to the Killer Green page. Tell David Niall Wilson you love him (ok - I can't ask that much, but it doesn't take much to spread the word and help something social come to life on the screen.)
Professor Gregory Verdino will thank you. I will too.
PSFK and me -- we go way back, yo. I attended the trend site's first NY Conference a couple of years ago and walked out with moregoodideas than I usually come across in a month. The following year, I got to give people some good ideas when I moderated a panel about collaboration and coworking.
I won't be able to attend this year but wanted to encourage those of you in New York to check it out. What's in it for me? Nada - although I am sending my man Amadeo Plaza in my place (disclosure: Piers provided a discounted ticket).
What's in it for you? Plenty of great ideas, brilliance and inspiration from all walks of business and life. This year's speakers include:
As you can see, this isn't the usual roster of the same ol' marketing and social media faces. I hope you'll have an opportunity to attend.
I'm also going to ask (ok, tell)Amadeo that he needs to drop me a couple of guest posts about the best ideas he hears so even if you can't attend, you'll get to drink in a bit o' the PSFK Conference goodness.
I'm posting this from Austin where I'll spend the next few days working out of the Poweredhome office and catching as much of the SXSWi experience as I can swing. I haven't planned out a schedule of sessions and have only rsvp'd to a handful of parties. So I'll basically go wherever the wind -- or one of those scary pedicab peddlers -- takes me. But if you're in town for the festival and would like to connect you can hit me with an email or a direct message, track my whereabouts on foursquare or just look for my shining bald pate in the Convention Center hallways, in and around the blogger lounge (I spent a ton of time there last year and figure it will be my de facto home base when I'm not head-down at the office) or out and about on the party grind.
But even if we don't connect in Austin, there are still some cool things I'd love for you to check out if you're going to be at South By - and maybe even if you're not.
Powered's newest client is VeriSign. You might know them as the company that doles out dot com or dot net domain names; sure you actually buy your domains from Go Daddy, Domain.com or wherever but it's VeriSign that handles the registries themselves.
So at SXSW this year, we'll be kicking off some interesting programs to raise awareness and registration of .tvdomains. Video is hot and getting hotter, and .tv is the only logical domain choice for content creators who are serious about generating video programming, growing their viewing audience and building their video brand. Here are some of the things we're doing over the next few days to help you get started if you're new to video or get seen if you're already a video vixen.
southby.tv: First of all, you'll want to check out southby.tv. Whether or not you're at SXSW, it's a great place to get a look at some of the cool stuff happening in Austin -- shot by the real people who are in the thick of things. As we say on the site, southby.tv is a "living diary" showcasing video content from the insiders at the festival. Which brings us to point #2 -- if you're at the event and have your video camera or phone in hand, your content can be part of the southby.tv line-up. Just hit the site, follow the submission instructions and your clips may be chosen by our curation crew.
You can be the Next .tv Star: We're not just giving you a chance to have your SXSW clips appear on our site; we're giving you a chance to hit the weblebrity big leagues (eww, yes, I ready said weblebrity.) All over the event, we'll be shooting audition videos for anyone who wants a chance to win a cool prize package and a shot at being a correspondent for an upcoming Best of .tv web show. The prize includes an all expense paid trip to San Francisco where you'll spend the day backstage at Revision3 and get a private video production coaching session from Diggnation producer Dave Prager, one of the guys behind one of the web's most widely watched video series. And of course, you could become a Best of .tv correspondent...
Read on for more details about how you can audition in Austin over the next few days. Or visit southby.tv to submit an audition directly (and to learn all the rules and legal stuff, of course.)
The .tv Street Team: We'll have a team roaming the event, shooting audition videos for anyone who wants a shot at being the next .tv star and handing out must-have swag. Be on the lookout and make sure you say howdy (or whatever it is they really say in Texas...)
The Bigg Digg Shindigg: .tv is sponsoring Saturday night's Live Diggnation event (7pm at Stubbs BBQ). We'll have a big ol' tent where we'll be shooting auditions for the next .tv star and doing some other fun stuff, so be sure to check it out. If you can't be there, you can also watch the fun when the Diggnation episode hits iTunes.
Special Offers: And finally, to coincide with .tv's SXSW presence, we will have special offers for anyone looking for an excuse to get going with video. Check out the offers page on southby.tv for your shot at freebies and more.
I hope you'll check out what we're doing with .tvand spread the word to any of your friends who might be interested in web video. And if you see me in Austin over the weekend, come on over and say hello.
The Institute for the Future teamed up with Sun Microsytems and Boing Boing to host The Digital Open, a tech expo for teens under the age of 17. Last week they announced a series of winning projects, one of which caught my eye -- not because it made use of amazing, forward-looking technology, but because it ostensibly uses no technology at all...
Actually, that's not quite true. Let me explain.
The project, developed by a 17-year-old girl named Alexis McAdams, is called "DiorActive" and essentiallytakes the big world issues -- political, social, cultural, economic, environmental, etc -- that we all hear about (in the abstract) through the constant barrage of information available at our fingertips every day and brings them to life in a tactical, experiential way at a human scale. How? By portraying them live in the real, physical world, reenactment style or interactive diorama style.
You can learn more about the project and its inspiration in Alexis's own words (video):
So of course technology plays a role -- the real world experiences are informed by all of the online and media information available to DiorActive "builders" as they research the issues they'll bring to life. But the idea of using technology simply as a conduit to bridge a world-scale issue that we hear about to a human-scale physical experience that hammers the issue home in a meaningful, personal way is brilliant. And I think that it also speaks to an interesting blur between the digital, virtual and physical and provides a firm reminder that even for a generation that was "born digital," real world connections matter most of all.
As marketers, we intuitively (if not through hard and fast data) understand that online activities ranging from traditional digital advertising to web-based research and social media word-of-mouth translate into real world behaviors. As social computing evolves and becomes increasingly mobile -- and increasingly blurs the distinction between online connections and real world friendships -- the distinction between the digital and physical worlds will become less, well, distinct. And as we geek out over shiny objects that tap technology to enhance the physical world, it's good to remember that it flows the other way too -- that real world experiences can, do and will absolutely serve to enhance the digital (think about even the humble tweetup...)
I love the way Alexis's DiorActive project reminds old people like me, "hey, while you guys talk about where this might all be going, some of us are already there..."
I'd love to hear your thoughts. What do you think?
This is just a quick jumble of recent and new items that may be of interest (to me, if not to you.)
Blog World & New Media Expo: I'm fresh back from Las Vegas where, as I noted last week, I presented at Blog World. Home improvement bloggerTony Saucier attended my session and wrote a nice summary of my presentation. I believe a video of my speech will surface at some point, but in the meantime Tony captured the gist of it.
Time Off in Las Vegas: If you were at Blog World and we didn't see one another, that's probably because I didn't spend much time at the conference. What was I doing? No - not getting married... Check out my photostream to find out.
Now More Famous in Lawrence, MA: While I was on the road, I heard from a cousin-of-a-friend who is currently a student at Emerson College in Massachusetts (the cousin, not the friend.) She is taking a social media class and needed to profile a blogger. So apparently I was that blogger. Check out the write-up on her blog.Wanna know what's most interesting about it? She wrote the post before I had the chance to respond to some specific questions she sent my way, so she was working off nothing more than my blog itself. And she managed to get a pretty good sense of who I am, what I'm interested in, how I think and even how to pitch me properly. Why is this interesting? Well, that's more than most PR reps who actually pitch me bother to do. So riddle me this: if Dana Evans can learn so much about me by simply spending some time with my blog, why do so many so-called social media pros get it wrong? Someone offer this girl a job (or at least an internship.)
Because I'm a Fashion Icon: My buddy and ace media manDarren Hermanhas booked me to speak alongside Sir Ian Schafer from Deep Focus, and Media Kitchen president Barry Lowenthal at a Fashion 2.0 Meet Up in NYC next week. We'll be talking about the future of media and showing off our latest couture duds. The event goes down on the evening of October 27th, and although the RSVP list full you can throw your name on the waiting list if you'll be in the city and are interested in grabbing a seat if one opens up.
Panasonic LiHD Insider voting begins: And last but not least, the Living in HD Insider competition I blogged about at the beginning of September has entered its final phase -- with the ten finalists going up for a public vote that will crown the winning Insider. Votes must be in by October 23rd, so I hope you'll take some time to check it out and cast your vote. I think we have an interesting batch of social media content creators in the running, so I'm excited to see what happens. (If you're a regular reader, you already know that Panasonic is a crayon client. If you're a first time visitor, now you know too...)
While mobile still has a long way to go before it becomes a key channel for most marketers, it would be foolish not to keep an eye on new developments in mobility.
Although I don't write many posts about mobile on this blog, in the past couple of weeks on Verdino Bytes I blogged about two separate and very different mobile implementations. Looking back at those posts now, I think they are even more interesting when viewed in tandem than they were individually. So I thought I'd take a second look at both technologies and provide some additional context.
On July 8th, I wrote about the incorporation of 2D barcode technology into this year's Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. Black-and-white visual codes developed by a company called Jagtag appear alongside one of the photo spreads. Readers can use just about any camera-phone to shoot and send an image of the barcode to receive an MMS message containing a set of additional mobile-friendly model photos. Super simple in its execution, this implementation offers consumers, publishers and advertisers a practical way to extend old world media (in this case a magazine, but it would work equally well with newspapers and out-of-home) into the mobile channel via exclusive content and supplemental information.
The following day, I happened across a company called TAT and posted a video demo of their Augmented ID offering. Augmented ID is a super-practical spin on shiny new augmented reality technology that, via your mobile phone's camera, "visualizes the digital identities of the people you meet in real life." Let's say you're a social media geek who writes a blog and networks on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. You step away from your computer to attend a conference or tweetup where you meet lots of new people face-to-face. With Augmented ID, you point your camera-phone at one of your fellow attendees and, through the viewfinder, see his live image enhanced with a series of floating, interactive icons representing his online social media profiles. In the grand scheme, this blurs the increasingly narrow line between online and offline identities, and online and offline social networking. In the less-than-grand scheme, it allows us to avoid stick-on name tags and nerdy small talk like, "So, are you on Twitter?"
So now, I'll tell you why I find these two technologies interesting although, of course, I already tipped my hand in the title of the post. The first offers an enhanced traditional media experience to the mobile device. The second extends the social media experience into the real world by way of the mobile device.
I'm not going to pretend I have any clue about where this might be headed, but I'm intrigued by the notion of mobile as the glue that binds together our online and offline experiences.
If hindsight is 20/20, then foresight is -- well -- sometimes shockingly accurate too, even if some of the fine details are a bit blurry. This video from 1969 (that's 40 years ago people) extols the virtues of a connected future: online shopping, webcams and live video streaming, electronic banking, email, touchscreen-based devices and even content delivery networks. Plus it has a suitably creepy soundtrack.
[If you're reading the feed or get my blog posts delivered by email, you may need to click through to watch the embedded video.]
So here we are in 2009 and I'd wager most of us would be hard-pressed to make predictions that will hold up 40 days from now let alone 40 years. OK - maybe 40 days is a bit of a low estimate, but you get my point...
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