Since social media is now all the rage and fewer than a slim minority of us remain unfamiliar with Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter, we thought it might be fun to get some
of our most media-savvy mavens, Tweeters and Facebook friends and texperts together for a little summary of how to get the most out of this year’s SXSW Interactive Festival
and Conference.
1. CE O O F 21C T
M A RCH 2010
HOME, TECH + SXSW ISSUE
2. DANA MARUFFO
Principal, BuzzPR
@prwoman1
Reputable, award-win-
ning public relations
professional; social me-
dia nut; music lover;
news fanatic.
DANA’S TIPS:
1. A must-see for this year’s SXSWi are the key-
note presentations from Twitter CEO Evan
Williams and Spotify Founder Daniel Ek.
2. Social networking and online tools, such
as My.SXSW, will be incredibly beneficial to
connect, engage, and be on top of both offi-
cial and unofficial parties/events and confer-
ence sessions.
3. Sponsored after-hour parties, such as by
Mashable and UStream, will not only be a
place to ‘hang out’ with the people you know,
but will definitely be key in connecting and
networking to establish new relationships
with industry people, media, bloggers, pros-
pects and everything else in-between.
JETTÉ MOMANT
CEO, Jetté Momant PR
& Event Productions
@jettemomant
Jetté connects with cli-
ents discovers what
makes them tick and
goes above and beyond
to deliver winning solu-
tions and results.
JETTÉ’S TIPS
1. INTRODUCE YOURSELF AND INTERACT
Use this as an awesome opportunity to net-
work with diverse and like-minded social me-
dia mavens who are “getting their geek on.”
2. DON’T LEAVE HOME WITHOUT PERSONAL CARDS
Make certain to pack cards that have your
Twitter handle and blog and website urls. If
you are open to sharing your Linked in and
Facebook profiles, share those URL’s as well
on your card.
3.BETWEETREADYFORTWEETWORTHYINFORMATION
Be ready to tweet and have a hash tag plan
for your followers. Hash tags help your
tweets be more easily searchable and last
longer on Twitter than average Tweets.
CJ ROMBERGER
CEO, Wildwood In-
teractive + AW colum-
nist for Gadget Girl.
@cjromb
@wwwebdev
Web Programmer, Ap-
plication Developer, Idea
Generator, Writer + more
CJ’S TIPS:
1. Pick panels in advance, and have backups.
2. Keynotes tend to be after lunch. If you
want a good seat, take lunch with you. As
soon as the panel before lunch is over, go to
the room, and grab that coveted seat.
3. Speakers get overwhelmed with ques-
tions. If you don’t get a chance to ask yours,
consider writing a note on the back of your
business card with the topic of your ques-
tion and then exchange cards with them.
Contact them after SXSW is over.
4. Take your laptop for copious note taking.
5. Get a conference buddy. You can share
notes, attend keynotes with them and attend
some of the fabulous after-party fun.
6. Get away from everyone a little bit. When
I pace myself and set aside some quiet think
time, I’ve still got some energy to follow-up
and act on all that inspiration when it’s over.
Since social media is now all the rage and fewer than a slim minority of us remain
unfamiliar with Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter, we thought it might be fun to get some
of our most media-savvy mavens, Tweeters and Facebook friends and texperts together
for a little summary of how to get the most out of this year’s SXSW Interactive Festival
and Conference March 12 - 16. Even the web-wary or technologically-timid may be
turned on by the interactive ideas sparked here.
SXSW/INTERACTIVE
SXSW INTERACTIVE CONFERENCE
MARCH 12-16 | SXSW.COM
3. CINDY ROYAL
Assistant Professor, School of
Journalism and Mass Communi-
cation, Texas State University,
@cindyroyal
Cindy teaches web design and
multimedia topics. She lives in
Austin and loves live music.
CINDY’S TIPS:
SXSW Interactive is by far the most valuable learning
experience of all the conferences and events I attend.
Top three things I am looking forward to seeing this year:
1. Attending new Workshop track sessions. The hot topics
seem to be CSS3, HTML5 and iPhone app development.
2. Some good panels in education and curriculum area
include “Student Startups: Entrepreneurship in the Uni-
versity” and “Universities in the ‘Free’ Era.” Plus, I will be
hosting a Core Conversation entitled “Influence and In-
novate: Transforming Media Education” featuring Aron
Pilhofer, editor of Interactive news at The New York
Times and Matt Waite, developer at Politifact.com.
3. Music is my passion, and interactive offers some interest-
ing programming dealing with digital music trends, includ-
ing “Music Licensing for Emerging Media: Apps, Widgets,
Viral Videos” and “The State Of Music Blogs In 2010”
SHEILA SCARBOROUGH
Freelance writer + co-founder,
Tourism Currents
@SheilaS
Writer, teacher, speaker, guide. Al-
ways on overdrive. Connector.
Powerhouse package who doesn’t
get holiday deco away till Valen-
tine’s.
SHEILA’S TIPS:
1. Go over the schedule ahead of time. You’ve spent
money to come here, and there will be plenty of chances
for serendipity, but pick out a few sessions/speakers
each day that you simply do NOT want to miss (like Clay
Shirky or danah boyd.) I print out the schedule and then
highlight the don’t-miss sessions on each page.
2. Bring water, energy bars, wear comfortable shoes and
a power strip. Be your own self-sustaining Sherpa.
3. Everyone will ask you, as the local, where to go to eat
or to have a semi-quiet getaway to have a beer and chat
with new friends. If you’ve outgrown 6th Street or don’t
hang around downtown much, brush up on what’s avail-
able. My favorite is the bar at the Driskill.
512.345.9973
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