The trick with participating on panels is that you need to pitch your idea to SXSW nearly one year before. If your pitched panel is selected it then gets added to a public voting page where YOU give a thumbs up or thumbs down.

I’m happy to announce that the two panels I suggested were both approved! Here’s the part where I ask you to kindly give them a thumbs up please. Just click the links below and hit the thumbs up please. It’ll just take you a minute, I promise. Thanks!

1) RoadTwip

2) You’re Nowhere Without Passion

I’ve also been invited to participate on Dave Peck’s panel on building community offline. I’ll be joining Michelle Greer and Chris Pirillo on that one, it should be tons of fun. If you’re so inclined a thumbs up there would be lovely too.

Thanks for your thumbs. :-)

Image By: vernhart

I wrote a post recently about my disappointment with Meetup.com. I wanted to update you with what happened next. I got an email shortly afterward from Meetup’s VP – Insights & Strategy, Andres Glusman.

Andres emailed me to get my phone number, he then tried to ring me numerous times. We finally connect over the phone a little over a week ago. It was kind of him to reach out after my friend, Saul Colt, alerted him of my blog post.

We discussed my concerns about the missing function for a group administrator to be able to delete his or her group. He agreed that it is a valid issue which needs resolving, and he assured me it would be resolved soon.

Andres also spoke of the community building aspect of Meetup. My friend, Kelly Stewart’s Nashville Hiking group is a prime example of this. I suggested they consider creating a discount version of their service for BarCamp and PodCamp organizers (both are community focused free events), he seemed to like that idea.

I’m impressed that Andres went out of his way to contact me (even calling me on the weekend). Hat tip to Meetup for following up. He promised to keep me in the loop on group deletion. When a fix is in place I’ll be sure to let you know.

Once again, I had a fabulous time at the South By Southwest Interactive conference. I must start this post with a huge thank you to the organizers and volunteers. Without these people the conference would never take place – major pat on the back!

Of the sessions I attended, I’d say that Jamie Monberg‘s Interactive Beyond the Screen: Branding in Four Dimensions was my favorite. I searched my tweets to find this gem from Jamie.

As brand designers it is our collective mandate to help our clients become interactive regardless of technology.

I am happy to have come across Hazel Grian’s recap post, which includes Jamie’s Six Rules of Innovation.

• do no harm then do some good.
• interactive is not always digital.
• brand yourself interactively.
• old is the new ‘new’ – products that do what they say they will do.
• understand and practice virtues of transparency.
• embrace your constituency with authenticity.

UPDATE: Ed Lee sent me this link of his videos from Jamie’s session. Thanks Ed!

The following are my personal highlights (in no order) from SXSW Interactive 2009.

• Seeing Keith Burtis as I stepped into the Austin airport
• Learning about B12 from Sass
• Running into so many of the Nashville contingent. REPRESENT!!!
• Devising an under-the-table tweet up in the blogger lounge with Amber Naslund
• Big bad ass burgers at Casino El Camino with C.C. Chapman
  
• Geek Breakfast Austin
• Checking out Scott Maentz’ video and pictures from Geek Breakfast
• Finally catching up with my buddies, Cian O’Donovan and Michelle Greer
• Crepes with Ewan Spence
• Breakdancing at the Makers Mark party at Mohawk (not me, them)
• Sunshine and Texas heat, finally.
• Winning a Flip camera from the good people at Zappos
• Joining C.C. Chapman, Chris Brogan, Loic Le Meur and Saul Colt on a panel (thanks Saul!)
• Catching Geoff Smith‘s secret performance and dinner with the Belmont Crew
• Freak watching on 6th (special guest appearance by one Robert Scoble)
• Ewan Spence, Chris Ennis and Michelle Greer’s stories at the Fray Cafe
• Salty beers with Cian
• Lunch with Greg Cangialosi, Steven Fisher and Jeremy Wright‘s Tweet Up that followed
• Fondoooo with friends
• Learning about “Go” by Julien Smith and Dan Patterson (and realizing I won’t have the time to play it until the kids are in college)
• Catching up with Simeon Margolis and ducking bats (not baseball bats, but real bats) on my way in to Gingerman
• Ewan’s Social Media Breakfast at Magnolia
• Lunch at Moonshine with loads of new and old friends
• Hitting Sean Power with an Akoha card
• Saying howdy to Katie King
• Coming through with Griffin goodies when they were needed by my peeps
• Introducing Jason Falls to Quebec beer (and catching Dave Broadback’s tweet reply)
• Forgetting the way to the #sevenandahalf floor

There are plenty of other favorites from SXSW this year. This list is just a taste of some of the highlights for me. There are plenty of people I’m leaving off, because it will take me weeks to remember everyone who touched me (not like that). Please don’t be offended if I didn’t include you.

SXSW is always valuable to me. While the quality of the sessions are fine, it’s always the human interaction that makes the conference so amazing to me. Keep in touch friends. Thanks!