Add an eventSessions at SXSW Interactive 2012 of type Solo in Hilton Garden Inn Austin Downtown
Friday 9th March 2012
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Waste 2.0: 3 Ways Tech Is Making Waste a Resource
by Chad Farrell
Organizations are spending time and money to become more sustainable but they are not leveraging new software and web technologies to maximize their positive environmental impact. This panel will discuss three ways technology is making waste a resource. Topics discussed will include the use of new technologies to manage waste and resources like other parts of the organization are managed. Enabling technologies for more transparency and reporting to help to solve environmental problems and create a more efficient eco-system. We will also discuss how knowledge sharing and collaboration across the enterprise and even competitors can create new and innovative solutions to environmental problems.
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Size Matters: Why Little Houses Are So Awesome
by Jay Shafer
This'll be my best presentation on small houses, ever! I'll show why maintaining a diminutive footprint is the surest green thing you can do if you're building a new house. I'll reveal why American laws prohibiting small houses are the real cause of the global economic crisis. And, of course, I'll be showing lots of pretty pictures of cute little abodes. Join me... Won't you?
Saturday 10th March 2012
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Group Deals Are Killing Your Small Business
by Kara Nortman
Everyone wants a good deal, but offering your company’s products through burgeoning deals platforms such as Groupon, Dealmap and others can erode your margins when not used strategically. Whether you sell shoes, yogurt or iPads, this panel will discuss how small businesses can uniquely and effectively tap into group deals, as a key piece of a smart overall marketing strategy, without harming their product's street cred or company's bottom line.
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Big Social Media Results at Small Organizations
If you're at a small organization, you might have more great ideas and willingness to serve your community than you do time, money, or help. Lots of small organizations in your shoes--associations, societies, coalitions, departments, units, health advocacy groups, community health centers, and non-profit start-ups--use social media for outreach, education, PR and promotion. Financial and human resource limitations make social media appealing for achieving organizational goals. But don't just assume that if you build it, they will come. And, don’t limit yourself to using the same strategies as larger organizations with more resources. If you want to do big things with social media at your small organization, you have to be creative and flexible, use what works, and know thyself. This presentation will help you think through developing, implementing, and measuring an effective campaign by sharing details of success stories from professional organizations and health advocacy groups.
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Electric Car: Lessons Learned in a Global Movement
The electric car could transform the way we think about transportation and energy. This is a disruptive technology that, if successful, may dramatically reduce dependence on oil, enable greater adoption of renewable energy, and shape how drivers think about personal mobility. However, there are many challenges and unknowns ahead. Cities around the world are collaborating to develop electric vehicle ready ecosystems, but will their efforts be successful? This presentation will provide an overview of an international movement, focusing on city leadership and the importance of information exchange.
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Why Cleanweb Will Beat Cleantech
by Sunil Paul
Most people think new technologies like solar and biofuels are the answer to crises in climate, energy, and food.What if the most leveraged way to solve these problems was infotech? This is the provocative idea of the "Cleanweb," which is the application of information technology to resource constraints. I have been involved in cleantech as an investor since 2002 (Nanosolar, Solazyme, Zeachem) and was an internet pioneer starting in 1994 (America Online, Brightmail, Linkedin, Zynga).I will explain how companies like AirBnB, Zipcar, Mosaic and others are already improving efficiency and reducing the need for fossil fuels, water, food, land, and other resources. I'll explore the scale required to impact climate and oil security and why traditional cleantech hasn't solve these problems yet. I will also identify new opportunities to create major new cleanweb companies and opportunities for corporations to leverage cleanweb for their products and services.
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Paper or Plastic? Social Media Can Restore Earth
Effective storytelling is at the center of all transformation strategies. As society continues to access and rely upon the web and mobility for social, economic and environmental information it becomes clear that the need to manage rapid growth and innovation in a meaningful, transparent manner is essential. In this talk that explores interactive design innovation through biomimicry, Michael Dungan shares 9 lessons of the honeybee in 9 minutes. Participants experience firsthand how the technology start-up BeeDance is applying these lessons and others natural principles to promote wise action online and in the community. Learn how effective social media techniques are being utilized to create authentic change in the manufacturing and professional services sector. Why biomimicry? Because nature is a great learning institution and honeybees are esteemed faculty members.
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When Goliath Tries to Steal Your Lunch Money
by Healy Jones
It happens in every industry. A neighborhood produce market gets threatened by the new Whole Foods in town. Apple enters a market that a handful of startups were already disrupting. But, no matter how dire the situation may look, small companies can and should have a very clear edge on their Goliath competitors.
Take an example from the automotive industry. Ford was the first-to-market and seized a bulk of the early market share of drivers internationally. But companies like BMW have found an opportunity in luxury markets Ford can't touch. By seizing car owners who wanted their rides to scream 'luxury' a one-time little guy found success.
Being a small dog does not translate to weakness. It means you have different assets, like the ability to be fast, nimble and innovative without bureaucracy getting in the way. You have the unique ability to connect with customers and treat them like gods. No matter your industry, if you play your small dog role the right way, when the big dogs come knocking, you'll be ready to come out winning.
Sunday 11th March 2012
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The Social Network for Computers
In today's connected world, we humans are always on, always ready to switch to the next task at hand -- and *in* hand, on a multitude of powerful devices. Soon there will be up to a trillion connected devices on the Internet. To power the resulting massive computational need, our entire computer infrastructure is being redesigned. Moore's Law is not enough anymore. The requirements of new media on a global scale can only be supported by a powerful "Social Network for Computers" -- aka the Cloud. Through the cloud, servers quickly switch from one task to another, making efficient use of idle compute, storage and networking resources. Cloud computing is "fungible" - dynamically expanding and contracting to meet the world's compute load, and it is the only way to serve the growing Internet.
For those who are developing new innovative services, this emerging social network for computers means new challenges, new choices and new opportunities. In this talk we look into these changes and what they mean for the next generation of social and mobile apps and services.
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Big Data for Everyman: Help Liberate the Data Serf
by Erik Swan and Michael Wilde
WTF is Big Data & Why Should I Care?Love that smartphone? Navigate with your GPS? Tweeting about this session? Everything other than brushing your teeth has is generating data. Every action we do generates data & a record of that action. According to a recent study by McKinsey, 15 out of 17 industry sectors in the US have more data stored per company than the Library of Congress. The sheer volume of data, driven by new devices & disparate data sources, requires a shift in how to capture & analyze information. If you could mine data generated by your audience, what questions might you ask? Improving your perspective on what users are doing or how they're interacting with you can yield some amazing returns. Analyzing big data can be as easy as surfing the web. We'll show some cool ways to ask questions, in realtime, to some fun data sources & get amazing answers. See how to turn data into information, information to knowledge & knowledge to action.
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Why Location Matters for Your Personal Data
by Glenn Derene
Where is your data? It’s a simple question, yet it’s maddeningly hard to answer in the era of cloud computing. Everything from family photos to bank transactions seem to be floating around in ether, yet they are inevitably stored somewhere. And even though you may not know it, that data is serviced and hosted by multiple subcontractors you’ve never heard of--it may not even be in the same country as you are. This data can be subject to a vast array of contractual agreements, as well as overlapping jurisdictions and regulations. And sometimes, it gets messy and confusing enough to end up in court. Likewise, the integration with cloud services that is common on most smartphones and tablets is outpacing the law, raising questions that have only fuzzy legal precedent.This session is intended to be a discussion about the topic with and amongst the audience, so I’ll give a presentation based on my reporting on the topic, then open up the subject to attendees for conversation and comments.
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Using Big Data Takes Machines & Humans
by Arnab Gupta
Using Big Data Takes Machines & Humans Man vs. machine – usually, good (man) versus evil (machine) – has long been the stuff of scary science fiction. And now as machines master more advanced processes, the prospect that thinking machines will outperform and ultimately replace thinking humans becomes more real and threatening. Example: IBM’s Watson, an advanced AI machine that’s squared off against Jeopardy’s best human contestants and won.But Arnab Gupta, CEO of Big Data analytics firm Opera Solutions, believes “humans vs. machines” is the wrong construct. Humans PLUS machines is far more powerful. Marrying machines’ ability to discern patterns in Big Data with humans’ ability to derive meaning from this output enables far better decisions. It’s the next wave in productivity.How to accomplish this, when machines and people speak different languages and “think” differently? At SXSW, Arnab will explore the power of “machine + humans” and discuss ways to create collaboration.
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Data Mining Music
by Paul Lamere
Data mining is the process of extracting patterns and knowledge from large data sets. It has already helped revolutionized fields as diverse as advertising and medicine. In this talk we dive into mega-scale music data such as the Million Song Dataset (a recently released, freely-available collection of detailed audio features and metadata for a million contemporary popular music tracks) to help us get a better understanding of the music and the artists that perform the music.
We explore how we can use music data mining for tasks such as automatic genre detection, song similarity for music recommendation, and data visualization for music exploration and discovery. We use these techniques to try to answers questions about music such as: Which drummers use click tracks to help set the tempo? or Is music really faster and louder than it used to be? Finally, we look at techniques and challenges in processing these extremely large datasets.
Monday 12th March 2012
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Humanizing B2B Brands with Video & Comedy
by Tim Washer
Research shows that nearly 73% of people who read corporate blogs are in fact people. And one of the strongest connections we can make with another human is to make them laugh. We'll share a few comedy lessons learned from freelancing on The Onion and Conan and show how those rules can be used to create corporate social media content to breaks through the clutter. We’ll share case studies on how humorous corporate videos earned headlines in the New York Times and inclusion on ComedyCentral.com and helped expand the online community. We'll discuss simple, fun, low-budget approaches to transmedia storytelling, including web documentary series, for both consumer and B2B companies.
Tuesday 13th March 2012
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Creating a Mobile Wallet Worth Having
by Omar Green
With buzzwords like “NFC” and “mobile wallet” thrown about in the press ad nauseam, consumers and the mobile and financial industries are looking for who will emerge the winner in the effort to control mobile money – and there’s a great deal of money to be had if it’s done right. But as often as the mobile wallet is lauded for its convenience, it’s derided as “a solution in search of a problem.” Ultimately, in order to meet the real needs of consumers, wallet-makers need to stop focusing solely on the technologies of mobile payments, and actually look at what will drive usage: a mobile solution that is actually worth having. This doesn’t yet exist, but it could, if application developers create tools that actually change the way merchants and consumers feel, think, spend and save money. We will discuss what the true opportunity is for the mobile wallet and the elements that need to be included to move beyond technologies like NFC, to delivering the customer benefit to end users.
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Using Psychology to Increase e-Commerce Conversion
If you could only get inside your customer's head, it would be so much easier to get them to buy on your website. Fortunately, there are several powerful psychological tricks that you can use to convince your prospects to buy from you and help them smoothly make it through the purchase process. This presentation will dive into the psychological principles that are being used effectively by e-commerce websites in both B2C and B2B selling. You'll gain a better understanding of why your customers behave the way they do on your site. You'll be armed with a toolkit of principles and examples that you can take and apply to your e-commerce website. These ideas will help you improve conversion rates, customer experience, engagement, and your company's bottom line.
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Why a Mobile Wallet Isn’t Going to Be Enough
by Sam Shrauger
These days everyone is talking about the mobile wallet and how consumers will be able to pay with phones. Some technology companies are pushing mobile wallets, claiming they have the next breakthrough for future payments.
But why are people going to choose to tap and go with their phones rather than swipe their credit cards? And what benefits does the mobile wallet give to retailers?
People don’t want a digital version of their existing wallet. That's too limiting. They want to get back control of their money and be given the flexibility to shop and pay – anytime, anywhere and in any way that they choose.
You may wonder what new solutions are being provided to consumers and how they will be changing how we pay…At the end of 2011, PayPal will release new payments solution that will change the way we shop and the way we pay. Like no experience you have had before, imagine a technology that puts choice, flexibility and control in customers’ hands. PayPal will show you the latest in the industry and speak to a future you didn’t know would be here so soon.
More than $3,500 transacts over the PayPal network every second. As the leader in digital payments, PayPal predicts that we will be able to live our lives digitally by 2015 – choose this session to find out how.
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Mobile Payments: Transforming Consumer Marketing
by Rick Orr
Mobile payments are booming. Nearly 70 million Americans with smartphones are looking for a convenient way to pay without using plastic. Enter NFC, Google Wallet, Tabbedout and other technologies and companies making it easier and more secure than ever to pay with your phone.
But what if paying with your phone offered more than just convenience? Mobile payments create a direct relationship between merchants and consumers. This technology puts power in the hands of the consumer to opt-in for personalized special offers from the businesses they frequent, and for businesses to capture customer habit and preference data and use it to create actionable, custom offers. Frequent a local pub? Walk into the bar and receive a digital coupon for your favorite beverage to thank you for being a loyal customer. Have a favorite restaurant? Your phone can deliver an appetizer recommendation based on your preferences and offer it half price.
This session will give an in-depth look at how mobile payments are not only changing the way people pay, but are also the next big marketing platform, connecting consumers and merchants to create a personalized relationship via technology. -
Please Touch Me! Enterprise Delight via Multitouch
Yes multitouch devices are all the rage among consumers. Yet enterprise software environments (aka, Big IT-driven Corps) are frantically playing catch up as "consumery mindsets" (with iPhones, iPads, Androids, etc.) are taking over the business world. How do you support having all these devices in IT-driven contexts? How do you design apps for such a world?
I propose an approach to design a product experience that enables "work & play anywhere from any device" to support IT-driven situations. Such a next-gen UX is based upon three core principles: Simplicity + Fluidity + Personality. The challenge is how to fold such concepts into a highly fragmented multitouch device market: iOS, Android, Blackberry, WebOS, Windows Phone 7, etc. Each has their own set of guidelines, patterns, and visual styles. Sure, Evernote and Netflix are recognized for being touchstones in achieving platform "consistency", but let's aim to go higher and deeper. What about simultaneity or complementarity or multi-device situations? How does a desktop PC fit into the equation? This talk will dramatize a year-long team journey of principles, prototypes, and workshops to deliver high-caliber enterprise multitouch software UX. Actually produced designs and working demos will be highlighted, not just concepts.
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