culture hacker

If you’re on Twitter, chances are your feed was swamped last week by SXSW attendees. I’ll admit to being one of the guilty parties. This marked my fourth year at SXSW interactive and my second as a panelist. The conference is growing at what seems to be an exponential rate (over 10,000 attendees in 2009!) and has been described as Summer Camp for Geeks.

Perhaps I’m a little jaded, but this year’s conference was frustrating to me for several reasons. I’ll lay out some of them here:

1. Self-promotion. Many of the panels I saw were more about pimping the panelists’ latest project and less about sharing information. Likewise, audience questions all started out with “Hi, my name is A and my latest project is B and it’s great because of C, D, E, F, and G.” Perhaps this is just a symptom of economic times and financial insecurity, but in past years, audiences wouldn’t let people get away with hijinks like this. Quality information is not going to get passed on if the filters are removed. If you find yourself in a similar situation, speak up! It’s likely you’re not the only one feeling that way. Gong show, anyone?

2. “Well, you’re talking about it, so it must have worked.” That was the familiar refrain to countless choruses about marketing during various panels, from panelists and audience members alike. Completely faulty logic. We’re also talking about the recession and Madoff. Not all publicity is good publicity. Ask Michael Jackson. Ask Enron. Ask AIG. Many times panelists are sitting at the microphones because they are excellent at writing a panel proposal – they have self-promotional skills. These do not always translate into a successful marketing campaign. Remain skeptical. Ask for facts.

3. ARGs. “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” A few years ago, panels were gently introducing the concept of Alternate Reality Gaming to the SXSW audience at large and were met, for the most part, by blank stares followed by an occasional light bulb. In 2009, if your marketing panel didn’t discuss ARGs, extended reality, transmedia, deep media, or some other variation on the theme, then by golly it weren’t nuthin’. Everyone wants to jump on the bandwagon and capitalize on ARGs. The question is still the same as it was years ago: How can ARGs fund themselves? Still no answer to that one. But what’s wrong with this trend is overuse and misuse of the term “ARG.” While I am usually one to argue against definitions, even I can’t see how a scavenger hunt, for example, is an ARG. What started out as an innovative form of storytelling has become an internet buzzword used to describe anything that has puzzles or rudimentary interaction, and that’s a little sad.

So enough with the bitterness. What was right about SXSWi this year?

1. Panels that were honest about themselves. The EA Dead Space Deep Media Case Study, for instance. The audience knew going into the panel that they were going to hear about how EA marketed itself, but because they were up front about it in the description, that was cool (and a very interesting case study, to boot – while I did work on this campaign, I only saw a small portion of it).

2. The informal conversations. Never turn down a hallway, lunch, or drink chat if possible. SXSWi attendees are, like you, similarly driven to excel in their fields and have a lot of wisdom to impart… as well as industry scoop.

3. Twitter. Oh, don’t roll your eyes at me like that. If your panel is starting to stink, run a quick search on the #sxsw hash tag and see what people are ranting and raving about. A friend and I had walked out of one panel early in disgust only to find out via Twitter that it bloomed into a full-scale audience revolt after we left. (Luckily we were right next door, so we could head back over to see the aftermath.)

In the end, was the experience worth it? Yes, I think so. I have a feeling that the organizers are going to hear about the self-promoting panelists, and the audience is going to be a little more proactive with the Panel Picker for next year.

If you plan to attend, make sure to do your homework ahead of time and take a close look at both the panel descriptions and the panelists. Research who they are and what they’ve done. Perhaps they’ve written a book, game, or operating system that you’ve admired for years. It pays to plan, but also be flexible: your time there is valuable enough to make the decision to switch panels if you’re not hooked in the first ten minutes or so.

And last, but not least, don’t be afraid to introduce yourself, pass out cards, and have conversations. You never know when a connection is going to pay off somehow, whether it’s landing a gig or making a friend. Come out of your shell, get to know people, and learn a few things. And have a margarita or two.