“I’d love to read more, keep up with more, but seriously, I just don’t have time.” I’ve said it, you’ve said it, we’ve all said it, and even believed it…but really we have more time than we think, we’re just less efficient than we could be. Ah, efficiency. My favorite word/thing/idea. And in tribute to the idea and pursuit of efficiency, I give you: 30 second MBA by Fast Company…a great collection of quick thought starters from some of the world’s most successful leaders. Check it out when you have the time. And remember- you do have the time.  30 Second MBA

Designing for Silence: Using email for good was a talk about ways to effectively use email marketing.  M Jackson Wilkinson of Posterous led the talk and gave some very simple yet valuable rules to avoid being considered spam.

One point he made about emails in general, is that they should be subtle.  He stated that it is better to “strive to make noise only when it improves silence.” (more…)

Mint.com lives by the purpose of “empowering people to understand and do more with their money so they can live better lives.”

The panel was given by Aaron Forth who is director of product design at Intuit’s Mint.com. The assumption was that it was going to be a panel about tricks and methods that would work best across platforms, but it turned out to be mainly about Mint.com and their path of adoption across platforms. (more…)

So, the 4A’s was in Austin this year and one of the big headlines coming out it was “Ad industry leaders say industry faces a talent crunch”.

Martin Roth, CEO of Interpublic, stated that “…without getting the talent issue right, we’re not going to be able to survive in the marketplace going forward,” he said. “We all know the future of our business is based on talent.”

Weeeelllll, I’m not so sure it’s that easy, regardless of whether you have a “Chief Talent Officer” or not. (Cheap shot alert, sorry.)   Yes, talent is a part of it, but not all of it.  Rather, I think there are three areas we have to think about: (more…)

That tweet was uttered by Jeffrey Zeldman, pretty well-known web designer and blogger. This generated a lot of discussion among the online design community. In this session it begged the question, ‘what defines a real web designer’.

• One perspective: hire the one who can write (not necessarily code, but someone who can write a clear, organized, cohesive scope)
• Another perspective: hire the one who can write code (but not necessarily to write THE code, but someone who knows some type of code). This demonstrates that they can think systematically.
• And yet another: the real web designer comes out when you start thinking about pattern recognition, organizing, optimization — when you are constantly practicing and improving your skills.
• Finally: a real web designer can solve visual problems and articulate how those solutions might be implemented in code.

Development has one basic tool of the trade, code, which comes in many different languages. As yet, there is nothing else that has come along that can keep up with the web, or replace smart people who can write good code. I’m pretty sure that means there’s no EASY button. In the end, there seem to be collective agreement that designers who have some foundation in code approach the design process differently and are more comfortable in their role.

For me I like to think this is about connecting people. The pure designer certainly can’t do it all, and neither can the pure developer. A person with both skill sets will do pretty well, but the designer/developer team might be the new model we strive for.

Below are the key takeaways for creating a successful branded tutorial however, my thoughts on some of them are after that. Hope you enjoy.

1. Don’t make them boring

2. Quality (get’s appreciated especially the sound)

3. Purpose (satisfy the user)

4. Goal is to educate, entice, entertain and get the user talking)

5. Measurement is important (drop-off is typical but look for atypical drop-off)

6. Think creatively (use humor and good scripts)

Overall, the list above could be applied to any online video and mostly intuitive. The key is curiousity, videos should entice the user to learn more on their own. You can’t force them to watch and while  Joshua Rosenbaum suggests humor for your video I suggest using it only if it’s relevenat for your brand and audience.

Well, Marc Ecko himself did so by way of an equation. In probably my favorite panel of the whole interactive festival, I had the pleasure of listening to the famous designer take us through his “journey down the rabbit hole” as he called it. But, basically his personal history and discovery of his passion for creativity and what he believes in. I witnessed my first ever CREATIVE math equation.

In a very engaging and inspiring format, Marc showed us his equation for “AWEthenticity” in his panel: Marc Ecko’s Formula for AWEthentic Connections. (#fightthepaddle) To put it most simply, he explained to us that he came to a point in his career where he felt very compelled to do something good in the world with his talents. He said, “I want my CO2 emissions to be like ‘broccoli cake.’” And honestly, I think more of us should have that goal in mind with whatever it is we do. Having a career in advertising myself, I don’t always feel like I’m making a difference in the world, at least not always for the better and I left this panel feeling inspired to use my passion and creativity to do just that.

A big part of what he ended his panel on was about all of the efforts he’s been working on to help better our country’s very flawed education system. Specifically, his fight to end corporal punishment. I had no idea that there were still 20 states where paddling a child in the classroom was still legal! Texas, being one of those states, and being a mom to a 3 and a half year old, this fact struck a little close to home. I was very inspired by his two recent brand launches: Artists & Instigators and Unlimited Justice. Both were created with the goal of having an impact on the things he really cares about in the world, and in life. He talked about wanting his brand to be “The AARP of Pop Culture,” which I thought was a very cool thought. If only more brands felt that way.

He made reference to the recent documentary, “Waiting for Superman,” which I  had the opportunity to watch a screening of, during a recent production trip to LA.. It’s an extremely well done film on our education system documenting all of the different parts of what’s wrong with it from a variety of points of view. I left the screening feeling very moved and compelled to do something about the issues raises. And it was refreshing to hear someone like Marc Ecko speak about all of the admirable and very creative ways that he is trying to fix some of those problems. He ended by expressing to the audience that, “while we wait for superman, he sleeps.” We don’t need a super hero to fix our problems, “what we really need is Smokey the Bear.” We need more creative, smart minds in this world getting out there and DOING.

I wake this morning with a sense of disappointment that SXSW interactive is over. After seeing thousands of faces, reading thousands of tweets, and seeing a ton of panels, my brain is full, ready and inspired for action. Yesterday’s panel with Aaron Patzer (@apatzer) and Jason Putorti (@putorti) was one of the most intriguing panels I had the pleasure to attend.

The genius known as Aaron Patzer started Mint.com, the free personal finance software you probably know and love. It started with Aaron sitting in a room for 7 months crunching out some algorithms. The main purpose of these algorithms was to classify financial transactions. I’ll spare the details of which Aaron excitedly discussed (which goes something like this), but the main accomplishment was the ability to classify up to 85% of transactions when the competitors were only categorizing 45%. He also created a new business model which provides the service for free and uses insight on the data to provide targeted offers to users.

Despite all this brilliance, Mint.com was hurting in UX . Enter Jason Putorti, the genius behind the design. While this panel seeked to put each other at ends, it was clearly a collaborative relationship between the two. The power of this collaboration of engineering and design is clear: Mint.com was sold to Intuit for $170M.

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SXSWi’s growth is no more evident than by the conference’s Trade Show. I was shocked at the quadrupling in size and overall impact of this year’s nerd flea market over previous years. Carpeted aisle after aisle of web app peddlers and technical service providers awaited t-shirt seeking attendees. I’m pretty sure I got lost. Twice.

In search for a place to charge my phone (and maybe a beer), for about 45 seconds I was lured  into one uncomfortably interesting booth display. It was my own fault. I made eye contact.  Along with two other innocent passersby, I shuffled over to hear about the big idea – a live video chat service called Yowie, basically Skype.

I should stop quickly and mention that this web-based software may be a fantastic live video chat solution. It likely has features and purpose I’m completely ignoring. That’s not the point.

It goes without saying that the best way to demonstrate your live video chat is to do a live video demo. Well, Yowie came prepared.

In one massive exhibit hall, exposed to hundreds of exhibitors and amongst thousands of festival-goers, there we are. Three random attendees. Two Yowie salespeople. One Yowie technician. One laptop set up with video camera. And one Corey Feldman on the other end. Waiting.

You know that expression that somebody has as they sit in the dunking tank? Eagerly awaiting the assault, Corey looked out through the large screen display as three of us passed on the “opportunity”.  It was an awkward and sad moment as a former fan of Mouth.

Later, when lost in the Trade Show, I was relieved to catch that Yowie found a couple of Feldman fans at SX. Ultimately, while I’m sure that there were many folks compelled to Yowie (I know it’s not a verb) with Corey, I’m curious if the buzz expectations were ultimately met.

See more Yowie >>

SXSWi 2011 has been an amazing experience!  This year I gained a new perspective on the event as an interactive attendee.  While I enjoy hanging with the best of them at the (literally) hundreds of parties that happen throughout the festival, I’m the nerd who really had the most fun listening in on the panels.  I’m an information junkie and I want to know what makes these business leaders, brands, and agencies succeed in today’s changing marketplace. 

The final keynote address from TOMS founder Blake Mycoskie was one of those inspirational sessions that was a true highlight for me this year.

While the story of TOMS is a great one, it’s success is largely based on building a company around the purpose of giving.   Below are three key takeaways on what you find when you incorporate giving into your business model:

1. Customers become your greatest marketers and your biggest advocates.
2. You attract and retain the most amazing employees.
3. You attract the most amazing business partners and business opportunities.

It was announced in today’s keynote that on June 7^th 2011 TOMS will unveil what’s next for the company as they truly embrace moving beyond a “shoe” company to become a “one for one” company.   

I leave this year’s interactive festival filled with excitement about what lies ahead for digital media and inspired by the business leaders who are shaping how consumers engage with their brands.  I look forward to June 7^th, and can’t wait to see what’s next!