I’m on a plane home (completely exhausted – without a voice – and pretty sure I’m getting sick) from my first ever South by Southwest Interactive (SxSWi) experience in Austin, Texas. For those of you unfamiliar, SxSWi is a national interactive conference with a mission of connecting creative folks and brands (that’s the short version).

I’ve done other large conferences, but this was a whole other bag. An estimated 20,000 people participated in the interactive and film tracks (which overlap) with content that spanned from journalism, emerging tech, design, development, business, dynamic keynotes and far beyond. Advertising is at its height at this place. Everywhere you turn you’re tempted by a bright color, screen, emerging technology and the ability to Drive or Catch a Chevy (which was actually among my favorite things about the conference). There is something going on every hour of the day with the exception of 5 a.m. to 9 a.m. (I think), so whatever your pleasure you’re sure to find it at this conference. Some thoughts:

Connection Trumps Content
SxSWi is far better suited to networking than good content. It’s just too big. The most WOW session I attended was Gary Vaynerchuk’s keynote. As much as I love Gary, his keynote should not be the best part of this conference (although he may disagree). While content was not a total bust, I never found myself in a session that blew my mind. I had that expectation coming to a conference as revered as SxSWi, but it just didn’t happen. In fact, some of the sessions I attended were just plain bad. I’ll take some responsibility in this and say that this was symptomatic of my patience level. There are SO many people and popular sessions start forming lines an hour or more ahead of time making it really difficult to get everywhere you want to go. All this being said, The networking and conversation cannot be rivaled. I was able to connect with and have colorful conversations about digital with folks I’ve known online for a long time, meet new people, explore a darling city and absorb a different point-of-view based on the whole experience. Hell, I even played Foursqaure with Dennis Crowley! So, like I’m sure many before me have said, it’s all about what you’re planning to get out of it. Shout outs to Chuck Hemann for being an great pal and driving me to my hotel a few times, which was totally out of his way. Justin Goldsborough for his general awesomeness. Dave Fleet for making me laugh my ass off every time we discussed anything. Sydney Owen for being her sweet and skydiving-crazed self. Stephanie Wonderlin and Sam Ogborn for being cute and bringing me a hair (binder) tie.

Accommodations
If you have any desire to go to this conference, you need to book in July in order to stay at either the Marriot or Hilton (hotels adjacent to the conference center). I was five miles away, and it was miserable, not to mention I had the hotel experience from hell at Crowne Plaza Austin. Due to massive amounts of people and how much you have to trek all over the city depending on the sessions you want to go to, do not stay anywhere else than downtown. I believe that I would have had a much better experience had I stayed downtown.

We Are In Control of What We Learn
This experience helped me re-realize that learning is the process you embrace and make it. Education by way of reading good books, blogs, publications, working hard and surrounding yourself with people smarter than you is extremely sufficient. We all can (if the will and tools are available to us) have the power to learn without having to come to an event like this.  Not to mention that they livestream everything. Case in point: I was watching the Dennis Crowley/Adam Ostrow keynote (which was happening a few rooms away) from the blogger lounge while writing part of this.

Manage Your Stuff
I never lose anything. Like ever. Until my trip to SxSWi. I am almost positive due to my frazzled and over-tiredness that I left our brand new Sony Cybershot in the Samsung Blogger Lounge during a stint of blogging. Sadly, it wasn’t something someone thought they should turn in, so we’re down a camera. Could care less about the camera itself, but more so what was on it. Royal bummer.

Will I Go Back?
The verdict is out on this at the moment. My going back will be contingent on if I’m involved beyond attendee status and what my accommodations are. I believe that the second time around with a conference like this would be completely different.

I hope to post separate content highlights in the next few days, as there were definitely a few. I posted a great interview with Gary Vaynerchuk and Brian Solis talking the human business revolution here.

Big shout out to Mall of America and my awesome team (Bridget Jewell and Dan Jasper) for covering bases while I was away. I work with amazing people.

I’m hanging at South by Southwest Interactive in Austin, Texas. I have an event review on the way, but thought I’d share an interview I was able to capture an hour ago with Gary Vaynerchuk and Brian Solis about Gary’s new book, ‘The Thank You Economy,’ which explores humanizing business and the revolution taking place (in the Samsung Blogger Lounge – arguably one of the best things about SxSWi).

I was able to meet Gary at MIMA Summit in Minneapolis in 2010 and have chatted with him since about various endeavors, which he surprisingly referenced in this interview to make a point about the way connections, and more importantly how we connect, is changing everything. I just got a copy of Gary’s new book and the first few pages are fantastic. He’s good people; based on his passion, determination and the action he takes alone. I suspect his book will not disappoint.

How the heck are you humanizing your business?

There are so many opportunities to be educated about new trends, tools, technology and what it all means for the bigger picture. Often, we pay a fee (sometimes hefty) to sit in rooms with folks and hear the brilliance, perspective and idea sessions that explore the next big thing. But what about all the people who can’t attend these events…  due to finances, their employer arguing that the investment is unworthy, family responsibilities and other circumstances?

Resourcefulness is something I’ve learned a lot about this past year (more on that lesson in a future post). I’ve had the luxury of attending quite a few amazing events in recent months, but there are certainly a few that I’ve been sad to miss. So, what do I do when I can’t physically be somewhere but want the knowledge? I seek out the information and find that I can get pretty darn close to an event without actually having to be there. Case in point:

I was unable to make it to South by Southwest Interactive (SxSW) this year. While sad, the greatest thing about events like this is that technology transcends geography. With the help of a nifty little service called USTREAM, I was able to watch the entire Social Media Breakfast SXSW via livestream from my bed on Sunday morning. It was fantastic.  I took in presentations by thought leaders Becky McCray, Tac Anderson and Rick Mahn with appearances by awesome Social Media Breakfast Founder, Brian Person and event moderator, Albert Maruggi.

Thanks to technology, the following is what I learned from my bed on Sunday morning…

The Missing Ingredient in Social Media Strategy is… the strategy! – Tac Anderson

With all the talk about social media strategy nowadays, it’s funny that the one thing missing from most social media strategies is often just that, the actual strategy. Shannon Paul hit this topic astonishingly well a few weeks ago, with great commentary from Tac and others – and its reference was the starting point of his discussion. I highly recommend you read Shannon’s post: “The Mising Ingredient in Most Social Media Strategies.”

Tac defined strategy as: Creating operational alignment between all functions and activities of a business.

Current research on publicly traded companies says: Return on assets has gone down and is on a downward trajectory. By 2025 the net worth of all publicly traded companies will be zero (research attributed to John Hagel).

Problem: This means that the way we run our businesses today isn’t working. In order to achieve scale (way back when), we had to give up intimacy. In order to achieve scale, we put processes in place. We removed people from the company.

Solution: With Internet and social media, we can achieve intimacy and scale. We can connect people inside the company with people outside the company. Quoting Lane Becker (who quoted someone else): “Businesses thrive on the network when they adapt to the network, not the other way around.”

Three ways to create/adopt a SM strategy:

• The Bolt On strategy (not a strategy): Let’s start a blog or a Twitter account. Someone will blog/tweet and everything else will stay exactly the same inside the company. Social Media is NOT a bolt on component.
• The I’m going to force social media to comply with existing code of conduct (not a strategy). It sucks the life out of SM.
• Making your company optimized for social media. What would it look like if every part of your company were built to maximize the benefits of social media? This is the ideal and highly underdeveloped point at which most organizations find themselves currently.

Back to both John Hagel and Lane Becker to summarize our discussion: Social Media as part of the operational alignment is about creating edges and flows inside your company. Innovation happens on the edges where you get creative friction and where things and things can even be a little messy. What SM can do if you optimize the right way is create those edges and knowledge flows… can start happening inside your company.

Tac Anderson is Digital Consulting Director at Waggener Edstrom, blogs over at New Comm Biz and is all around awesome (from what I read and see – we have not met). Tac rocks and you should read his stuff.

How Technology is Changing Small Town America – Becky McCray

“I was just chatting with some people at my table and what I find to be true is that everyone has a small town connections,” said Becky as she grabbed the mic from Albert to begin her talk. She finds it amusing that people continue to ask her, “How did you ever get interested in technology in such a small town?”  To which she politely says, “There is electricity in small towns. “

Becky owns a liquor store and a cattle ranch in small Oklahoma town. She started out as a small town entrepreneur and is an eternal geek. This intersection of passion has landed her in a position to help rural communities really ‘get connected,’ said moderator Albert Maruggi. The opportunity to connect more people through technology specifically as it pertains to small and rural business is her aim and sweet spot.

Becky talked about a few trends happening in small town America that are transforming small town communities and business.

Convergence - Techies are invading rural communities and effecting change. She illustrates with the example of Aliza Sherman. Sherman lives in Alaska in a 300-person town and her five-person company Conversify has grown far past its borders.

Rural is getting more and more wired. Rural communities are progressively experiencing broadband connectivity. Jay Pinkert (may have slaughtered that name) in Wisconsin has worked to wire a whole section of the state for broadband in order allow people to connect and develop through technology.

“We are at a moment where everything is going to change, said Becky. “My anti-tech mother is on Facebook poking her grandson.”

Folks in small towns are at an advantage. Because of the scale, the education process is a bit different. Teaching the skills and tools is easy. Then you can teach the commandments:

• Be helpful
• Build Community
• Reputation is forever

I look forward to learning more about Becky by checking out her blog.

How to Start a Social Media Breakfast – Rick Mahn

Rick’s road to founding SMBMSP was born out of a strong desire to bring the conversations he was having online and in other small communities to his back yard a.k.a. the Twin Cities. Upon observing a little gathering happening in Boston beginning in 2007 called Social Media Breakfast, Rick began a conversation with Brian Person, founder of the Social Media Breakfast concept and it was suggested that he start a breakfast in Minneapolis.

A little more than two years later, SMBMSP has 1,874 members and averages a 300-person event each month. There are often people dissatisfied because they don’t get a ticket. A problem Rick is looking to solve as best he can.

Some of Rick’s thoughts…

Community: SMBMSP opens up opportunities for the community itself. It’s a catalyst for the people ‘doing it’ to come forward and help the rest of the community.

Recruiting help for events: In terms of seeking out help for the events, Rick looks to the people who are really passionate about SMB, topics, issues, etc. (which sometimes takes a while) and enrolls them in the events.

Large group discussion: When small, the breakfast is a great place to have dynamic discussions about how social media is transforming industries. As the breakfast has grown to large numbers, the format has been modified to panel discussions with a moderator instead of a speaker model. Panels are more productive, as they offer many perspectives instead of just one. Ample Q & A is built in to encourage strong audience dialogue.

Sponsorship: In the beginning it’s hard, unless you have really good fundraising skills. Rick admits that he did not:-) “I’m an IT guy,” he said. “Not an events guy.” Looking for mutually beneficial partnership/sponsorship venues is key.

Of course, there is more, but I’m signing off here.  SMBSXSW can be viewed in its entirety here.

A few other quick tips for following events you cannot attend:

• Hashtag: Find out before the event kicks off what hashtag has been designated so you can follow the conversation on Twitter. If you’re not on Twitter, you can still perform Twitter searches via search.twitter.com, and you’ll be able to obtain information, links, photos and video from anyone who uses the event hashtag.
• Google: A simple Google search can be so effective. Just search for the event name and you’ll likely get a long list of blogger who are live-blogging the event. These posts are often better than being there because the information has already been synthesized for you. A great example of a wonderful blogger covering SXSW is Greg Swan. I’ve been following his daily recaps over on Social Studies.

Have anything to add? I love it when you do.