Brand Flakes for Breakfast - SXSW Interactive

Update: Monday turns into Tuesday.

darryl ohrt — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 12:26:00 +0000

Worked at the convention center until security kicked me out at around 11pm, and then asked my Twitter pals if the hotel, or a party should be next. Twitter friends said party. Duh.

Checked the hotel to find that the wifi was sucking bad, so I left to find the party that everyone was tweeting about. (Have I mentioned the awesomeness of Twitter today?)

So, off to the Six Lounge. Somehow I convinced the doorman to give me a magic bracelet that allows free drinks. Caught up with friends, met new friends, saw the caveman and Sarah Lacy. Probably not in that order. Headed home too late.

Is it Monday already?

darryl ohrt — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 03:38:00 +0000

We're headed home late tomorrow. On one hand, I can't believe it's almost over. On the other hand, my body says "it's time for a day without alcohol, and with more sleep."

Here's some highlights from our Monday at SXSW. As always, check our individual Tumblr pages for even more entertaining and informative action.

The Mark Zuckerberg keynote continued to explode all over the internet. Kind of cool to witness this in person. I heard a Twitter rumor that he was going to take an open Q&A at a local restaurant, but was too lazy to leave the convention center and find out if it was for real.

Went to some great panels today, and you can read the majority of our notes on our Tumblrs.

On the trade show floor, I met with three different providers of streaming video. We've got some cool ideas for clients (and our upcoming tour) that push the limits of what's seemingly possible with live video streams. I'll be anxious to see which vendor can help us achieve our goals.

After a day of panels, we headed to the Nuclear Taco event. The word "nuclear" says it all. The "4 bombs out of 5" level of hottness left Rob in tears. Literally. Crying like a little baby girl. He thinks he's all man, because he got a tattoo, but he was brought to his knees by a little tasty taco.

After tacos, we headed to 20x2, a show featuring artists, marketing geeks, comedians and others answering the question "What's the Difference?" Some entertaining responses followed. Was cool for a while, until we got bored and moved on.

Some Blue Moon beer led to some interesting conversation at the Marriot. An earlier evening, as David, Rob and I all had work (and deadlines!) to attend to. Rob and I are supposed to join a SXSW running group tomorrow, but I also see some parties brewing, on Twitter. Not sure which side of my brain I should listen to...

Rob gets a Texas tattoo

darryl ohrt — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 02:28:00 +0000

Last night, as we're enjoying cold frosties at the GameTap party, Rob just blurts out "I think I'm going to get a tattoo." And he was serious. Rather than talk him out of it, I immediately grabbed the iPhone and Flip video camera, and began documenting his adventure.

You'll enjoy my slurred narration and incoherent ramblings that can only be accomplished with the aid of several Shiner beers. (It's a Texas thing, really. I think that's why they all say "Y'all" down here. Because they're drunk on Shiner beer.)

You'll also enjoy Rob's bare chest. It's not everyday that you get to see your agency's employees half naked, on video. (Ok, I take that back, in our industry, I guess that's commonplace.)

So Rob is bringing a little Texas home. Don't mess with him, if you know what's good for you. I can only imagine what the next few days will bring. I predict that David will get his nose pierced.

Super productive Sunday

darryl ohrt — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 01:11:00 +0000

We each attended some interesting panels today. Probably the most controversial of which was Facebook's Mark Zuckerber keynote. As you may know, Mark is pretty shy dude, and not famous for his public speaking skills. So to facilitate a better keynote, SXSW brought in Sarah Lacey, the author of a Newsweek cover article and an upcoming book on Mark, to interview him. (Clip above shows the scene, and Sarah's introdution.)

What started with a single heckler, turned into a full audience slam. Mostly against Sarah Lacey. In her defense, this is a tough crowd. Some of the most intelligent and internet savvy people in the world were in the room. You can read about some of the details on CNet.

The keynote was quickly heard around the world. What started as live chat and Twitter tweets from the ballroom quickly grew into blog posts, podcasts and more. Will surely be the buzz of the internet tomorrow morning.

Dave and I also attended a completely relevant panel on wireframes in the Web 2.0 world. Clearly, as online experiences continue to grow more intense and complicated, it's our job to keep planning, strategy and info architecture up to speed. Things are changing fast, and there's some exciting new methods for doing this well.

We're starting to recognize some SXSW faces, and making new interesting friends. Finding new technologies, new processes, and new partners. Today we made our first visit to the exhibit floor, and got a peak at some of the exhibitors showing. I had an interesting meeting with Ustream, about pushing the limits of streaming video. We're about to do something that hasn't been done very well on the internet this summer, and hope that they'll be an integral part of making that happen. Always pushing limits.

Tonight we're taking it easy. Less beer, no tattoos, and more work. We'll be catching up on things so that we can have an even more productive day tomorrow. That, and Rob's chest is probably still stinging from his Texas tattoo.

Be sure to check our individual Tumblr pages for all of the latest posts, notes from our sessions, and far more detail than we could spill here.

Saturday night. Plaid shows Austin how it's done.

darryl ohrt — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 15:02:00 +0000

It started out pretty innocent, with a cute social hour at the Google party. Met a dude who worked for NASA, and then Stanford. We insulted his intelligence as best we could.

Moved over to the Razorfish party and met up with friends and client Segway to share some Texas tea. (I'm pretty sure that's what they call Shiner beer around here.) Segway turned us on to some of the most Awesome BBQ ever. My lips are still burning and pink, in BBQ delight. See some of the pics on David's Tumblr.

Then we heard about this awesome FrogDesign party, and began our quest. Nobody really knew where it was, exactly - which typically isn't a problem at SXSW - if something's popular, you just follow the migration of people wearing badges through the streets. Only the crowd of people we were following didn't know where they were going either. Everyone was just following everyone else. Through some grit of Austin. Party was found, and it sucked badly. Awesome space, absolutely impossible to get a drink. Lines at the Haunted Mansion at DisneyWorld are shorter.

We all questioned the value of sponsored parties, for brands. Seems like it's grown out of control, and leaving people with more of a negative experience than a positive one.

Left the Frog party and stumbled on the GameTap party. It was there that we discovered the best donut holes ever deep fried in Texas.

One thing led to another, and the next thing I know, Rob's planning on getting a tattoo. Of a Texas star. Of course, we captured the whole thing on video.

Celebratory beers were had. Using Twitter, we found that the cool people were hanging at the Omni Hotel. Too tired to actually use our legs, Rob and I hired a pedicab to take us there. The nearly unbearable hill climbs had us racked with guilt for the unlucky cyclist tasked with transporting our fat asses.

At around 3am, or 2am, (I'm not sure, as things got really confusing with all of the beer and the time change), we called it a night well done.

Saturday. Lots of learning, listening and internet love.

darryl ohrt — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 14:12:00 +0000

The daylight hours had the Plaid crew uber productive during Saturday. David, Rob and I spread out and covered a day's worth of panels. Plenty of notes were taken, and you can read the highlights on each of our individual Tumblr pages. (Click the Darryl, David & Rob badges on the right.) Some really great, insightful and informative people.

And then the sun set. What happens in Austin does not stay in Austin. It gets Tweeted. And Tumbled. And blogged. Full Saturday night recap coming soon...

A fun first day at SXSW

darryl ohrt — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 04:53:00 +0000

While the morning got us started in crusty underwear from the night before, by early afternoon, our luggage was back in our possession, and we were three fresh smelling handsome men. The ladies of Texas are surely taking notice.

We registered for the conference, picked up our swag bags, and kicked into gear. We attended a fun mixer at Six, a pretty cool lounge in town. I met the Seesmic crew (pictured above), which pretty much made my night. Kathy chastised me for lurking more than I'm posting on Seesmic, and I've promised to post more frequently.

We also met some dude from Google, and a bunch of other interesting internet workers. I'd like to say that the internet workers are wayyyyy cooler than all of the film geeks.

The night ended on a sad note for me, as I dropped my iPhone on a concrete floor. The screen is cracked, and my spacebar doesn't work. Pretty nervous about what the Apple store is going to tell me.

I would like to file an official complaint with the Governor of Texas - as it's not as warm as I expected. It's Texas, dammit, and I shouldn't have to wear a jacket here.

Tomorrow starts out early for Rob and I, who are running with a SXSW running group. Then a day full of panels kicks off at 10am. We'll be sure to share all the details.

Don't forget to check out each of our Tumblr pages. Lots of fun from David, Rob and myself. You can click on the badges in the right column of this page, to visit them now. Bookmark them, and tell all of your friends.

Attempting to find our luggage...

darryl ohrt — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 13:16:00 +0000

Anyone seen a Plaid suitcase? Somewhere in Dallas or Austin? With all of my underwear, jeans and sneakers in it? Just wondering. Dave and Rob have the same problem. Our first quest for SXSW: Clean underwear.

Trains, Planes and automobiles.

darryl ohrt — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 07:34:00 +0000

Austin, Texas...the most difficult place in the world to get to. What a day. We arrived at LaGuardia Airport on time, and ready to rock. Slight delay with our plane, as we heard there was some snow, in Dallas. Weird, but ok.

Our flight goes to Dallas, where we're supposed to connect to Austin. We land in Dallas, and it's snowing. Snowing pretty hard, by Dallas standards. (Which of course, made us laugh.) Until we found that 2 inches of snow SHUT THE ENTIRE AIRPORT DOWN. Connecting flight to Austin is cancelled.

Not discouraged, Giuli connected us up with American Airlines, and they booked us on a bus, to Austin. That's right. They can't get a plane off of the runway, but they can get a bus to the airport?? But, whatever - we're going to Austin.

We wait in an hour long line to find out where we're supposed to catch this bus. "Bus? This is an airport...." After several comments like this from American Airlines employees, we found a supervisor who confirmed that there was indeed a bus, that we were booked on it, and it was leaving at 9:30pm. But she didn't know where to get it. We'd have to go to the main ticketing counter, to find out.

The main ticketing counter. Can you imagine what that looked like, after the airport was shut down? More waiting, more searching for supervisors, and we're headed to "D30".

D30 is a doorway to the road in front of the ticketing area. A doorway. Not a gate. Nobody else is there. Nobody knows about a bus. We're nervous.

"Let's rent a car and drive there ourselves." So we hop a bus and head to the car rental hub.

The car rental hub....six empty counters, and two counters with about 80 or 100 people in line. Most with reservations. Everyone else says "we have no cars." A woman at Enterprise says, "well, I can get you a Mustang Shelby, but it's going to cost $209/day" Rob's eyes light up, and we agree. Wait in line. 20 minutes pass. Manager comes to counter, and confirms there's no Mustang, or any car at all.

We head to Alamo, and beg for a car. "We don't have any left." I hop on the self serve kiosk, and managed (still don't know how) to get a car reserved. Even the Alamo desk agent can't believe it - and has to come check it out. "How'd you do that?"

And, so we leave Dallas, in a rented car, for Austin. 3+ hours later, we're here. Phew.

Did I mention that we checked our bags? Tomorrow's adventure: Find our luggage!!

(See video clips and more details tomorrow, on our individual Tumblr pages.)

how we're blogging at sxsw

darryl ohrt — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 22:13:00 +0000

We'll be keeping you informed about SXSW with a couple of new tools.

We'll each keep individual pages using Tumblr. We'll be updating our Tumblr pages throughout the days, using Utterz for audio and video posts, Twitter for microposts, and of course this main blog for regular updates. We'll also plan on sharing a Flickr photo set.

Here's the links to each of our individual posts (which right now may contain our existing Twitter feeds, and non-sxsw content):

David
Tumblr
Twitter

Rob
Tumblr
Twitter

Darryl
Tumblr
Twitter

In theory, you'll be able to do nothing all day but watch our posts, capture new ideas, and stay more informed than your friends. Just plan to push your work aside for a few days.

If you have any doubt about us taking this seriously, just check out Dave's mug above. He promises to blog all the details. Even when Rob gets all drunk and runs around the hotel lobby in his underwear. We're told that Texas beer has magical qualities, like that.

Plaid goes to SXSW!

darryl ohrt — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 01:08:00 +0000

A few of us (David, Rob and myself) will be attending the interactive portion of the upcoming SXSW interactive conference in Austin, TX.

We thought we'd share our exploits with you. We're going to do our best to cover it from a Brand Manager's perspective.

So, add the SXSW version of BrandFlakes to your feed reader. Or check back daily for what's happening.

If you're also attending, please let us know! We'd love to share a beer with you. You're welcome to contact me directly, at darryl (at) thinkplaid DOT com. Or just sport the official Plaid gang sign (Rob demonstrates, above) at any bar, and they'll automatically bill us for your beer. We're pretty sure that works everywhere across the internet-land.

We're also planning to schedule an ooVoo chat once we're there - so that you can join in on the fun. We'll share details as soon as we can.

Anyway, if everything goes to plan, we hope to share ideas, new tools and developing trends with you. And drink just a little bit of Lone Star beer. Or whatever they drink in Austin. Don't mess with Texas.