I attended SXSW last week, and kept a journal detailing some of the talks I attended, the people I met, and the things I learned. - Cameron Wilson

1. 01
sxsw JOUR:

2. swsx kickoff: opening
remarks from bre pettis
anyone in the mood for an infomercial?
Bre is one of the founders at Makerbot, which creates and sells 3D printers. He is an
amazing man, and obviously surrounds himself with talented people who come up
with incredible innovations. Too bad this talk descended into a low brow infomercial
touting his latest product halfway through. Actually, I knew we might be in a bit of
trouble when he walked onstage wearing a plastic Borg jacket ( hanging on chair, left ).
However, as you will see, he did have some amazing things to say.

3. Makerbot...amazing, but will it ever be mainstream?
Bre claims Makerbot 3D printers are an affordable way for help create or copy things
in 3D, and allows for fast re-adjustments and re-printing if the result is not to your
liking. it is also an amazing way of getting parts to inaccessable places. For example,
what if a space station needs a spare plastic part? According to Bre, just «beam it
up!». It is amazing, but I see it as a niche device until it is marketed differently.
Practical Applications
Bre has some very convincing arguments regarding the potential impact of his
printer on design, architecture and medical prosthaetics industries.
Small scale models of buildings can be printed in a variety or configurations almost
instantaneously instead of the painful process of building and rebuilding them out of
glue, popsicle sticks and foamcore every time adjustments are required.
Organisations like NASA can quickly, easily and affordably output parts without
paying for expensive and time consuming injection molding services.
Prosthaetics are expensive, which is why children, (who grow up very quickly), often
have to wait until they are adults before acquiring them. Now it is posible to simply
scale up the parts as the child grows, and print them out as required.
Bre also unveiled his latest prototype called the Makerbot Digitizer, which can both
scan and copy small objects. A «washer/dryer» of 3D replication.
http://www.makerbot.com/
Bre Quotes
«I want to empower people to make stuff»
«The new revolution will be 3D printed»
«One day we realized that our biggest customer was NASA, and the geek in me was
like…Yes!»
«Join us in the 3d Revolution!»
Why is this interesting for Cossette?
It is unclear whether 3D printers will ever be as standard a device in the home or
office. However, as an innovative way of supporting a brand’s message at tradeshows
or kiosks, it could have significant creative clout. Imagine being able to create your
own sculpture in a digital space owned and curated by a brand? Once you take it
home and display it on your shelf, it can become an in-home, 3D advertising device.

4. makerbot digitizer : bre’s newest prototype wow; is he serious? might need a bit more advertising finesse
titles : might have added, « Hold on, there’s more for just $19.99! » band of crazy geniuses : despite my concerns about his motives at SXSW,
bre is clearly a man that knows how to attract the best and brightest.

5. technology, imagination
& exponential thinking
jason silva and his «shots of philosophical espresso»
When Jason Silva hits the stage he is impossible to ignore. He speaks in rapidfire style
and it is almost too interesting the bare. At first , he was so intense that some of the
audience members started to laugh.
But not for long.
Never in my life have I seen someone with a photographic memory and an ability to
make fascinating, instant connections between seemingly unrelated ideas combined
with a powerful, passionate gift for speech.
Think Robin Wiliams as a philosopher on crack cocaine.
Jason first became known for his online videos dubbed «Shots of philosophical
Espresso» In which he almost attacks viewers with a combination of high octane, ultra
quick visuals and footage of himself talking to the camera as if he is suffering from a
methamphetamine induced attack of innovation A.D.D.
Silva is interested in the notion of Exponential Thinking. He argues that our society
must learn to change the way we think in order to be more in line with the way
technology is changing our lives and the world around us. Once upon a time, we were
cavemen who had to go through a certain number of linear steps to get what he
wanted. For example; «I am hungry, so I go and hunt for an animal to kill. I kill it, then
eat it». As a result, Our brains have evolved to address things in simple, linear form.
However, the new world we live in demands a brain that is able to make rapid leaps of
imagination that double down as they progress... so instead of:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5...
We should start training ourselves to go:
1, 2, 4, 8, 16....

6. Big Ideas in short form
Jason Silva is a like a giant funnel for ideas. He has worked with Al Gore and spoken
at TED. Here are some links as well as references to books and authors that I
managed to scribble down while listening to his talk:
Books: Technosis, The Singularity is near, The Denial of Death, The Immortals,
Wonderlust
Authors: Erik Davis, Carl Sagan, Sir Ken Robinson
Documentary: Flight from Death
Links:
Radical Openness
The Biological advantage of being in Awe
To understand is to percieve patterns
The beginning of Infinity
The mirroring mind
Jason Quotes
«If you don’t have A.D.D. today you are not paying attention»
«We should see technology as our second skin»
«We may be blind, stumbling primates, but when we work together, we become
primates that can fly »
Why is this interesting for Cossette?
Aside for the fact that everyone should have a look at the videos and get a shot of
this amazing, crazy man in order to get as many references for further reading as
possible, the main reason this is of interest for Cossette is as follows; the advertising
industry is evolving faster than agencies and clients can adapt. The public is jumping
on new channels and abandoning them or forcing them to evolve before the
advertising industry even seems to know what’s going on. Perhaps some lessons can
be learned from what we see and feel in these videos... Enabling us to start thinking
of ways we can communicate and address industry challenges in a more agile
fashion together.

7. 02
sxsw JOUR:

8. Elon Musk
Keynote
the Henry Ford of this generation
South African-born American entrepreneur. He is best known for founding SpaceX,
and co-founding Tesla Motors and PayPal (initially known as X.com). While at those
companies, he oversaw the construction of the first electric car of the modern era, the
Tesla Roadster, a private rocket known as Falcon 9/Dragon, and the Internet payment
system PayPal. He is currently the CEO and Chief Designer of SpaceX, CEO and
Product Architect of Tesla Motors and Chairman of SolarCity.

9. Oh, and he invented paypal too...
When an interview starts off with the line: «So I understand one of your spacecraft
is docked at NASA’s space station», you know you are about to hear some pretty
amazing stuff. When you go through Elons cv and keep finding his signature on some
of the most innovative advancements in modern history, it is hard not to be
awestruck. I found out by accident that he also invented paypal, but this extra
knowledge was added onto the conversation I was having almost as an afterthought.
All of these achievements by the tender age of 41.
Apparently, he started developing and interest in space travel when he found out,
much to his disappointment, that NASA had no plans to put a man on Mars any time
soon. At first he tried to raise money to help NASA to do this, but he then realised the
expense involved with regard to building spacecraft. So, he decided istead to try
exploring space travel options on his own, with a view to doing it cheaply and
sustainably. He is currently looking at developing a reusable rocket, but has not
succeeded as of yet.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHHwXUm3iIg
Why is this interesting for Cossette?
Perhaps it is simply as a way of getting inspiration regarding new ideas and the will
to tirelessly pursue their realisation. When you look at a man like this, the scale of
his acheivements and his passion are stratospheric. It’s great to bask in that kind of
inspirational energy and push our limits.

10. chance meeting with
socialcode
builders of social value and transparency
I met up with one of the reps from a company named Socialcode. He had some
interesting things to say about what his company has to offer... here is a bit of info
lifted from their site:
Ad Management, Measurement & Optimization
Whether you’re looking to grow a community, reach and engage an audience, or
activate users on downstream offers, our advertising services are tailored to meet
your brand’s marketing objectives. We offer end-to-end ad campaign management,
including creative development, advanced optimization through SocialSegements™
and engager targeting, and in-depth analytics. This fully managed solution leverages
all available ad types and placements on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Why is this potentially interesting for Cossette?
It seems to address the issue of how we choose to measure success in social
campaigns, and whether or not the numbers we are gathering are even relevant.
When campaigns happen to “work” because the numbers are high, are we actually
measuring things that are of value? These guys appear to be on the case, and seem to
have at least parts of the solution.
http://www.socialcode.com/

11. Comedy Tech: How Funny
Stuff Shapes Our Future
We know that Comedy and the internet go hand in hand but is there more to this
marriage than meets the eye?
What’s really behind the success of Funny or Die? , College Humor, and Cracked?
Do Reddit, Tumblr, Facebook and Twitter all share this commonality?
Reach beyond cat videos and memes to see how behavioral scientists, journalists, a
roboticist, and her robot are advancing our understanding of the world by tapping in to
your funny bone and developing the algorithms that may be the key to unlocking The
Humor Code.
All this AND the first robotic comic ever to perform at SXSW!

12. automation of comedy?
This talk was a bit off kilter, and it was difficult to follow any particular thread, as I
found that the panel of people were obviously very good in their respective fields, but
there was a lack of coherence which often happens with panel discussions.
The robot comedian
The part that was most interesting centered around Heather Knight, CEO of Marylin
Monrobot. When her robot comedian ( named Data ) started the panel discussion with
a comedy routine, he was relatively funny. Knight’s research is interesting in that she is
attempting to improve how robots will relate to humans in the future as partners and
caretakers. She likens the idea of robots being programmed to be more human to the
idea of a foreigner arriving in a new country and learning a new language and culture.
Once the language is learned, she argues that the moment you really know whether
the foreigner has truly started to understand the culture as well is when he can
understand and tell a joke. She believes jokes tell a lot about empathy, which is a
complicated mix of being able to identify body language, message and context. Then
being able to respond in a manner that brings you closer to your audience.
So far, Data has been programmed to scan audience response to his jokes, and then to
draw on a number of other jokes stored in his database to be able to better «fit» his
audience as the routine progresses. He «learns» and changes his routine on the fly,
depending on the tone and manner of that audience. Perhaps one day there will be a
comedian robot that will never say he had a bad night because of a tough crowd!
http://www.ted.com/talks/heather_knight_silicon_based_comedy.html
Why is this interesting for Cossette?
I think it is another way of looking at monitoring audience behaviour and responding to
them appropriately, something we can now do with the help of metrics in digital
platforms. I find it amazing that in the advertising industry we are only just beginning
to take advantage of our ability to track users and respond to their behaviour in an
optimized fashion when we re-target, especially in social. It could save a lot of time
and money.

13. 03
sxsw JOUR:

14. The Signal
& the Noise
fortune telling and foolishness
Nate Silver built an innovative system for predicting baseball performance, predicted
the 2008 election within a hair’s breadth, and became a national sensation as a
blogger—all by the time he was thirty. The New York Times now publishes
FiveThirtyEight.com, where Silver is one of the nation’s most influential political
forecasters.
Drawing on his own groundbreaking work, Silver examines the world of prediction,
investigating how we can distinguish a true signal from a universe of noisy data. Most
predictions fail, often at great cost to society, because most of us have a poor
understanding of probability and uncertainty. Both experts and laypeople mistake
more confident predictions for more accurate ones. If our appreciation of uncertainty
improves, our predictions can get better too. This is the “prediction paradox”: The more
humility we have about our ability to make predictions, the more successful we can be
in planning for the future.

15. So, what do you want to predict?
This guy was great, because he was completely honest about the accuracy of trying
to predict various things by crunching data. He points out that certain things, like
economics, are notoriously difficult to predict, while others, like whether or not
american citizens vote republican or democrat in a given neighborhood, can be to
some extent predicted based on strange details like whether or not they have
sidewalks on their streets! Guess which streets most republicans live on?
Cool fact from the talk:
A few years ago the chess champion Kasparov went head to head against Deep Blue,
the supercomputer that was reportedly able to predict the outcome of an infinite
number of chess moves at any time during a game and then choose the best one.
Kasparov beat the computer in the first game, but in the second game, the computer
made a move that Kasparov could simply not figure out, because it made no sense.
Kasparove was rattled, because he figured that the computer must have been able
to see something that he didn’t, so he started playing defensively, and ended up
losing that game as well as the remaining four. Basically, Kasparov put an enormous
amount of faith in the computer’s ability to predict things, and as a result, lost his
mojo.
Nate Silver was fascinated by this, and so he asked the engineers behind Deep Blue
about the famous move that broke Kasparov. The engineers got to work and found
out that the move had been the result of a bug in Deep Blue’s system. In competitive
chess a timer is used. Failure to make a move by the time the clock runs out means
you forfeit your move. Deep Blue became stuck as the clock ran out, and a «fail safe»
in his system made him make a completely random move with no strategy behind it
whatsoever.
What I love about this story is that it proves the most interesting of Nate’s
observations nicely. Predictive models using data should work in conjunction with
human common sense and perhaps some intuition as well, depending on what we
are trying to predict. The question of how much and at what points remains a
mystery that Nate is beginning to solve, bit by byte.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jU64QMpFGVw
Why is this interesting for Cossette?
It calls into question the data we gather with our digital campaigns, and what we
might try to predict with it, like where we will find our target audiences in the future.

16. Say Goodbye to Corporate
Marketing as You Know It
Traditionally, marketing has been about defining a brand’s key messages and finding
clever and interesting ways to broadcast them. But it’s no longer enough to connect
eyeballs to ads; today’s marketers must connect people to people. That means going
social and saying goodbye to the traditional approach. Marketers must go beyond their
internal team of specialists and realize that, in the social world, everyone from the
CEO to the local employee is a marketer. That shift in thinking opens up
unprecedented opportunities while creating new challenges, because it’s hard to
control brand messaging with so many extra voices.
In this session, Hearsay Social CEO and renowned author, Clara Shih, will lay out
examples from the best practitioners of social marketing. She will also share valuable
tales of what not to do. This session is designed to empower attendees to think
outside of the box and get truly social.

17. an uphill battle
They talked big, and they spoke with passion, but it soon became clear that this was a
case of preaching to the converted.
Snippets from the talk:
A seismic shift has occurred with regard to the kind of relationships consumers want
with corporations; from trust in the establishment to trust in individuals. This means
turning sales people into superhumans by leveraging social media platforms.
In the digital age, highly commoditized items like books and travel booking have cut
out the middleman. The consumers’ need is simple, so his decision is based on price.
However, if you are selling something complicated like financial services, customers
will base decisions on trust, so it is essential that places like banks harness social
platforms to engage them on a transparent, one-to-one basis. Easier said than done.
The new «channels» that are emerging now are individual employees that work for
companies, so how can these channel interactions be monitored and approved so that
compliance is kept intact?
There is massive resistance from management in corporations of conservative
establishments to embrace the rise of social and transparency in their institutions
because of the obvious risks and costs involved.
Shih’s answer regarding risk:
Social media is currently regarded as an unstoppable change, so it must be addressed
now of in the near future in order for corporations to remain competitive. It is not a
question of should we or should we not. The change is here, it must be dealt with.
Shih’s answer regarding ROI:
Social Media is not cheap, and has appears to have no tangible way yet of moving
products off shelves. However, the account department might be happier if they
realise it might be a question of cost displacement... away from things like focus
groups to listening to what is happening on social platforms. Personally I found this a
bit of a pipe dream. Social media demographics may be too narrow a representation of
overall poulation.
Why is this interesting for Cossette?
It appears that social is here to stay. We have some difficult questions to ask ourselves
about the nature of the advertising business, and how we can adapt to the changes
that happening with increasing velocity as consumers continue to lead the charge in
terms of the way they want and need to be marketed to.

18. Affinity, Intent & the War
for Marketing Dollars
Every day people conduct billions of searches on Google, and in the process they
create what John Battelle famously called a ‘database of intentions:’ A massive record
of the world’s desires that helps the company generate tens of billions of dollars in
advertising revenue. But Facebook, perhaps the only other company that has collected
as much data as Google, has had nowhere near the same luck turning its data into
dollars. Why? Because unlike Google’s ‘database of intentions,’ Facebook has
unwittingly built a ‘database of affinity:’ A massive record of what people like rather
than what they intend to do.
The database of affinity is potentially as valuable as the database of intentions — but
neither Facebook nor marketers have managed to unlock or measure that value. The
question is: Who can find the hidden value in this database of affinity, and how will
this change marketing?

19. The end of facebook?
Nate makes some very convincing arguments regarding the fact that in terms of it’s
place in the marketing mix, Google is far better placed than Facebook to deliver the
goods. No wonder Google is getting millions more in ad revenue these days.
Intent vs Affinity
Definition of Intent: «Resolved or determined to do (something)»
Definition of Affinity: «A natural liking of a products or person»
Google is building a database of intent. How? It is collecting data based on what
people are searching for BEFORE they buy, and are assigning this data to user profiles.
They then turn around and market to them. It works and it is simple.
Facebook is building a database of Affinity. Problem is, Nate argues, affinity is
expressed AFTER a purchase in the form of engagement, and Facebook is struggling to
prove that this activity can in any way be connected with moving products off shelves.
What I love about this is that it calls into question everything that the guys at Social
Code were claiming two days ago, when they said they were able to assign value to
Social actions. Obviously, Some homework is required and I will have to get back to you
on this! I am loving SXSW....Diverging opinions and debate from the brightest minds in
the industry, all happening in one place.
In half an hour, another debate on the subject. Can’t wait!
Why is this interesting for Cossette?
I hope to return to Cossette with a few new ideas about how we can come up with the
most relevant digital strategies, keeping in mind the current facebook functionalities
and the realities of Googles’ seemingly superior offer to marketers.

20. 04
sxsw JOUR:

21. geek nirvana - achieving
data-driven team happiness
This was another panel discussion, and had a few nuggets that were of interest.
The idea is that if you increase employee happiness, you get a more productive
workforce. The first speaker, Chris Shultz, was touting an app called Nikoniko, which
tracks employee happiness on a daily basis. He gave a 5 point measuring system that
he claims covers all the bases, which he refers to by the acronym PERMA, standing for:
- Positive Emotion
- Engagement
- Relationships
- Meaning
- Accomplishments
http://blog.nikoniko.co/post/39495265717/the-key-to-happiness-in-2013-track-it
Jenn Lim was arguably the most interesting, with her sytory about launching a book
called «Delivering Happiness» which garnered so much positive feedback that she
launched a company which is enjoying great success in delivering «happiness
solutions» to organisations.
http://www.deliveringhappiness.com/
Brian Welle is in charge of happiness at Google. He remained very general and evasive
in his explanations, which means he is hiding something, which I think indicates we
should all be paying very close attention to what they might be up to. He opened with:
« everyone thinks that Google is all about giving people ping pong tables and free
gourmet lunches. The truth is a lot more complex... and part of it is what we call
Project Oxygen» He spoke of two ways Google approaches employee satisfaction: A
«happiness evaluator», which is a 30 minute questionnaire filled out every quarter, the
results of which are visible to everyone in the company. The other way is a manager
evaluation system, which is only seen by managers of the managers. I found this very
low tech for Google, so look out! they are about to surprise us soon.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/business/13hire.html?pagewanted=all

22. Swan dive : Les acadians rocking the stage at planet quebec! tradeshow cherub: he then bust out a van halen riff on the micro-harp
Swan dive : we got a lot crazier after this shot, honest. mom, can i bring her home? : pedicabs driven by punk girls...yes please.

23. bruce sterling -
interactive closing remarks
chairman bruce and the end of «great» advancements in technology
Sterling is one of the founders of the cyberpunk movement in science fiction. In
addition, he is one of the sub-genre’s chief ideological promulgators. This has earned
him the nickname «Chairman Bruce.» He was also one of the first organizers of the
Turkey City Writer’s Workshop, and is a frequent attendee at the Sycamore Hill Writer’s
Workshop. He won Hugo Awards for his novelettes Bicycle Repairman and Taklamakan.

24. what the hell is this guy talking about?
When this guy started speaking i could barely follow his thread. Not because I failed to
understand the words that were spilling out of his mouth, but because you never quite
knew where he stood. He is obviously someone who is very uncomfortable with the
agonizing death of the printed word, and is troubled when technological advance is
always termed as «great».
However, as a futurist, he himself is adapting to change as fast as it happens, and asks
a number of questions with regard to how we define our roles as we actively kill the
«old things» in our societies: The fax machine, the rolodex, the «personal» computer,
blogs, libraries, professional writers, jobs etc.
Many people reflect on how things are being lost to us as we propel ourselves into the
future, and often pretend that these things have actually been in some way «taken»
from us. The truth is of course that we no longer read, we watch Youtube videos. We no
longer blog, we tweet. We no longer use pcs, we use iphones. These are choices that
we all participate in, and he argues that we should all stop pretending that we are not
complicit.
According to Stirling, we should embrace our ravenous intentions and be frank about
our role in killing off the things we think we love. We must all own up to our role in
creating the future, and take fierce joy in the fact that the pheonix that rises from the
ashes of old technologies, industries and habits is a bird of prey.
In other words, stop whining and develop a taste for Yesterdays’ blood.
For a sample of his ramblings check this out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPfW9zudELg

25. keynote distance : binoculars required
okayyyy...: weird sculpture on east 5th nope : no comment required