On March 16, I was sitting in the Blogger Lounge in the Austin Convention Center for SXSW Interactive. The good folks at Zappos were doing a giveaway via Twitter, to the first tweet from the lounge. I was the proud winner of a Flip camera!

I’ve always wanted a Flip camera. I was slightly bummed that I didn’t win an HD one, but beggars can’t be choosers. I was thrilled to win the Flip regardless of it’s type. It’s an older model that actually takes Double A batteries, which is convenient when traveling.

Today my Flip was dead. I replaced the batteries, but the new juice did nothing to resuscitate it. I checked Flip’s website and found a customer service number, so I thought I’d give it a shout to see what could be done. Did I mention this was on a Sunday?

I rang the number and was pleasantly surprised when a human answered their support extension. She was charming and friendly, very happy for someone stuck at the office on a Sunday.

As it happens, the Flip doesn’t do well when you allow the batteries to die completely. In fact, it takes up to 72 hours for the camera to reset itself. You need to remove the dead batteries and leave the device alone, for three days. It’s a bummer this is the case, but I’m not complaining. This post isn’t about the device, it’s about how awesome Pure Digital Technologies’ (Flip’s parent company) customer support is.

Kudos to the good people at Flip for answering the phone on a Sunday, and for being knowledgable, curteous and friendly. Thanks also to Zappos for the Flip. Cheers.

I was very happy to receive an invite to the alpha version of his new venture, Nutritter. It’s an impressive service that helps you count calories. You simply send Nutritter a tweet or direct message on Twitter, and it tallies up your calorie intake for the day.

Like dieting and exercising, I must admit that I’ve been slacking a little this week on using Nutritter. There’s no good reason for it, I should really be ashamed. However, it really is simple to use, so there’s no excuse for me not to be using it.

Check out this brief explanation from Simeon himself:

The experience has been great so far. I tested Nutritter by DMing what was in my meal, I ate terribly yesterday, but I’ve been trying to be better. A few minutes later I received this reply.

Nutritter Twitter Direct Message

Once logged into on my browser, I can look at all of the items I’ve consumed. I can press a simple Eat It button to eat it again, which is a great idea to save users from having to enter the same foods twice. I can also see a calorie count of what I’ve eaten, and what my friends have had (if they choose to share it).

I think including general information, cited from say the Heart & Stroke Foundation on recommended calorie intake per day would be useful.

Nutritter is a great idea for Twitterholics looking to live a healthier lifestyle, and shouldn’t we all be?

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!

The Fray Cafe is a quiet night (compared to the rest of the nights) of storytelling for anyone who has a tale to share. Last year the event was MC’d by my buddy, Baratunde, who did an awesome job.

I’ve been searching high and low to find out if there will be a Fray this year. I was worried not to see it listed anywhere. So, I went ahead and emailed the venue, Red Eye Fly (where it was held last year).

Low and behold there is indeed going to be another Fray Cafe at SXSW this year. Don’t miss this fun night of chilled, story telling in an intimate environment on Sunday, March 15th.

Here’s the story I told last year. This is definitely not family friendly or work safe – you’ve been warned.

I just listened to the latest episode of Managing the Gray. C.C. Chapman had some fantastic tips to better your experience at SXSW Interactive. I recommend you give it a listen. C.C. inspired me to create my own list of tips to enjoy SXSW.

1. Register for Twitter. You’ll find Twitter very helpful for staying on top of where and what your friends are up to. Use the hashtag #SXSWi, so you can easily track the conversation. I also suggest following http://tweetchat.com/room/SXSWi to track the tweets in real time.

2. Bring back up power for your mobile device! Trust me, you’ll need all the extra juice you can get.

3. Eat migas, C.C. recommended this too. It’s the best way to start your day! My favorite are at Las Manitas‘.

4. For a quiet night of story telling don’t miss The Fray Cafe. It was one of my highlights from last year.

5. I’ll shamelessly go ahead and promote one of our (Griffin) products, Clarifi. The reason why is that you can use the Clarifi case on your 3G iPhone to shoot close up pictures of all of the business cards you collect during the festival. Then use Evernote to manage the images. You’ll be able to search for keywords within the business cards directly, so you’ll have no need to manually enter everything. There’s a video here worth checking out. Oh, and you can save 25% on the case now using MARCHSAVE09 on the site.

BONUS TIP. Don’t throw away you’re conference center map, you’ll need it!

Have a look at my post from last year for some additional ideas on how to make SXSW rock (and it most definitely shall rock!)

Are you a SXSW veteran? Do you have any tips to add?