Internet Geek Girl

By now, most of my fellow SXSW Interactive attendees have made it home and unpacked. Hopefully you have caught up on your lack of sleep and have warded off the SXSWsars (unfortunately I didn’t – can you hear my sniffles and scratchy voice?). If you’re like me, you’ve been digging through your email and reviewing the huge stack of business cards you collected in Austin. Processing all the information and inspiration takes time, especially for a show which overflows with both.

Unquestionably, SXSWi was a qualitative and quantitative success. There was a reported 25% increase in attendance year over year and the blog posts, tweets, and Facebook updates show nothing but love for this ritual “geek spring break.”

For me, the highlight of the trip was obviously the honor of co-hosting the TechSet Blogger Lounge with my co-founder @BrianSolis (and our event partners at Tokita Bethune, Inc.) The lounge and party were sponsored by Windows Mobile. The Windows Mobile team provided a great service to the community of bloggers, developers, marketers and influencers that set up shop in The Austin Suite. With great bandwidth and great company, the Windows Mobile lounge was THE PLACE to be every day (especially during our tweet ups from 4 – 6 pm – thank you AMD and Zappos). Plus, check out the videos that a bunch of well known geeks made in the lounge – Can you say Fantasy App? We were even lucky enough to have live entertainment one day from Paula Nelson (Austin native and Willie’s daughter). Big thanks to 1938media and John Rosenfelder (@earbender) for putting that together.

On the social front – I enjoyed going to Stubbs for the Diggnation event, The Salt Lick, Gueros, and of course, attending the many parties. “Best in show” include, Alltop, Facebook, Mashable and of course, The TechSet. The best pictures from the entire week come from Laughing Squid, Brian Solis and Wm. Marc Salsberry. Huge shout out to Joie de Vie salon and all the ladies from there that helped make me pretty every day (thanks Amanda, thanks Erin and the other Jerseygirl Steph).

For the last few years the Geeks have taken over the town before the music festival swings into full force. If you stay for part of the transition time, it’s funny to see the difference. My cab driver summed it up best – “the geeks are way more quiet and they are always playing on their phones.” He just doesn’t realize we’re making a ton of noise online and talking to our friends (who are sitting next to us in RL) on Twitter!

If you missed the show or like me, were too busy to attend most of the panels, here’s a short list of some recommended recaps:

• BlogWorld Expo Radio Podcast with yours truly and Jim Turner!
• The very awesome Nicole Jordan on her blog, Kicking Sand. She captures the style and substance.
• Nothin’ but SocNet’s Zena Weist has a great list of other recaps in addition to her insightful musings. She doesn’t just chat about social media – she lives it.
• Omar Gallaga from the Austin Statesman has a bunch of good stuff (with a local spin) on Austin360, with individual panel/party/videos here. Omar also did an NPR segment last Monday which was very cool.
• Pamela Lund on Massively Networked reviewed some very cool panels, which included tidbits of advice from: Thor Muller (Get Satisfaction, Inc.), Patrick Moorhead (Razorfish), and Ben Rigby (Mobile Voter), Barrett Fox (COCO Studios) and Jeroen Lapre (distant-galaxy.com).
• Jeff Beckham’s SXSW Scorecard looks back at the 19 panels/talks he attended, and he ranked them.  Very good stuff.
• RJ Owen of O’Reilly’s InsideRIA had at a great take on parties and panels!
• The ever-good-spirited @technosailor shares his journey and musings. Love the shout out to the Blogger Lounge!

BTW – David Carr wrote a nice piece in the NYT today that tells the story of the founding of the entire festival and it’s impact on the town. Plus his insights about the THRIVING Austin Chronicle, which has fueled this multimedia event since its inception, are especially intriguing given a market where many newspapers are failing.

All I can say is….keep Austin Weird and Geeky!

I’ll leave you with a video from my friend Guy Kawasaki that he did from his Kirsty-Alltop Party. Ya gotta love Texas (especially once / year in Austin)!

I really love Austin, Texas. And it’s not just because I’m obsessed with Allen’s Boots and love to eat at Guero’s and drink margaritas and beer.  It is a town full of smart, driven, cool people and a tech community that has been growing steadily for years.  The music scene is of course one of the best in the nation. Hugh MacLeod visits regularly. And of course, LANCE lives there! P.S. – Lance is on Twitter so follow him! LiveStrong baby!

Next week, Brian Solis (my TechSet partner-in-crime) and I will head down to Austin to celebrate the launch of BizSpark with Microsoft and with our local partners, the Startup District. Please be sure to also follow us on Twitter for more details:

@techset

@bizspark

@startupdistrict

You are cordially invited to join us at The Speakeasy at 7 pm on Thursday, November 20th. The event is *free* but please RSVP here. There will be free drinks and appetizers, so come early.

(Please note these are the boots I bought in March at SXSW and I will be wearing these for sure!)

I’ve been a “startup chick” for a very long time. Having worked at early stage companies as employee number 2 and number 240, I have experienced the wide array of challenges faced by companies growing new markets.  In fact, established markets never interested me much (boring!!!)

I’ve guided my professional development for 15 years by one simply rule: surround yourself with the smartest, most hard-working, super effective entrepreneurs you can find. Despite the fact that these individuals and environments can be crazy and chaotic, it has been a very fun journey. Like the road less traveled, it has also made all the difference in my life.

Over the next few weeks, Brian Solis and I will be celebrating our mutual love for startups by presenting Ignition, an event to commemorate the launch of Microsoft BizSpark – a new program for those who contribute to a dynamic ecosystem to help startups flourish. It seems to me that in this economy, everyone needs something to celebrate. It is also an exceptional time to start a startup and take advantage of all the opportunity out there.

Brian and I cordially invite you to another TechSet Series (with some free appetizers and drinks).  We kick off our four-city tour next week in New York City on November 11th.  You need to RSVP here. As all the locals know, that’s the night of the New York New Tech Meetup, which will feature a presentation by Microsoft BizSpark staff. Be at both or be square!

We head to Austin, Texas on November 20th, LA on December 2nd and Silicon Valley on December 4th.  Stay tuned for links Facebook invites and RSVP pages on Eventbrite.

Be sure to check out the benefits you get from the BizSpark global program – namely – software, support and visibility. Hope to see you there so you can learn more and have a great time doing it!

It’s been a week since the Affiliate Summit Social Media bus rolled from Boston down to NYC.  I’ve just recently recovered from the experience.  If you missed Gary Vaynerchuk’s u-streaming of the bus ride I recommend you check it out (and have a good laugh).

Big thanks to everyone who joined in for the Affiliate Summit Social Media Bus and Blogger Lounge.  It was a fantastic event. There are some great round-ups out there including on Affiliate Tip,  5Star Affiliate Programs, and my favorite: the Tris Hussey Flickr shots!

One of the highlights of the show for me was the Cory Booker Keynote! It set the tone for a substantive and productive conference. You can catch excerpts here! Be sure to follow Shawn Collins on Twitter as he will post the full video and MP3 of Mayor Booker’s speech as soon as it goes up.

** ADDITION TO POST: Here’s the full keynote!

Personal thanks going out to Gary Vaynerchuk for his participation!  Also, big thanks to Social Spark and Market Leverage for their sponsorship support.

Missy/Shawn – as always, you put on a wonderful event.

And finally, a big shout out (and some link love) for all my bloggers peeps who stopped in the lounge. You guys RAWK!

Ari Greenberg

Ashley Edwards

Carsten Cumbrowski

Charles Ngo

Chris Brogan

Content Robot

David Fisher

Jay Berkowitz

Jeremy Johnson

Jim Kukral

Joe Garraffo

John Chow

John Hasson

Jonathan Dingman

Mark Wielgus

Maria Thurrell

Michael Buechele

MLTV

Oz Sultan

Peter Glaeser

Rick Burnes

Sally Chow

Sam Harrelson

Shawn Collins

Selina McCusker

Steve Hall

Ted Murphy

Tris Hussey

Trisha Lyn

Zac Johnson

I’ve been in California for one week now. While my life definitely not as exciting as Hank’s, I am blessed with the opportunity to hang out with Internet rock stars every where I go. They are an exciting bunch. Let’s start with the LA scene. Obviously “tech” is not the first thing that comes to mind when you think about the City of Angels.  However, I am consistently impressed with the force of nature that is emerging from the intersection of social media, technology, and advertising in Hollywood.  The community that cares about this trend in LA is growing. Last week was “Mini Internet Week” for that town: three packed days of networking with LA’s best and brightest!  The TechSet event at the Luxe Hotel on Sunset Boulevard on Wednesday night was a huge hit.  Mike Macadaan, founder of TwiistUp, did an amazing job on Thursday evening at the Viceroy Hotel with TwiistUp4 (yes that’s a 4). Mashable rounded out the week with the SummerMash LA, part of their US Summer Tour!

The next time you’re in LA, make sure you check out what is going on with TechZulu, Social Media Club LA, Jackie Peters of Heavy Bag Media, Nicole Jordan of bub.blicio.us, Sean Percival of DocStoc, Mike Prasad of GirlGamer, Karen Hartline of Mashable, Erica O’Grady, Marc Levin and the good people over at LA Geek Dinners!  You will definitely be able to find the party through them!

As you know, a picture is worth 1000 words.  For Brian Solis’ photostream, that calculation is more like 2000 words.  Brian also had great coverage of on Bub.blicio.us!

I’m here for another week still, so watch out!