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Jason Falls at SXSWi 2009

Before venturing into the Blogger Lounge at SXSW, I was not privy to all that was Jason Falls until I was encouraged to sit down and have a chat with him to find out just what makes his blog, Social Media Explorer so successful and how Twitter has added to his fame. Along with his successful blog and being one of the nicest guys I’ve ever shared BBQ with (at Stubb’s in Austin, Texas), Jason is director of social media for Doe-Anderson, a brand-building agency in Louisville, KY and co-founder of the Social Media Club in Louisville.

Justin Levy at SXSWi 2009

Justin Levy is the newest pirate to join Chris Brogan over at New Marketing Labs – a new media marketing agency, as well as the home of the New Marketing Summit conferences and New Marketing Bootcamp educational events. If you have ever seen Justin speak publicly or just hung out with him, you know he isn’t shy about sharing his thoughts and opinions, no matter how different they may be from the norm. I think this is why people like the guy so much (or perhaps that is why I like him so much).

Check out his response to my question “what makes a social media expert.”

David Meerman Scott at SXSWi 2009

I ran into David Meerman Scott , author, speaker and marketing strategist during SXSW and asked him a few questions about his newly released book – World Wide Rave and his thoughts around what to look for when hiring a PR (or advertising) agency to handle social media projects. Be sure to download World Wide Rave onto your Kindle or get a hardcopy for yourself. I got mine!

25 SXSW Attendees Explain Why You Should Attend Next Year…Oh and they did it in two words…

Inspired by Steve Garfield’s video montage “27 People, One Question” I thought it would be fun to do something similar during my trip to SXSW Interactive. Throughout my time there, I had some lighthearted fun with attendees and asked 25 people to give me two words that describe their experience at the event. Some of the responses, both serious and entertaining, came from folks like Jeff Pulver, Chris Brogan, Justin Levy, Jeremiah Owyang, Robert Scoble, Jason Falls, Aaron Strout, and many others. Using my handy Kodak Zi6 HD camera I captured some great footage that hopefully encapsulates what SXSW Interactive is all about and in some cases, just made me go “huh?”

So without further ado, for your viewing pleasure check out what some of this year’s SXSW Interactive attendees had to say for themselves. I am sure you will recognize a few of your friends and hopefully have a few laughs along the way.

A special thanks to everyone who participated and shared their two (and sometimes more) words and thanks for all the memories. See y’all next year – SXSWi 2010!

Disclaimer: The video quality and lighting varies slightly due to the ‘extreme’ shooting conditions of SXSW. 🙂

Translation: This was my first attempt and I didn’t lug around all the lighting and sound equipment with me for these impromptu shots, so some responses were a little more difficult to see/hear, but you get the point.

Music: Dan Tharp, Guitar Suite I – Movement I and II
Camera: Kodak Zi6 HD

South by Southwest or Bust!

SXSW 2009PerkettPR is heading to Austin, Texas this week to attend one of the most anticipated events of the year – SXSW 2009 Interactive! Heather Mosley (@mosleyppr) and I both served as panel liaisons for this year’s festival and we are looking forward to meeting with all the social media movers and shakers at the event.

Along with attending the many sessions the conference has to offer, we will be conducting several informal video interviews from the event to share on this blog. We have already confirmed some great interviews with David Meerman Scott, Chris Brogan, Justin Levy, Peter Kim, Steve Garfield, Michael Langford, Mike Lewis and others, and we are looking for more! If you are a tech blogger/reporter, entrepreneur, social media enthusiast or just a big thinker who would like to speak with us at the show and tell us about your innovative spirit, please let us know – we’d love to connect in Austin to learn and share more.

If you are not attending but would like us to try and catch someone specific for an interview, please send us a note or post some suggestions here – we’ll do our best to catch those folks on video. Also, send us your suggestions on the “must see” events, parties, and activities we should plan on attending. We don’t want to miss anything!

Here’s what we’re looking forward to:

  • The Accelerator, in which about two dozen startups will demo their services or products before a panel of judges; venture capitalist Guy Kawasaki and tech journalist Brad King will emcee the event
  • Core Conversation: Why Gen Y Won’t Friend Your Brand
  • Guy Kawasaki’s Keynote Interview with “The Long Tail” writer Chris Anderson
  • Core Conversation: How to Create a Great Company Culture
  • Opening Remarks by Tony Hsieh of Zappos
  • Core Conversation: Advertising is Entertaining – Who’s Selling Out?

And so much more! We look forward to seeing you at SXSWi!

Contact/follow us at:
Christine Major – cmajor [at] perkettpr [dot] com or DM at @cmajor
Heather Mosley – hmosley [at] perketpr [dot] com or DM at @mosleyppr

Mzinga and the Power of Community

Grant Robertson from DownloadSquad.com interviews Aaron Strout (VP of New Media) from Mzinga at SXSW 2008. Aaron talks about how Mzinga helps customers leverage the power of community with their enterprise-class, white-label social media platform.


SXSW 2008: Mzinga from Download Squad on Vimeo.

[via downloadsquad.com]