Archive for the ‘Interactive Marketing’ Category
South By South West (SXSW). Austin, Texas. Nine crazy days mixed with tech, music, and film. It’s probably the next Sundance. Definitely the biggest music gathering. But it also includes this thing called interactive. Four years ago the tech portion was about 2,000 people. This year they say it’s 15,000 just for interactive. Impressive? Yes. But I’ve heard plenty of grumblings in the halls that it has grown too fast and left many of the 15,000 interactive attendees scratching their heads and as
king themselves why they came.
Certainly this is a networking nirvana. But for many of the 15,000 who came here to also learn, they wandered aimlessly looking for a decent seminar, workshop, or panel, of which there were few that truly delivered. Even Guy Kawasaki trashed Twitter’s CEO, Evan Williams, for his boring Keynote interview, of which more than half the room packed with 2,000 people walked out.
Too bad. Chris Brogan’s post today addressed this. Hopefully the powers at SXSW will get the feedback they need to have this venue expand appropriately and fix the problem for next year. The opportunity is awesome. There are just obvious challenges to face when something this big grows so fast.
I had an interesting meeting today with a seasoned gentleman in the business/academia world (I will not mention his name as I did not get his permission). He wanted to learn more about the online world and social media. Specifically he wanted help getting an RSS feed set up. While his request seemed somewhat basic to me, I was so impressed at his interest in learning this new form of media convenience that I found myself really admiring him. He had spent years at Leo Burnett in account services, and years teaching advertising at prestigious universities. And while his peers (and many in academia much younger than him) have no interest in understanding the new world of online communications, he is hungry. What a great guy.
Why is this worth blogging about? Because one of my goals with these blogs is to break down the barriers between those that understand what social media and the online world has to offer, and those that don’t know where to begin learning. I would love for everyone to be like this gentleman I met today. His fascination with the opportunity was so great that his intimidation was irrelevant. We all need to be like this.
One of my favorite sayings is “Do not compare yourselves to others, for there will always be those greater and lesser than yourself.” I am challenged with daily intimidation by those who know so much more than me regardng the online world of marketing. But unless I turn around and offer what I do know to those who are still learning, then it’s all been worthless. So I will.
Don’t be afraid to ask, learn, and be confused. It’s coming at you whether you want it to or not. I hope your fascination will drive you.
