Panels, Panels Everywhere

There are a lot of panels to consider at SXSW–a lot of panels. In an effort to spare you the time it takes to cull through all of the event descriptions, here is a list of some content you might find interesting:

Friday, March 11, 2011

2:00pm
How To Not Be A Douchebag at SXSW
Description: Back by popular demand! Whether you’re a first-time SXSW Interactive attendee or a veteran, this humorous and informative conversation will help you make the most of SXSW. You’ll learn what actions and behaviors to avoid so you don’t get tagged as “doing it wrong”. We’ll also share advice on how to meet new people, navigate the parties, and have fun the without being “that guy/girl”.
Where: Austin Convention Center, Room 10AB

3:30pm
Social Games: Manipulating Your Brain Chemistry, For Good
Description: Generally speaking, there’s an assumption that casual games are a waste of time. What can playing a “meaningless” Facebook game for a few minutes really accomplish, anyways? Do I really need to “rescue” another “sheep”? Another point of view is that they’re a little bit sinister, manipulating you into emptying your wallet, or giving up personal information. But perhaps both positions are missing the point. This new genre we call “Casual Social Games” represents a fascinating opportunity to better understand our own behavior, and to direct it, intentionally, for our own benefit, and for the greater good of society.
Panelists: Adam Penenberg, Writer for Fast Company Magazine
Jason Brown, Zynga
Where: Austin Convention Center, Ballroom B

3:30pm
BattleDecks 2011
Battledecks is a laugh-riot rollercoaster of fun and nerves as several contestants try to put together coherent presentations from nonsensical Keynote decks. Previous contestants have laughed, cried, wet their pants and gotten impregnated during the show. The audience has a great time. Everyone goes home happy. Last year’s show was a huge success, and we didn’t even hand out free vuvuzelas to the audience.
Where: Austin Convention Center, Room 18ABCD

3:30pm
Do Agencies Need to Think Like Software Companies?
Now that digital and mobile is a component of any innovative ad campaign, the question arises: How much do marketers need to know about technology? The truth is, advertisers and brand marketers are entering a brave new world — one where code is on par with content. The 21st-century ad isn’t something to be looked at, it’s something to be used. Our reliance on mobile tools, such as apps, position them as the perfect vehicles for brands. “Consumers” are now “users.” So are “marketers” now “developers”? Enter the hybrid marketer. More and more agencies are finding they need to educate and cultivate a new breed of people who understand tech from a marketing and brand perspective, and who have a consumer mindset. These creative technologists also lend a software company vibe around an agency. But should agencies really try this stuff at home? Should they be worrying about, say, the video capability of the latest iPhone? Or just stick to their core competencies and work with real software companies and development shops to realize their ideas? This panel will look at this new staffing paradigm and debate what the agency of the future should look like.
Panelists: Allison Mooney, Head of Trends and Insights, Marketing, Google
Ben Malbon, Director of Strategy, Creative Lab, Google
Matt Galligan, Co-Founder and CSO, Simple Geo
Rick Webb, COO, The Barbarian Group
Rob Rasmussen, CCO, Tribal DDB
Where: Austin Convention Center, Ballroom F

5:00pm
Metrics for Social Media: The Net Promoter Score (Need a volunteer)
Now that social media is accepted practice in the business world, the question still remains, how do you measure it?. The “bottom line” (ex. return on investment) is generally what comes to mind first for Leadership, but how do you measure your social media efforts when the focus of your business includes repeat and referral business? In their presentation, Mark Krupinski and Jeremy Hilton define the Net Promoter Score along with a case for it’s consideration as a Return on Investment (ROI) metric for your social media initiatives. Additionally, they compare this measurement with other customer loyalty and sentiment formulas currently being championed by industry leaders. Lastly, Mark and Jeremy review real world examples of the Net Promoter Score in practice by mainstream organizations.
Panelists: Jeremy Hilton, VP of Media, MindComet
Mark Krupinkski, Director of Social Media, MindComet
Where: Hyatt,  208 Barton Springs Road

Saturday, March 12, 2011

9:30am
Diversity in the Digital Age
With the plethora of niche sites it’s hard to deny that the Internet has increased the amount of social, political and personal groups one can join. But is this cross sharing really creating diversity? In this session, Anne Hunter, VP, Advertising Effectiveness, comScore, will provide a comprehensive understanding of how the digital age has affected diversity. Does the democratic nature of the internet with its open sharing of ideas and cultures lead to a natural increase in diversity or are we seeing an end of true niche and specialty groups? Is over-diversification leading to a weakening of subcultures? With your grandmother being able to join your band’s fan page how has the demographic makeup shifted? This session will highlight the key differences between visitors. Through understanding key metrics comScore will examine whether or not this democratization has actually created a more diverse audience or simply created a group of samplers versus key users. Anne will examine how the digital age has affected demographics differently. For younger generations that have only existed within this schism, how is their idea of diversity different from older audiences? Does a generation, who is more prone to buy a single than an album, less likely to be deeply connected to one group? Finally, this session will also examine how diversity changes based on the medium. For example, how does the audience of BET Television compare to their online component?
Presenter: Anne Hunter, VP Advertising Effectiveness, comScore
Where: Austin Convention Center, Room10AB

9:30am
It’s Not Tv, It’s Social Tv (Need a volunteer)
Description: How is social media changing the TV experience for good? Over the past ten years, we’ve seen television become truly interactive, from SMS voting on American Idol to real-time audience feedback via Twitter and Facebook becoming a part of everything from CNN to Oprah to Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. At the same time, web series have built millions of viewers on places like YouTube, iTunes, and XBox Live. Now a new wave of always-connected mobile apps, set-top boxes, and gaming platforms are making entertainment more social, location-aware, and connected than ever. Our panel of producers of hit TV shows and top web platforms will talk about how they’re enabling social viewing and collaboration between producers, stars, and audiences in real time to create new kinds of TV experiences.
Panelists: Chloe Sladden, Director of Media Partnerships, Twitter
Fred Graver, Sr VP, The Travel Channel
Gavin Purcell, Supervising Producer, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon
Lila King, Participation Director, CNN.com
Where: Hyatt, Hill Country AB

11:00-2:30pm
PSFK Salon on Mobile Marketing and Mobile Tagging sponsored by Microsoft
Moderated by Piers Fawkes (Mark Mulhern is a panelist)
Where: Driskill Hotel, 604 Brazos St. Austin, Texas 78701

11:00am
To Reply or Not to Reply? Facebook Conversations
Lots of businesses are on Facebook, but not all businesses should be, and some aren’t engaging with their customers. At all. Is that wise? What are the reasons to reply on Facebook? We’ll be talking about brands that are actively engaging in conversation on Facebook. We’ll talk about the ones that are getting it right, and we’ll talk about the ones that are getting it wrong. And we’ll talk about why. And what’s the best way to manage that relationship? We’ll be focusing, for a portion of the conversation, on Facebook for small business. Which can be very different than using Facebook as a large corporation.

Panelists: Jeannette Arrowood, Director of Possibilities, Pleased Productions
Where: Hyatt

12:30 pm
JWT Brand Journalism: The Rise of Non-Fiction Advertising
Where: Austin Convention Center, Ballroom F
Description: In this panel, Brand Journalism pioneers will share some of the secrets, successes, and obstacles of their award winning campaigns.

Moderator: Bob Garfield, Ad Age Columnist and co-host of National Public Radio’s weekly Peabody Award-winning magazine program “On the Media.”

David Eastman, Worldwide Digital Director/CEO North America, JWT
Shiv Singh, Head of Digital for PepsiCo Beverages
Brian Clark, President, GMD Studios
Kyle Monson, Director of Content Strategy, JWT

2:00pm
Keynote: Seth Priebatsch
The last decade was the decade of social. The coming one will be the decade of games. Over the past years, a few key companies have built, and now maintain, a powerful framework to foster digital connections between our friends, family and colleagues. What comes next is another framework, not another social layer, but a “game layer”. And it’ll be even bigger. Instead of trading in social connections, the game layer traffics directly in human motivation. It’s not about the number of followers you have, or how many people “like” you, but about how you can leverage game mechanics to achieve all sorts of great things. Use them cleverly and they can enhance education, empower local businesses and make your life more fun and more rewarding. Use them incorrectly and well… it’s less good. Join Seth Priebatsch, Chief Ninja of SCVNGR, for a deep dive into the coming game layer, what to be excited about, what to fear and why your life is about to become a lot more fun.
Where: Austin Convention Center, Ballroom D

3:30 pm
Social Media Data Visualization: Mapping the World’s Conversations featuring Eric Friedman, Director of Business Development at Four Square
Where: Austin Convention Center, Ballroom B
http://schedule.sxsw.com/events/event_IAP7771 <http://schedule.sxsw.com/events/event_IAP7771&gt;

3:30 pm
Storytelling through Advertising: Engaging Players in Online Games featuring Manny Anekal, Global Director of Brand Advertising at Zynga
Where: Austin Convention Center, Ballroom F
http://schedule.sxsw.com/events/event_IAP7148

5:00pm
Left Brain Search = Google. Right Brain Search = X (Need a volunteer)
Ever wonder why Google isn’t very helpful in finding something fun to do tonight? Search engines have gotten really good at finding information that literally matches our keywords, but they fall short when our needs and priorities are either hard to express or hard to match directly to the target content. These limitations are giving rise to a new set of search experiences based on semantic understanding and recommendations that are personal, social, and contextual. Companies like Netflix, Yelp and Pandora have kicked off the first wave of new search. By focusing on searching by how we naturally think, talk and feel about the matter at hand, we can begin to find information that’s relevant to us both logically and emotionally. In this panel, we will look at the emerging technologies and user experiences that are creating the next big thing for the search industry.
Where: Hilton, Salon H
Panelists: Barney Pell, Chief Architect, Bing Local Search, Microsoft/Bing

Sunday, March 13, 2011

9:30am
Radical Openness: Growing TED by Giving it Away featuring June Cohen, Exec Producer, TED
Where: Austin Convention Center, Ballroom D

9:30 am
Daily Deals: Where Ads Become Content
Local deals, once relegated to the weekly circular, now drive the fastest growing sector in internet history. Groupon, LivingSocial, BuyWithMe and others created a billion dollar industry almost overnight. Local publishers have influenced our spending for years, but they are finding a powerful new monetization vehicle as offline commerce comes online. Hundreds of publishers have launched Daily Deal products in the last six months, and this is just the beginning. The founders of LivingSocial, DailyCandy Deals, Group Commerce and Yipit will discuss the future of the Daily Deal space and how local media companies, apps and directories are adapting to it.
Where: Austin Convention Center, Ballroom F
Panel: Aaron Batalion, CTO/Co-Founder , Living Social
Tricia Han, GM, DailyCandy

12:30 pm
Better Crowdsourcing: Lessons Learned From the3six5 Project featuring John Winsor, CEO Victors & Spoils- 12:30 pm, Austin Convention Center Ballroom C

12:30pm
A Conversation with Paul Reubens
Paul Reubens is best known for his character, Pee-wee Herman, which he created while a member of the famed Los Angeles improv group, The Groundlings. From its premiere in 1981, the stage production of The Pee-wee Herman Show quickly gained a national audience when it was broadcast by HBO. In 1985, Reubens co-wrote the hit film, Pee-wee’s Big Adventure. He went on to create, co-write and co-direct Pee-wee’s Playhouse on CBS. The series earned 22 Emmy Awards over its five seasons. Recently, The Pee-wee Herman Show completed an acclaimed run on Broadway and was filmed, once again, for HBO. Join us as Paul discusses his remarkable body of work and the upcoming HBO special broadcast of ‘The Pee-wee Herman Show on Broadway’. We can’t wait, and hope you can’t either!
Where: Austin Convention Center, Room 18ABCD

12:30PM
Dining Out in the Digital Age
New mobile devices, local apps, social media, rich media (from YouTube to Flickr) have transformed the way that consumers communicate with and about their favorite local businesses, and also the way that businesses reach out to audiences and manage their reputation. This panel will examine how local/mobile/social technologies and consumer behavior are changing the way we do business, what businesses need to do to become more plugged in, and which companies are driving innovation in the space.
Presenter: Mani Dhillon, General Manager, Urban Spoon
Where: AT&T Conference Center, Room 203, 1900 University Avenue

3:30pm
Building Community in a Blogger-Eat-Blogger World
Among bloggers, competition for page views and followers can be fierce, and as more people jump in, it feels like we’re all picking at the same slice of pie. How do you encourage bloggers in your online space to collaborate instead of compete, and better yet, how do you build an offline community whose members have real-life, meaningful relationships? Learn from Austin food bloggers who have used tweet ups, taco tours, potlucks and blogger events to create an offline community of more than 400 members. By choosing to become friends over foes, the bloggers have been able to give back to their city through fundraisers and awareness campaigns, such as the Hunger Awareness Project where bloggers wrote about living off food stamps and food pantry donations for a week.
Where: Hyatt , Texas Ballroom 5-7, 208 Barton Springs Road

Monday, March 14, 2011

12:30 pm
Enabling New Experiences & Creating Serendipity Through Check-ins with Dennis Crowley, CEO/Co-Founder Foursquare and Peter Cashmore, CEO Mashable
Description: Foursquare CEO and co-founder Dennis Crowley will discuss how a new wave of location-based applications are changing the way we interact with our friends and surroundings. New mobile technologies combined with enhanced game dynamics are helping people experience the world around them in new and different ways. During this Q&A with Pete Cashmore, CEO and founder of Mashable, Dennis will walk through some of the core ideas behind foursquare’s approach, the company’s vision of the future, and how foursquare can create products that generate serendipity.

12:30 pm
Q&A With Google & Bing On Website Ranking
Where: Hilton, Salon J, 500 East 4th Street
Description: Google is the web’s most popular search engine. Being listed well in Google can generate hundreds, thousands or even millions of visits per week. But for many, it’s a mystery about how and why Google ranks one site over another. Meanwhile, Bing “powers” results at both Bing and Yahoo, making it another important traffic source. In this session, representatives from both companies answer questions about how they list and rank web sites. Get your search engine optimization (SEO) questions answered directly from the companies that list you.

5:00pm
Our Devices: How Smart is too Smart?
We won’t quote Moore’s Law to you, but we can all agree that technology is evolving at a rapid clip, maybe doubling its efficiency something like every two years (okay we couldn’t resist). As these newly-evolved smart devices hit the market, consumers are changing with them. We become more social, more chatty, more plugged in as a result. We have a wealth of information at our fingertips and we’re able to access it faster with smaller and smaller devices. How is all of this information, accessibility and speed changing us? Are consumers doubling our intelligence every two years? As an Intel Fellow and Director of Interaction & Experience Research for Intel Corporation, Genevieve Bell currently leads an R&D team of social scientists, interaction designers, human factors engineers, and a range of technology researchers to create the next generation of compelling user experiences across a range of internet-connected devices, platforms, and services. She will drive user-centered experience and design across the computing continuum.
Presenter: Genevieve Bell, Intel Fellow/Dir IXR, Intel Corporation
Where: Hilton, Salon H

Wednesday, March 15, 2011

2:00 pm
Keynote: Blake Mycoskie, Founder of TOMS Shoes
Where: Austin Convention Center, Ballroom D
Description: In this visionary talk, Blake Mycoskie shows you how to succeed in a new era of relentless competition and heightened social awareness. Why is philanthropy your best competitive advantage? How do you make money and do good simultaneously? How are the two acts intertwined? At TOMS — a self-sustaining, for-profit company — the act of giving is the cornerstone of its business model, integral to its financial success. In a behind-the-scenes look at how it all works, Mycoskie shares counterintuitive ideas (“In tough times, give more!”) that you can apply to your own business. His bold, winning strategies are proven, and have been talked about by Bill Clinton, the Obama administration, and the hundreds of thousands of customers that have joined the TOMS Movement by buying a pair of shoes. Inspired, inspiring and most of all practical, Mycoskie presents a new direction for business, offering TOMS as his prime case study. After hearing him speak, you too will know why giving just makes sense.

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