Digithoughts

SXSWi 2010 wrapped up last week in Austin, TX. Dawn Smith, Sales Operations Manager and Deborah Sauter, Vice President of Insights were there to take in the panels, events, sunshine and or course, the BBQ.

Paul Drohan, our Creative Director and Daiga Atvara our Executive Creative Director were also on hand to see the latest and greatest that SXSW had to offer. Being two creatives in Austin, there was more than just interactive to take in.

The week was filled with talks of the Twitter presentation, hash tags and QRS Codes, social media, mobile, and even the zombie apocalypse. Dawn and Deborah met up with some of Digitara's clients US Soccer and Seattle Sounders, who were there for the World Cup 2010 panel and even took some time out to visit some friendly cows.

Paul and Daiga were both inspired by the conversation with Michel Gondry. Michel Gondry, director of such films as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Science of Sleep sat down with Elvis Mitchel from KCRW to discuss his latest work entitled The Thorn In The Heart, along with his other groundbreaking films.

Since there was so much going on, in the spirit of brevity, Dawn was asked to put together a Top 5 list (very hip, just like SXSW itself). When asked what her Top 5 SXSWi Insights were, Dawn had this to say from an Agency perspective:

1.  Attend something with a theme that is off the beaten path and different from what you experience daily.  That's where you can get a lot of insights that you adapt to your client's needs.  If you do UX or creative for a living, don't attend all the UX and creative panels because chances are you'll already know what they are discussing and that you know it better than they do.

    

2. Rather than just attending panel after panel, try attending the "Core Conversations".  These are facilitated discussions on the smaller scale.  You meet and see real world view points.  I was in a fascinating one called "Organizational Pitfalls on the Path to Multichannel Experience".  There were great discussions with Walmart, USAA, Sapient and Razorfish on how you develop, measure and balance needs for CRM, eCommerce, Web site, POS, mobile, social and traditional marketing channels.

    

3. Try the workshops. These are down and dirty tactics with lots of interesting insights.

    

4. I enjoyed following in room panel discussions mid presentation with the Twitter hash tags provided by SXSW.  It was insightful and you can see what resonated well or not so well with the audience.  A lot of the Q&A questions came through Twitter.  Granted this approach ate through my laptop and phone batteries quickly.  Digital Sadness.

    

5. Don't try crashing invite only parties. The people working the door with their Droid phones just laugh at you.  However, it helps if you meet the CEO of the company throwing the party earlier in the day and he's willing to let you in. Oh and saying you are a panelist gets you God-like status.  Just ask Deb.

For Deborah, the Top 5 list was taken one step further with Top 5 SXSWi Insights in 140 characters or less. The challenge was met.

    1.    If it launches perfect then it is too late.
    2.    The top buzzwords for 2010 are ROI, mobile, social, e-mail. Know them and and know them well.
    3.    Engagement and conversation marketing is an integral part of marketing
    4.    Digital is becoming the strategic lead on many marketing engagements
    5.    Marketing is being treated more like a science than art now

Overall Austin and SXSWi rolled out the red carpet and welcomed our Digitarians with GREAT food, entertaining personalities and quirky Digital weirdness.  It was a definite must see. 

Special thanks to Dawn Smith for the photos.

So for those of you who went to SXSWi, what are YOUR Top 5 insights?

Reena Leone Marketing and Social Media Coordinator

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