Emerge Inc. Blog

Four sessions, a quick run through the trade show and walk through Austin today.

Presenting Straight to the Brain

• Classic PowerPoint isn’t good enough, the bar keeps getting raised
• Presentations are moving from what could be displayed on paper to a film strip style
• Tell a story, give it emotion
• Brain is hardwired through evolution to ignore lots of things that don’t result in immediate danger
• Think of the audience when building your slides
• Question every slide, does it have a pulse, make it bet for its life.
• You would never see bullets in a movie; they shouldn’t be in your presentation

Outsourcing 2.0: Is the World Flat or Not?

• Outsourcing overseas or domestically can be challenging
• Look for contractors who will tell you what they do not specialize in; otherwise they are average at everything
• Communication is critical to successful outsourcing
• Chat and email can work best because conversations are documented

Whitehouse.gov 2.0: Upgrading to Open Source Government

• This session was recorded and send by request to the White House
• Attendees (about 50) included Internet Director for President Bush’s last 2 years
• Also attending was Scott Thomas design director for President Obama’s Change.gov and BarackObama.com
• Put government data out there and allow people, non profits and the private sector to innovate with, around and on top of it
• In Canada, any information created by the government is jointly owned by the creator and the Queen
• Lots of innovation around open government is happening in local communities around the Country

How Start-Ups Can Take Advantage of the Recession

• Large corporations are making cuts and focusing on their core business; time to take market share
• Talent that wouldn’t be accessible to small businesses is now available
• Don’t sign long term deals for office space; maybe co-locate with a larger company that has made cuts
• Ask lawyers and accountants to defer billing until start-up has achieved 1st round of funding; they either believe in you or they don’t; no reason to work with those who don’t
• Keep overhead expenses low and use creative marketing techniques

I ended the day with a walk through downtown Austin and visited the state capital.

Today, I attended 4 sessions and the SxSW Web Awards:

Neocartography: Mapping Design and Usability Evolved

• 60% of online maps use Google
• 80% of males use North up; 80% of females use turn by turn driving directions
• Online mapping is moving beyond what can be done on paper
• Mapping events in time is one of the next evolutions

How to Create a Great Company Culture

• Investors look at spreadsheets, culture is what is between the lines the ensures you make the numbers
• Paint the companies big picture to ensure everyone is inspired and knows the end game
• Culture is a family system; Parents – investors; Best Friend – Cofounder; Good Friends – Management Team; Kids – Employees
• Anyone who loses their passion no longer helps the team
• Establish clear accountability based on business and performance metrics

From Flickr and Beyond: Lessons in Community Management

• Editorial: One of the best panels so far, with community managers from flickr, YouTube, Etsy & Current TV
• Community is difficult at all levels
• 3 reasons to remove user contributions 1) legal; 2) User Experience; 3) Brand Management, Advertising, Social Responsibility
• Transparency and communication are critical; explain why content is removed
• All community rules grow out of “Don’t be a jerk”

Pitfalls and Opportunities: How to Fund a Startup

• It is not about the idea. It is about the execution
• In a flat world, 10 other people have the same idea, who will execute fastest/best
• Avoid taking investor money until you absolutely need it

I’ll end with a congratulations to all of the nominees and winners of the 2009 SxSW Web Awards.

I thought it might be interesting to document each day that I am at the SxSW Interactive conference. I think the easiest way to do this will be to list a few takeaways from each session I attend:

The Ecosystem of News

We arrived in time to attend 1 session on Friday, so I’ll include that with Saturday’s sessions.

• Because of the economy, newspapers will make a transition in 2 years that otherwise would have occurred over the next 10 years
• Newspapers should stop paying for content the web is already producing for free; do what you do best and link to the rest
• News will become a lot more distributed

Tips for Making Ideas Happen

• Generate ideas in moderation, quickly kill ideas
• Share ideas liberally, if they are stolen, they weren’t unique enough
• Creativity + Organization = Impact
• Achievement = Actions Taken (not ideas generated)
• Require constraints from clients – budget, colors, etc. they are there even if neither you or the client acknowledge them
• Recognize, measure and celebrate actions taken
• And, the always popular – find time to focus on the important not always the urgent

Microformats: A Quiet Revolution

• Microformats are a set of simple, open data formats built upon existing and widely adopted standards
• Microformats are being used on a lot more sites than most think – google, yahoo, Microsoft, ebay, WordPress

Opening Remarks: Tony Hsieh

Well, in the interest of honesty, I skipped the opening remarks to watch the Ohio State Buckeyes beat Michigan State in the Big 10 Men’s college basketball tournament. I will watch the YouTube video as soon as it is released. (Don’t forget, it was a Saturday!)

Kicking Ass With Controlled Metadata

• In many cases, user generated tags are not enough, experts and/or paid professionals are needed
• Pandora uses music professionals and tags songs in over 400 dimensions
• It can take a lot of tags to ensure relevance
• Some site are now sharing tags with and API

Collaborative Filters: The Evolution of Recommendation Engines

• Collaborative Filters combine input from many different people to filter information better than it otherwise would be filtered
• Recommendation Engines personalize these results
• 10 years ago, everyone saw the same Netflix site. Now each user has a unique site
• 2 types of data; 1) entered by users; 2) learned from user actions
• When last.fm enabled users to share their song lists, it changed their listening to hide “guilty pleasures”

Time to figure out my schedule for tomorrow and enjoy downtown Austin.