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Friendship is Dead - See You at SXSW! (Core Conversation)

Written by Russ on November 30, 2008 – 9:21 pm

Way back in May I started noodling with the notion of a panel for SXSW in 2009.

I’d say a few thousand people started noodling with the same notion, and then about 1300 of us took the plunge and submitted panels and topics to the Interactive part of SXSW.

My panel topic was “Friendship is Dead” and it is meant to be an exploration of how the word “friendship” came to be and around how our online social networks have begun to erode away at what friendship has meant. Friendship has become increasingly NOT dependent upon location and has odd sort of ways of being defined now, and it seems that the word itself gets tossed around loosely as a noun or a verb (She’s my friend, Friend me on Facebook and I’ll add you) and that once ever-valuable handshake seems to be dying away.

On the submission, I wrote:

So what is a friend anymore? Is it a checkbox or something to collect? Have social networking tools diluted the meaning of “friend” to be someone to add to your collection? Or do these tools allow you to connect with people you’ve never met before? How does friendship differ offline and online?

And, it apparently was not picked as a panel.

They selected somewhere around 200 of us in three different rounds. I received the first two rounds of rejections, but never really noticed that I didn’t receive the third–I just noticed that I did not make the cut when the last round was posted.

However, on November 25th around 1:30p CST, I was just returning from lunch and got an email that pretty much knocked me on my rear end. Here’s the (minorly edited) email I received:

Hey Russ,

Greetings. I hope that you are well and that you are having a great November. Any big plans for Turkey Day?

As you are probably aware, we received more than 1300 panel proposals for the 2009 South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Festival. Most of these ideas are extremely impressive in their analysis of current (and future!) issues in the new media landscape. Unfortunately, we only have the physical space at the Austin Convention Center to host about 200 of these proposals.

To this end, we really like the “Friendship is Dead” idea that you submitted. While the panel program is now pretty much full we would very much like for you to present this idea as a Core Conversation.

WHAT IS IT?
Like panels, Core Conversations last for 60 minutes. What is different however is that Core Conversations remove the traditional speaker / audience interface. Instead, imagine one person in a chair (you) surrounded by 30-50 attendees who are intensely interested in your topic. Your role here is less to give a presentation and more to direct a conversation (as the title implies) about the topic at hand.

VERY POPULAR IN 2008
Introduced last spring at SXSW, Core Conversations proved to be an extremely popular part of the event. But, don’t take my word for it. This is what Scott McDaniel of SurveyGizmo says about the Core Conversation he led at the 2008 event: “We were blown away by our attendance at GTD for Startups. We counted about 50 people there and most off them stood for the entire session. Because it was more intimate than a panel, our crowd really interacted with both questions and their own tips. We felt even we learned a lot from the session. If you have a good topic people care about, you’ll get both a great turnout and a great discussion.”

WHAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN NOW
If you want to be a part of the Core Conversation program for 2009, then please respond to this e-mail ASAP with a simple “Yes, I’m on board to do a Core Conversation.” At that point, we will get you a little more information on this program, as well as send you comp information.

As always, please fire away if you have questions.

Best regards,

Hugh Forrest

SXSW Interactive Festival
March 13-17, 2009
Austin, TX
http://www.sxsw.com/interactive

So, uh, yeah.

That is, “YEAH!!”

I’m still a bit taken aback by even the remote consideration for such a thing, but I’m excited as hell about it.

The Core Conversations at SXSW appear to be something that has growing interest, and while it does not allow me to hang out with all of the insanely brilliant panel members I had selected to work with, it still allows me to talk about a topic that I think is growing more and more relevant. While I will miss my partners in crime: Matthew Milan, Bill DeRouchey & David Armano (this just in! David & I will be unveiling our Felix & Oscar routine together!), I believe that the topic is relevant and will spark some great conversation.

If you’re at SXSW, I hope you’ll join me us.

If you’re not at SXSW, I’m nearly 100% positive that we’ll find a way to have a little fun with this and engage as many people around the world as possible.

Posted in Community, Conferences, Presentations, SXSW, Social Networking | 1 Comment »

SXSW Panels of Interest

Written by Russ on August 8, 2008 – 2:23 pm

I personally submitted one panel for SXSW and actively participated in the submission of 2 others. Beyond these, I also have several friends / peers / colleagues that have also submitted their own.

Each of these is worth seeing on their own merits, but they all also need your votes so that the rest of the SXSW-attending world can get to see them as well. Please take a few moments of your valuable time and vote positive for these panels!

Friendship is Dead - Russ Unger, David Armano, Bill DeRouchey, Matt Milan

Your Name Sucks! - Kit Seeborg, Christian Crumlish, Andrew Hinton, Russ Unger & Dave Taylor

Social Patterns and Antipatterns For The Win! - Christian Crumlish, [and others, yours truly participated in]

Micro-Interactions in a 2.0 World - David Armano

Engaging Youth: Getting Them Off the Sofa - Bill Bulman

Learning From Broadcast to Make Immersive, Evocative UX - Michael Leis

See What I Mean: Using Comics to Communicate - Kevin Cheng

Being a UX Team of One - Leah Buley

Are Women Taken More Seriously on the Web? - Laura Roeder

Old Media Finds New Voice Through Twitter - Colonel Tribune / Robert Quigley

Influencing Internet Legislative Changes: Why and How - Sachin Agarwal

The Problem With Design Research - Robert Hoekman, Jr.

The 7 Rules for Great Web Application Design - Robert Hoekman, Jr.

Try Making Yourself More Interesting - Brian Oberkirch

User Experience 2009: More Crap You Already Know - Dan Willis

Let’s Get Social: Moving From Me to We - Aaron Strout

Fly, Peacock, Fly: Generative Visuals Without a Line of Code - Mario Klingemann

From Global to Mobile: What’s Next in Local, Contextual Search - Don Turnbull

The Street is a Platform - Andrew Huff

Don’t Be A Dick: Creating Sustainable Work Environments - Dave Lippman, SISU

Good Design, Powerful Content Management - Guild Copeland, SISU

Crowdsourcing: Shark Jumped or Wave of the Future? - Ross Kimbarovsky, CROWDSpring

Is Spec Work Evil? The Online Creative Community Speaks - Mike Samson, CROWDSpring

Managing Your Online Identity Outside the Walled Garden - Joshua Porter

Designing for Sign-Up - Joshua Porter

Mobile 2.0: The Next Frontier - Chris Bernard

Okay, that’s a lot, but there are some pretty great people with some pretty great ideas. They’d all appreciate your votes (as would I!). Check them out, sign-up for SXSW and please vote up the great panel ideas!

If I have left anyone off, it was definitely an accident. Please share your favorites and/or my oversights!

Posted in Conferences, SXSW | 5 Comments »

SXSW Registration & Hotels

Written by Russ on August 4, 2008 – 6:33 pm

SXSW Registration is now open.

So what, right?

Well, I’ve never been before, but those “in the know” (as well as the fine folks who send the SXSW Panel Submission emails) say that if you intend on attending that you should sign-up now and book your hotel right away.

That’s no easy task, for what it’s worth.

The hotel registration form has a drop down that coincides with a Google Map. The hotels are listed in order of proximity to SXSW, but you cannot see the prices unless you sift through each of the hotels.

One by one.

That’s not fun.

Fortunately for you, I decided that I should not be the only one to go through this hell, so I’ve copied down all of the hotels–in order of closest to farthest to/from SXSW, along with the prices for 1-4 occupants.

Without any additional ramblings from me:

Hotel	Cost - 1	Cost - 2	Cost - 3	Cost - 4
Hilton Austin Downtown	215	235	255	275
Courtyard Marriott Downtown	206	206	206	206
Residence Inn Downtown	217	217	217	217
Hilton Garden Inn	173	173	193	193
Hampton Inn Downtown (Recommended by Kit Seeborg)	189	199	199	199
Four Seasons	355	355	na	na
Omni Downtown	199	214	229	244
Driskill Hotels	275	275	na	na
Intercontinental	239	239	na	na
Radisson Town Lake	185	195	205	205
Sheraton Austin Hotel	184	194	204	204
LaQuinta	127	137	137	137
Embassy Suites Downtown	195	195	205	205
Hyatt Regency Austin	194	194	219	244
Holiday Inn Town Lake	127	127	127	127
Doubletree Hotel - University	146	146	146	146
Doubletree Guest Suites	180	180	193	193
AT&T Conference Center	209	209	209	209
Clarion Inn & Suites	109	112	112	112
LaQuinta Capitol	99	109	109	109
Wyndam Garden Hotel	108	108	108	108
Omni Southpark	165	165	175	175
Marriott Austin South	174	194	194	194
Embassy Suites Central	162	172	182	192
Crowne Plaza	136	156	176	196
Courtyard Marriott Central	129	129	129	129
Radisson North	115	115	115	115
Ramada Limited North	70	70	70	70
Barton Creek Resort & Spa	250	250	na	na