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SXSW: Your Eyes are Getting Very Heavy….

Maureen — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 18:00:12 +0000

While I was at SXSW this year, I attended a session that focused on techniques to improve PowerPoint presentations called Presenting Straight to the Brain. I was immediately interested because presentations are a way of life in the agency world. Okay – I also might have been a little interested to see if the panel were giving any tips for mind control that I could use to help in that next big presentation. Though I may have been a little disappointed on the lack of ‘How to Be a Benevolent Svengali’ content, I did walk away with some interesting insight and reminders of how our noodles work.

If you only have time to read to this point- here’s your Twitter take-away. Great presentations add a dash of caveman thinking.

The point being is that we all still essentially think, react and remember more like Fred and Barney than the evolved post-millennial beings we all think we are. Our mind battles with our brain, constantly sending signals to process thoughts, remember information and control our reactions. In the end, our brain typically wins the fight. We are programmed to be at our peak level of awareness when we perceive a threat or when a situation evokes a strong emotion. It’s fight or flight.

Think back to high school. If I could have remembered the information for my physics exams as easily as I could the lyrics to Bon Jovi, I might be mulling over black holes with Stephen Hawking instead. Why is that? The song lyrics connected with me (and my big hair) emotionally. Even though my mind told me the physics information was really important to remember for the exam, I didn’t have real reason to remember or connect with it- I wasn’t passionate about it.

The same goes for presentations – and really most of the other methods we use to communicate information. Apparently, our working memory can only retain 3-4 things at a time. If you want people to sit up and pay attention, reduce the number of bullet points per slide, use very short phrases and if possible accompany them with images and movement that evokes a strong emotion. Otherwise, you leave the audience to make the decision on what to remember instead of you helping to make that decision for them.

While some of the examples I saw on the panel were a bit over used (think puppies and babies), they did get a reaction out the crowd. Personally, I am not a fan of corny sound-effects or animated gifs but we all know that the right image paired with a key take-away can make your point a thousand times better. Now, put this thinking into action with another of the panels suggestions, story boarding your presentation, and you have the elements of a much more effective presentation. Everyone has an easier time with stories. The challenge is to find a way to weave a story among the many points you may need to get across. One way they suggested was to think of your presentation less in terms of the car manual and more in terms of the car ad instead.

Even though the topic was about presentations, I think much of this is actually relevant to other areas as well. I know we practice many of these same principles when it comes to content and call to action strategies for websites, emails, etc. Now I am looking forward to tackling that next presentation with all of this great info in mind which is great ‘cause I wasn’t so sure about pulling off ‘you’re eyes are getting heavy’ routine anyway.

SXSW: How to Create a Great Company Culture

Sydney — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 17:32:50 +0000

I was fortunate enough to attend SXSWi in Austin for 5 inspiring days with a number of my colleagues. Out of the many engaging panels I attended I really enjoyed the core conversation session: How to Create a Great Company Culture. Sam Decker (BazaarVoice) and Jason Black (Boundless Network) were the presenters and shared their opinions and advice around their own company cultural experiences.

Jason Black at SXSW from Diverge Communications on Vimeo.

It is one thing to preach culture and another to resonate it. I believe that these two are the real deal and truly do take the time to understand and value the importance of their own company culture. One of the first things Black said that rang true is that investors look at spreadsheets, while he looks at the lines around the numbers. The lines are the culture and you need them in place to make the numbers work. I could not agree more with this analogy. Here are a few other key pieces to creating a great company culture that Decker and Black shared with us:

#1: Hire Right-
Decker’s advice is to create what he calls your “5 Stars of Culture.” For his company they are “Passion, Teamwork, Excellence, Openness, Execution.” He recommends that you take those and hire against them by asking the interviewee about their experiences around each one. He suggests having at least 3 executives involved in the hire of each employee since they should have the strongest grasp of the 5 stars. The 5 stars can be applied to your company post hiring as well. Tying quarterly reviews to each of the 5 stars can encourage your employees to continually embrace them. Biggest lesson, hire slowly and fire quickly. If someone in your company is not resonating with your 5 cultural stars get them out of there. If your smartest employee does not meet your cultural requirements then, yes, even they need to go.

Culture is a family system-
Black shared another analogy with regards to the structure of your culture. You can think of your culture as a family. The ‘Parents’ are the investors. You do not have to have them but they got you to where you are. Your ‘Best Friend’ would be your co-founder. They exist with you but it is often a love hate relationship. What is important is that they are aligned with your core values. Your ‘Good Friends’ are your management team. They are an extension of yourself and you need to be able to rely on them and trust that they will run through a wall for you if needs be. They also need to be aligned with your visions and core values. The last piece, and in my opinion the more important piece of the family, are the ‘kids.’ These are your employees and they need both ‘spankings and hugs’ from time to time. Spankings in regard to very candid and open reviews and hugs in the form of praise and rewards. It is very important that the kids are also given a voice and opportunity to contribute to the company.

I think every company could benefit from taking a step back and looking at their company from this viewpoint. Identify those holes (maybe the bratty brother or the disloyal friend) and make an effort to fix it. Black says it best “if you can get that family system right it is a beautiful thing” which brings us back to why the hiring process is so important in the first place.

Inspire your people –
You want to align your tribe. You have to keep your team inspired to your end vision and help them embrace how they are part of that. You need to always tie things back to what Black refers to as your “crusade.” You need to have your employees feel like they are part of something much bigger than just a pay check and as the employer you need to identify those intangibles to inspire.

Decker discussed the importance of celebrating team and company successes. They bang a gong with a new hire, client, or project launches. They also hand out fun awards to recognize hard workers. Black also shared the importance of recognizing time-based events, such as employee anniversaries with the company instead of just performance-based events. Since this is not one of his strong points he found someone in his company who is really on top of tracking dates and they help to remind him of the little things that are just as important and that person helps him to acknowledge each one.

I feel privileged to work for eROI, a company that also recognizes the necessity of a strong culture. Based on the questions and feedback from the crowd this was not the case for everyone attending. My biggest take away from this session is to be conscience about your culture and don’t just live in it. Also -Hire right, eliminate silos and conflicts in your ‘family’, over communicate and be 100% candid, celebrate and inspire, and above all stick to your core values. After all, your company is only as good as the people that work there.

The Science of Happiness: Tony Hsieh, Zappos CEO

Ryan Buchanan — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 16:15:17 +0000

Of all of the talks given at SXSW ‘09, I loved the last 15 minutes of Tony Hsieh’s presentation the best. This part of his talk focused on The Science of Happiness and his earnest desire to spend 10% of his time studying the structured elements of what makes all of us happy. The three levels he shared were: rockstar, flow, and meaning/higher purpose (check out Slide 44 on the Slideshare presentation below). I’m now dedicated to reading and learning more about this balanced, structured approach to happiness. Comment below if you recommend a good book that speaks to you on this topic.

Watch the entire slide show—-

Zappos – SXSW – 3-14-09

View more presentations from zappos.

My Tweets about this keynote SXSW presentation—-
@zappos – I’m getting very fired up for your keynote speech #sxsw11:53 AM Mar 14th from web

#sxswi gives very appreciative, humble opening words before the opening by @zappos12:03 PM Mar 14th from web

Tony’s story starts with running a pizza company in college in 95.12:08 PM Mar 14th from web

He then started link exchange and sold it to microsoft in 98. Sold it because culture no longer good.12:09 PM Mar 14th from web

Zappos sells more than shoes, clothes, electronics. But it is really all about being the very best customer service12:11 PM Mar 14th from web

75% sales come from repeat customers12:12 PM Mar 14th from web

Telephone is one of best branding experience – vert engaged for 5-10 min.12:14 PM Mar 14th from web

Customers can return product up to 1 year later12:14 PM Mar 14th from web

Everything that improves the customer experience is seen as marketing expense12:18 PM Mar 14th from web

All about the lifelong relationship with the customer one call at a time. You must wow the customer. Longest call ever was 4 hours.12:19 PM Mar 14th from web

#1 goal of company is great company culture. Training is key. Employee culture books.12:22 PM Mar 14th from web

In 2007, 3% employees took the 2k offer to leave, and only 1% took offer in 2008.12:25 PM Mar 14th from web

There is a twitter class as part of @zappos employee orientation class. Twitter is humanizing.12:27 PM Mar 14th from web

*I really need a cheeseburger. I’m in row 8 in ballroom a #sxswi12:28 PM Mar 14th from web

* Someone tweeted “I really need a cheeseburger” at zappos and ten minutes later someone brought one to their desk.

Zappos brand is customer service so entire company is about that.12:31 PM Mar 14th from web

Customer saya zappos is happiness in a box12:33 PM Mar 14th from web

10 commitable core values12:35 PM Mar 14th from web

Interview question: on a scale of 1-10, how weird are you?12:36 PM Mar 14th from web

How lucky are you?12:38 PM Mar 14th from web

Tony says: you have to walk away from revenue and profit to take your brand to next level12:42 PM Mar 14th from web

Start early in your company about collaborating with employees to come up with core values.12:44 PM Mar 14th from web

Commit to transparency. Twitter.zappos.com, “ask anything” newsletter12:47 PM Mar 14th from web

Vision. – chase the vision, not the money12:50 PM Mar 14th from web

What would you be passionate doing for 10 years without making a dime.12:51 PM Mar 14th from web

Build relationships, not networking. Usually 2 years later, something good happens.12:52 PM Mar 14th from web

If you want to go quickly, go alone. Long term, go slower. Hire slowly, fire quickly.12:54 PM Mar 14th from web

What is your goal in life? We are all seeking happiness12:55 PM Mar 14th from web

Tony interested in the real science of happiness. Very cool.12:56 PM Mar 14th from web

3 types of happiness – rock star, flow, meaning and higher purpose1:00 PM Mar 14th from web

Books- peak, tribal leadership, happiness hypothesis1:01 PM Mar 14th from web

What is your company’s higher purpose?1:02 PM Mar 14th from web

Pepperoni pizza at 3am, zappos rep gives closest 5 places in santa monica.1:07 PM Mar 14th from web

#zappos5 – I need to check it out.1:08 PM Mar 14th from web

FREE & Freemiums: Guy Kawasaki and Chris Anderson

Ryan Buchanan — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 20:50:06 +0000

Ah, the vastly entertaining Guy Kawasaki started off the keynote with swagger and a few digs on Sarah Lacy’s dismal interview of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg which happened exactly one year ago at SXSW. Guy followed up with some poignant questions for Wired Magazine publisher Chris Anderson who is about to publish his book “FREE” which of course be free in its electronic version. The debate centered around whether or not freemium (new word thrown around liberally in this SXSW Kawasaki / Anderson interview) products lower the value of that product based on pricing it as FREE for the standard/limited/trial version and a cost to the premium version of that product or software. Check out the video and tweets below to draw your own conclusions.

My Kawasaki / Anderson tweets—-

#sxsw keynote – who’s going to be the star – Guy Kawasaki or Chris Anderson? Will Guy give more Apple examples or Alltop?11:49 AM Mar 17th from TweetDeck

Kawasaki and anderson take the stage now. Gonna be good – I feel it.12:04 PM Mar 17th from web

Sarah lacey jabs already by kawasaki – nice.12:06 PM Mar 17th from web

The big question is how will twitter make money now?12:07 PM Mar 17th from web

Chris answer is agreeing with calcanis for brands to be on top recommended page. Charge companies some way somehow, not consumers12:09 PM Mar 17th from web

Freemium – twitter gives first 500 followers and updates free, then charge after that, how many will leave twitter12:11 PM Mar 17th from web

@kawasaki “I need twitter. I’m stuck with them” – guy + others of us won’t leave to go to facebook status updates only12:13 PM Mar 17th from web

Anderson: free will be free. Even paper books will be free (sponsored version). Why? Free is the best way to maximize reach12:16 PM Mar 17th from web

Anderson has great publisher, disney, that let’s him publish free electronic book. Kawasaki editor said no to free12:18 PM Mar 17th from web

A new publisher might take an equity stake in author’s side companies and rev share of speaking gigs12:24 PM Mar 17th from web

Free is one of the most misunderstood words in world12:25 PM Mar 17th from web

20th century is all about free and marketing trickery. 21st century free is about being online where costs are close to $0.12:27 PM Mar 17th from web

5% is the magic number of converting free users to paid. At mass scale, this is kind of profitable, anything above is pure profit12:31 PM Mar 17th from web

#kawasaki had good point that it is really hard to convert 5%12:32 PM Mar 17th from web

#free google copied overture’s rev model and still great brand, make enough profit to roll out other freemium products. Why can’t twitter?12:39 PM Mar 17th from web

The penny gap. There is a massive diff between free and 1 penny. The hassle of mind asking yourself “is it really worth it?”12:42 PM Mar 17th from web

As you move online, free wants to be the natural price12:47 PM Mar 17th from web

Free copy of electronic book free on july 612:58 PM Mar 17th from web

Perception of free is cheap in switzweland and lots of industries – chris a (wired mag) answer is what people are used to paying for altern1:05 PM Mar 17th from web

Tara Hunt: Making Whuffie, SXSW

Ryan Buchanan — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 15:00:24 +0000

Before this presentation at SXSW, I had no idea what “whuffie” was. Check out the video, slideshare presentation, and tweets below to get the real definition, but my paraphrased version is that whuffie is good karma points but more in the context of an online community. I sat next to Portland’s social media guru, Dawn Foster, Shizzow founder Ryan Snyder, and Silicon Florist’s Rick Turoczy – so the side conversations were as valuable as the actual presentations. As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, there was a huge Portland turnout for SXSW ‘09 – impressive.

Watch Tara Hunt’s slide show—-

Making Whuffie

View more presentations from Tara Hunt.

My tweets on Whuffie at SXSW—-

in the #whuffie session now – it’s packed. 5 key components to raising your whuffie – like goodness and having more social chits / value9:34 AM Mar 15th from TweetDeck

#1 get advice and input from experts but design for broader community.9:37 AM Mar 15th from TweetDeck

#2. Respond to all feedback, even if you just say “No thanks”9:38 AM Mar 15th from TweetDeck

#3 don’t take negative feedback personally9:38 AM Mar 15th from TweetDeck

#4 Give credit to those whose ideas you implement9:38 AM Mar 15th from TweetDeck

#5, When you implement new idea, make sure that you highlight it and ask for feedback9:39 AM Mar 15th from TweetDeck

#6 Make small, continuous changes rather than waiting to implement everything at once9:39 AM Mar 15th from TweetDeck

#7 don’t wait for feedback to come to you, go out to social sites and find it9:39 AM Mar 15th from TweetDeck

#8 no matter how many people like you, some won’t. Mind the haters9:40 AM Mar 15th from TweetDeck

get out of the boardroom and into the online community to raise #whuffie9:41 AM Mar 15th from TweetDeck

@Zappos is a great example of making awesome whuffie by going above and beyond. Good karma gets rewarded9:46 AM Mar 15th from TweetDeck

dazzle is in the details, go above and beyond, appeal to emotion, inject fun into the experience9:49 AM Mar 15th from TweetDeck

9. Make happiness your business model9:56 AM Mar 15th from web

10. Be a social catalyst. Make it easy for customers to help customers9:58 AM Mar 15th from web

Raise #whuffie by embracing chaos9:59 AM Mar 15th from web

So packed that fire marshall could shut down talk. My new idea for next speech – have fake fire marshall bill shake things up on stage10:04 AM Mar 15th from web

Find your higher purpose10:07 AM Mar 15th from web

Akoha.com – one of her favorite new sites.10:15 AM Mar 15th from web

I need to follow @missrogue – cool #whuffie mindset10:32 AM Mar 15th from web

Kathy Sierra: Breakthrough Innovation

Ryan Buchanan — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 19:00:23 +0000

Got some great ideas from the Breakthrough Innovation talk at SXSW. Instead of looking at incremental changes and feature bloat, look at game-changers (e.g. Wii, iPhone) by focusing on one thing you do really well – so well that you’d put it as the word or phrase on your super hero outfit. A phrase that does NOT work would be something like “Increased Productivity.” A lot of her points reinforced what I recently read in the book “Made to Stick” by Dan and Chip Heath. If you are in a product development cycle like we are here at eROI, this session was uber-relevant. Check out the video and my tweets below.

My tweets—-

#sxsw session on making breakthroughs – we often get into an arms race w/ competitors and hit a brick wall1:34 PM Mar 16th from TweetDeck

breakthroughs with ideas or performance – Kathy Sierra seems like she’s gonna be a rockin speaker #sxsw1:35 PM Mar 16th from TweetDeck

you need to help people kick ass to breakthrough the competition1:39 PM Mar 16th from TweetDeck

flight vs. invisibility – 2/3 of 2,000 person audience chose flight as their main superpower, 1/3 chose invisibility, how ’bout you?1:44 PM Mar 16th from web

Would you put your product feature on an action figure like a superpower?1:47 PM Mar 16th from web

Superset game. Example with arrington and o’reilly. Take om the bigger thing than immediate large competitor like google in search1:49 PM Mar 16th from web

What would it be like if you didn’t know how to do something and didn’t know limitations2:04 PM Mar 16th from web

Gamers with goal of shipping game in asx hours start to finish2:05 PM Mar 16th from web

Less camp, more jam. Less talk, more doing and making the actual product2:06 PM Mar 16th from web

Focus entirely on what it takes to make your employees better at what they do2:08 PM Mar 16th from web

What movie are your users in?2:10 PM Mar 16th from web

If you want incremental improvements, ask your users. -f you want breakthrough, ignore everybody2:14 PM Mar 16th from web

Breakthru: ask other people,s users2:15 PM Mar 16th from web

Be brave. Fantastic idea gets screwed by the ease of use police2:17 PM Mar 16th from web

Re-examine the half-made or dead products2:20 PM Mar 16th from web

What did gary do? Wine guy – video2:24 PM Mar 16th from web

Gary: huge self-esteem issue of wine foe americans. Talk about it in a totally different way2:27 PM Mar 16th from web

Don’t mistake narrow for shallow. example: lolcats2:28 PM Mar 16th from web

Spotting misused quotations – an entire blog on this2:30 PM Mar 16th from web

Be amazed. Celebrate innovation. Its amazing.2:33 PM Mar 16th from web

Book outliers says it takes 10,000 hours to be amazingly good. How can we take shortcuts to greatness of innovation1:50 PM Mar 16th from web

Deliberate practice to get to kicking ass in less than 1000 hours.1:53 PM Mar 16th from web

Tiger woods spends 80% time on strengths1:54 PM Mar 16th from web

Coders need to carve out time for practice, then code like crazy the right way they have practiced.1:55 PM Mar 16th from web

Make the right thing easy and the wrong thing difficult1:57 PM Mar 16th from web

Get better gear and offer it1:58 PM Mar 16th from web

More monitors truly makes some of us more productive2:01 PM Mar 16th from web

Diary of a Sex Fiend, Zoey Margolis, SXSW

Ryan Buchanan — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 14:18:46 +0000

One contributor, Zoey Margolis or “Abby Lee”, turned her popular blog into a book:

My tweets from this SXSW author session—-

Zoey margolis, author and blogger, talking about being a sex fiend.9:03 AM Mar 14th from web

She has a british accent – must be smart.9:05 AM Mar 14th from web

Love her words like tosser and wanker9:07 AM Mar 14th from web

Angelic feet. Guy saw her at the tube station. He had foot fetish. Great vocab.9:09 AM Mar 14th from web

She had a snog with him. More british slang. F word works for her. Good emphasis.9:12 AM Mar 14th from web

Girl with a one track mind with sordidness all about her. Very entertaining.9:15 AM Mar 14th from web

“The Power of Small” Book, SXSW

Ryan Buchanan — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 17:02:49 +0000

Presentation Based on the book by Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval—-

Great examples in this presentation and the book is an easy read for the flight home – I got through it in a couple hours. The only bummer was that the authors couldn’t make it to present and sent one of their execs instead. Otherwise, lots of great examples about how paying attention to the details matter. A lot of times it is important to “sweat the small stuff”.

My tweets from this session—-

In “the power of small” #sxsw session now in Room 10 – great examples of shreddie diamonds (vs. squares), aflac, and swiffers8:24 AM Mar 16th from TweetDeck

great SNL spoof called “swiffer sweepers” with sweeping your floor with your kids bodies in swiffer outfits – good stuff8:25 AM Mar 16th from TweetDeck

#youtube video of fingers breakdance – gave the brand Dawn idea to do most talented hands competition – successful8:27 AM Mar 16th from TweetDeck

@caseorganic – yep, humor is always what sticks in my head the longest #recursiveproducts #sxsw8:30 AM Mar 16th from TweetDeck in reply to caseorganic

if you are small, you can take more chances, e.g. #blendtec blending iPhone video, slowmo is best part8:35 AM Mar 16th from TweetDeck

power of small – make small talk, go the extra inch, say thank you, become mini-tasker, glass half empty (what’s wrong?), small impressions8:38 AM Mar 16th from TweetDeck

most important thing is to make small changes in our life – overcome the fear – trick ourselves into making changes8:39 AM Mar 16th from TweetDeck

we as humans, americans, have been gravitating towards bigger things, technology changing to empower small things – permanent change8:46 AM Mar 16th from TweetDeck

“Entrepreneurship in the belly of the beast” #sxswbeast – I’m here to see if I (small) can learn startup stuff from BIG9:32 AM Mar 16th from TweetDeck

BIG players at #sxswbeast are IBM, Google, Microsoft, Kraft, and Tech Upstart9:33 AM Mar 16th from TweetDeck

hopefully, SMALL can learn from BIG BEASTS, but I have my doubts – at ACC Room 18B (level 4) http://shz.me/4w79:42 AM Mar 16th from Shizzow

#sxswbeast – looking for some dynamic, personal examples. I need takeaways, golden nuggets. What are your secret entrep projects?9:49 AM Mar 16th from TweetDeck

OH: big companies “we don’t need an idea repository, we need an idea suppository to get the ideas out”9:55 AM Mar 16th from TweetDeck

Mass Scale Graffiti Artist, James Powderly, SXSW

Ryan Buchanan — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 15:08:12 +0000

To the rebel in all of us, James Powderly is our part-nefarious, part-make-the-world-a-better-place hero. As you’ll see from the video and my tweets live from the Monday keynote speech below, Powderly is intoxicating in his allure to scrawl graffiti all over a 500 foot building with amplified lasers and projectors. He even got incarcerated before the Beijing Olympics last year for 10 days for attempting to pull off an impermanent graffiti trick on mass scale. What he didn’t talk about until the last question of the session was his new project to enable a quadriplegic man to be able to do art again, but this time through his eyes (and lasers) instead of his hands. Creativity in such an authentic way – not sure you get a sense of his energy from the video below.

My tweets for this SXSW session—-

#sxsw keynote – just had 2000 people cooperatively give middle finger to speaker james powderly, grafitti research lab12:18 PM Mar 16th from web

Research and track grafitti all over world12:19 PM Mar 16th from web

Learning what a #led throwie is. Very cool on a mass scale12:23 PM Mar 16th from web

Take a laser and write in huge letters on a huge building12:25 PM Mar 16th from web

Went from grafitti research lab to now free art tech lab12:27 PM Mar 16th from web

Oh: “release early, often, and with rap music”12:28 PM Mar 16th from web

Note to self – play hip hop video in any presentation – coolio12:30 PM Mar 16th from web

Powderly was detained by chinese government at 2008 beijing olympics for grafitti project12:32 PM Mar 16th from web

Mc yan is amazing chinese rapper12:34 PM Mar 16th from web

Powderly – if you don’t have a voice, we’ll give you one12:36 PM Mar 16th from web

James powderly is frickin hilarious – best speaker yet at #sxsw12:41 PM Mar 16th from web

Laser tag on a grand scale is so powerful – the ultimate free speech12:42 PM Mar 16th from web

Hermes – if zeus does not grant me power, I will take it like the prince of theives. Powderly is very do it yourself12:51 PM Mar 16th from web

Online video and flickr is a huge piece of grafitti writers’ arsenel.12:54 PM Mar 16th from web

Loves the world the way it is with cats/cops and mice/transgressors12:56 PM Mar 16th from web

A lot of emphasis on lightness and loft – like the combo of those words1:00 PM Mar 16th from web

private confession – yesterday, I learned that # is called a hashtag and not pound. Old school getting more new school every hour at #sxsw1:30 PM Mar 16th from TweetDeck

@garrettgonzales – James Powderly is bad ass – that is the context of laser graffiti1:31 PM Mar 16th from TweetDeck in reply to garrettgonzales

SXSW: Scoble, Kuo & Trunk: Ditch the Valley, Run for the Hills

Ryan Buchanan — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 01:35:21 +0000

This SXSW panel was great from an entrepreneurial perspective, especially with Kaiser Kuo’s insight into Chinese entrepreneurialism and how American entrepreneurs can partner with Chinese companies to enter the Chinese market. Robert Scoble has the rockstar fanfare from the SXSW crowd, but I thought Kaiser Kuo was the real star on this panel from his insights.

My tweets for this session—-

In #sxsw session with scoble – ditch the valley and run for the hills8:03 AM Mar 15th from web

Mike maples jr invested in twitter in the beginning – it could have only started in the valley8:11 AM Mar 15th from web

Kaiser Kuo: the world is NOT flat. It’s spiky with major innovation centers like San Fran, Beijing, Boston, etc. It snowballs from epicenter8:21 AM Mar 15th from TweetDeck

TechCrunch Britain editor says European culture stigmatize entrepreneurial failure, in America, it’s a vindicator8:24 AM Mar 15th from TweetDeck

Maples: good chance the government of Cali will go bankrupt – in bad shape.8:28 AM Mar 15th from TweetDeck

Bay Area has so much tech talent, but it’s more expensive to start a company and your talented employees leave for next best thing8:30 AM Mar 15th from TweetDeck

love the intl perspective here – hulu.com was purchased company/technology of Chinese company – NBC monetizing 80% of video content now8:33 AM Mar 15th from TweetDeck

chinese entrepreneurs are scrappy, super competitive, don’t expect to make huge traction immediately bringing your company there8:35 AM Mar 15th from TweetDeck

the key to going into China is partnering w/ good Chinese business partner. China Inc. a good book8:36 AM Mar 15th from TweetDeck

I really dig Kuo – the Ozzy Osbourne of China – funding from VC is last resort – they take your first-born child. Brutal.8:47 AM Mar 15th from TweetDeck

the entrepreneurs #sxsw seem to be really international, very intriguing8:52 AM Mar 15th from TweetDeck

Silicon Valley is high-stakes poker. Erica, from audience, bootstrapped to $1 million in 6 years. Everyone wants to get there less 12 months8:54 AM Mar 15th from TweetDeck

VC Maples suggests getting to cash flow positive. Kind of a no-brainer, but VC said 1 year ago to spend like crazy. Be consistent.8:57 AM Mar 15th from TweetDeck

I like Penelope Trunk’s honesty – once you take VC money, you don’t have control of your co, not the hiring, not culture, nothing9:03 AM Mar 15th from TweetDeck

@PDX_JP I can see #portland developing innovation around open source software and hopefully social media9:31 AM Mar 15th from TweetDeck in reply to PDX_JP