1. When I was sitting in the passenger
lounge in Houston, waiting for a
connecting flight to Austin, a guy sitting
beside me turned to me and said,
“so why are you going to SXSW?”
2. I fumbled in my response, and was thankful
his phone rang. I didn’t really know how to
comfortably answer his question because
I didn’t know what to expect from the event
3. It wasn’t until I was 30,000 feet above some
U.S state on my way back home from the
conference that I realized the real take-away
and reason why I would go back again
4. People Inspiration
!
Ideas
Craziness in the overlap
Racing your favourite Web
Celebrity across downtown Austin
in a bike cab at 1am, minutes after
your colleague convinced you to
take a bike tour through the
shadiest neighbourhood in the city
People. Inspiration. Ideas
what you expect from and why you go to SXSW (in my Venn Diagram opinion)
5. Back to the Craziness in the overlap for a second
Meet Joseph Jaffe. The guy we decided to race in a bike cab at 1am
6. Key takeaway: SXSW is more enjoyable as a shared social
People
experience with others, rather than as an anti-social mission.
7. • A colleague that was with us down at SXSW
made a remark early on in the conference about
the number of people being completely absorbed
in their iPhone, iPad or bad microsoft product.
• What was perceived as anti-social behaviour at
first, wasn’t entirely true.
• What these gadget absorbed people were doing
was actually being “digitally social” - transmitting
and communicating with their digital network
what they heard during sessions - while focusing
less on their physical environment and people
around them.
• Should we be trying harder to strike a balance?
Pic repurposed from Dave Vieser’s blog post on
Experience Matters http://tinyurl.com/5usdsdt
Observation: our gadgets make it easier for us to be “digitally social”
at events, while at the same time more physically anti-social
8. • Before I flew down to SXSW, I heard two main types of
comments from people when I told them I was
attending the event: they either raved about it, or they
said it was crap.
• At first I thought these swings in views were a result of
the speaker content, but that turned out to be
incorrect. What had a larger influence on your positive
view of the event was whether you attended with
others, or made the effort to interact with people while
down there.
• Those who seemed to have a sub-par time attended
solo and didn’t interact with others in their physical
environment, or had a fire at their opening night party
(we collectively feel sorry for you Sapient)
The group messaging tool my group
used at SXSW
Observation: those with shared social experiences at SXSW tended to
have a more positive view of the event…we are social beings by nature
9. The benefits:
• Friends or new acquaintances can save you seats at
packed events (thanks Richard!)
• You’ll save those in your digital social network from update
overloads by taking a breather from twitter and
communicating with people around you
• While waiting for a a speaker to start, you’ll be able to
bounce ideas off interesting people and jump into
stimulating conversations
• You won’t end up like the Forever Alone guy
4Chan’s Forever Alone guy
Benefits of attending SXSW with others, or at least attempting to
interact with others in your physical environment while down there
10. Key takeaway: you’ll be more inspired by balancing
Inspiration
People
Key takeaway: SXSW is moreyour profession (vertical
out talks that cover enjoyable as a shared social experience
with others, rather than as those that have nothing to do with it
learning) with an anti-social mission.
11. • Millions of years of royalty free R&D embedded in nature
holds the answers to many of today’s human centered
design challenges
• A slime mold helped the Japanese transportation agency
develop the quickest and most efficient bullet train for the
Tokyo rail system
• The UK government are looking at creating a financial
regulatory system that mimics the way the human
immune system works
=
• Nissan are experimenting with a group of autonomous Hotel design
inspiration in Kenya
cars that replicate a school of fish (which never collide)
What I learned from a talk on Biomimicry
12. • It’s the little things that matter, and which often have the
bigger impact (look at the customer relationship beyond
the dollars and cents)
• You should aim for the emotional center when thanking
your customers for their business, and go beyond the
transactional radius of your relationship with them
• Gary V thinks the Old Spice campaign is the greatest
example of what NOT to do when it comes to the
=
humanization of business (push vs. talked)
Focusing on the little
things
What I learned from a talk on the “humanization of business”
13. • The designer and storyteller always need to work
together
• Products needs to be more than just a “thing”. They need
to be built off relevant ideas, and the story needs to be
driven throughout the entire proposition in an authentic
way
• Turn back to why you or your client are in business. Why
did you start in the first place? Ask yourself if your
customers would shed any tears if you were gone
tomorrow? =
Designing ideas, not
objects
• You cannot control your brand, you can only influence it
What I learned from a talk on designing ideas, not objects
14. Key takeaway: the speakers and panels will intellectually
Ideas
stimulate you. Always have something to write ideas on
15. • Ideas can emerge at any moment.
• That saying is even more prevalent when down at
SXSW, where the speakers, people and random
conversations serve as catalysts for ideas (napkin
worthy or not)
• Always be prepared. Make sure you have
something to write them down on with you at all
times. You don’t want to end up like me and use
poor quality airplane napkins
An idea from Richard Tseng and I, manifested itself
into a rough sketch on an airplane napkin on
the way back from SXSW
Ideas will emerge from your head at any moment. Make sure you
have something to write them down on
16. People Inspiration
!
Ideas
Craziness in the overlap
Racing your favourite Web
Celebrity across downtown Austin
in a bike cab at 1am, minutes after
your colleague convinced you to
take a bike tour through the
shadiest neighbourhood in the city
People. Inspiration. Ideas
that’s what I took away from SXSW 2011
17. and if I ran into that same guy
at the airport next year,
that’s what I would tell him