The Geek Hipster Guide to SXSW

South By Southwest Interactive attracts all types of digitally inquisitive people from all over the world. Still, wandering the halls of the Austin Convention Center and the streets of downtown Austin, it’s impossible not to notice a significant representation of the black beard, black glasses, check shirt and baseball/flat cap brigade (amongst the men anyway). Better known as the Geek Hipster set, or Geekster, this tribe has congregated from the near and far flung diasporas of Williamsburgh in Brooklyn, Hoxton in London, The Mission in San Francisco and hometown East Austin.

In honour of this gathering we’ve conducted our own social anthropological study and dipped back into an old meme of LEGO love to create The Geekster Guide to SXSW.

ENVIRO GEEK

Where to spot them: SXSW Eco Meet Up

HACKER GEEK

Where to spot them: Hacking the Hackathon

SOCIAL MARKETING GEEK

Where to spot them: What Social Media Analytics Can’t Tell You

DO-GOODER GEEK

Where to spot them: Cause Tech Startups - The Opportunity in Good

BIG DATA GEEK

Where to spot them: Actively Participating in the Big Data Revolution

UBER GEEK

Where to spot them: In their bedroom following everything online

M-HEALTH GEEK

Where to spot them: Penicillin 2.0 - Sensor Driven Health

CROWD GEEK

Where to spot them: The “Real” Crowdfunding Investment

GAMING GEEK

 

Where to spot them: SXSW Gaming Expo

SOCIAL BUSINESS GEEK

Where to spot them: Dachis Group + Sprinklr Party of course….

MAKER GEEK

Where to spot them: Maker to Manufacturing session

JOURNO GEEK

Where to spot them: A Virtual Conversation with Glenn Greenwald

 

Sustainability does underpin the SXSW ethos, despite corporatization complaints

South By Southwest had become “too marketing focused”, they complained. There were too many big brands trying to hawk their products. The corporatisation of social and digital media was killing the spirit of this most free-spirited of conferences. [Read more…]

The Geekster Guide to SXSW

South By Southwest Interactive attracts all types of digitally inquisitive people from all over the world. Still, wandering the halls of the Austin Convention Center and the streets of downtown Austin this week, it’s impossible not to notice a significant representation of the black beard, black glasses, check shirt and baseball/flat cap brigade (amongst the men anyway). Better known as the Geek Hipster set, or Geekster, this tribe has congregated from the near and far flung diasporas of Williamsburgh in Brooklyn, Hoxton in London, The Mission in San Francisco and hometown East Austin.

In honour of this gathering we’ve conducted our own social anthropological study and dipped back into an old meme of LEGO love to create The Geekster Guide to SXSW. And we’ve trawled through the exhaustive SXSW schedule to find the panels and talks we think these Geeksters would most want to attend. Read below or download the PDF and share it around! Let us know if we’ve missed out anyone.

ENVIRO GEEK

 

Dream Session: Al Gore on The Future

 

HACKER GEEK

Dream Session: IEEE/W3C Open Future Meetup with Tim Berners-Lee and What Can We Learn from the Unabomber?

Social Marketing Geek

Dream Session: Contagious: Why Things Catch On and The Future of Video; The Post YouTube Apocalypse

DO-GOODER GEEK

Dream Session: 3D Printing for People with Disabilities and Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business

BIG DATA GEEK

Dream Session: Any panel with Nate Silver

UBER GEEK

Dream Session: Drone Daddy Chris Anderson and New York Times’ scourge Elon Musk on stage together for the Elon Musk Keynote.

M-HEALTH GEEK

Dream Session: mHealth: Take Two Apps & Call Me in the Morning and Digital Health Changes Everything.

CROWD GEEK

Dream Session: Shut Up & Take My Money: LEGO Does Crowdsourcing and Go Fund Yourself.

GAMING GEEK

 

Dream Session: Crafting a Success: The Story of Minecraft

SOCIAL BUSINESS GEEK

Dream Session: Say Goodbye to Corporate Marketing as You Know It and Is Social Media Making Us Sick?

MAKER GEEK

Dream Session: How 3D Printing Changed My Life

JOURNO GEEK

Dream Session: Journalism by #s: Data Will Change Nature of News and The Future of Porn (for research purposes only)

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Demystifing why content goes viral

It’s the most awkward conversation in the online marketing world. You know, the one where the client and the agency discuss how they are going to make the new campaign go “viral”. Both client and agency know there’s no guarantee of creating a spreadable online hit but still they assure each other: “this one is going to be huge!”

If you’ve ever been party to those conversations then Jonah Berger has some news for you. The professor of marketing at Wharton Business School shared some of the learnings from his book Contagious: Why Things Catch On during a packed-out SXSW session on Sunday morning.

Here are some of this top line insight from the research he’s done.

  • Just 7 percent of word of mouth sharing happens online. Most happens in real life conversation.
  •  Focus on the message, not the messenger - aka beware the cult of influencers. There’s no good data to suggest that influencers are consistently influential. Influence, after all is relative.
  • There’s no such think as luck when it comes to contagious content. It’s all about craft.
  • Mental “triggers” are key. Why did the Rebecca Black video go viral? Because every Friday, people search YouTube for this song.
  • If in doubt, recruit a comedic violent character that cements the name of your brand to create buzz….

MakerBot unveils new 3D scanner

Calling it the “New Industrial Revolution”, MakerBot CEO Bre Pettis used his opening keynote address at SXSW Interactive to unveil a new product, the Digitizer Desktop 3D Scanner.

The Digitizer prototype uses two lasers to create 3D copies of small objects in as little as three minutes. Pettis believes the Digitizer could be a game changer in the growing world of 3D Printing, claiming that “now everyone will be able to scan a physical object.”

Up until now the appeal of 3D printing has been limited to a fairly small group of talented folk who have the creative ability to visualise and design 3D objects. Creating 3D scanned copies of everyday objects puts the makers innovation movement into the hands of a much larger group of consumers.

Pettis also believes it moves MakerBot into new territory - “we’re no longer just a printer company but a company that builds out a 3d ecosystem,” as he describes it. A whole gaggle of Intellectual Property lawyers will also be looking at the company’s new product with interest no doubt.

Pettis’ keynote immediately set the tone for this year’s SXSW Interactive where the focus is as much on physical and product innovation as it is one social platforms and services. “It’s time to get into hardware,” Pettis declared.