onilecraM | Marcelino

SXSW Interactive: Panel Picking Advice

Every year, I do my best to pick SXSW panels that will be educational, engaging, and interesting. Over the last three years, I’ve developed a really simple set of rules for picking panels.

They’re not perfect, and occasionally I miss out on a panel or group session that I should have attended, but 95% of the time, they work. And if I stack that up against anyone else’s SXSW experience, I find that I always leave Austin more satisfied with my panels than most.

So in an effort to help out SXSW newbies and experienced attendees alike, here are my rules.

Please note, these are my personal rules and not affiliated with any company or organization, past or present. :)

Enjoy.

First off, go through the list of panels and find ones that you like. Then apply these four simple rules:

1. Do not attend any panel with an absolutist title, e.g., “Everything you know about design is wrong.”
2. Do not attend any panel where a majority of the panelists are from the same company. Exceptions - if the company is: 37Signals, Adaptive Path, Frog Design or Apple.
3. Never attend a panel with anyone from Razorfish on it. Doesn’t matter how cool it sounds. Every year this is the rule I break and every year I’m reminded why it’s one of my rules.
4. Always attend the keynotes.

This should get you to a list of panels that you’ll feel comfortable attending. If you still have a conflict for panel/time, then add both to your calendar. If the panel sucks within the first 10 minutes, get out and hit the other one.

Hanging out in Frankfurt

Just landed in Frankfurt, Germany. 3 hour layover after a 10 hour flight. Adam and I are on our way to Nice to meet up with the rest of the team. Traveling always gets me motivated to start up my blog again.

This time is no different.

Blog Posts = Active.

- m

Neocartography: Mapping Design and Usability Evolved

Designers are dropping maps into their applications with little concern for usability or design and users are getting “Google Map fatigue”. We need to move beyond the simple pin-dropping and consider appropriate mapping interfaces. This panel will look at the current and emerging tools to provide compelling geographic interaction and visualization.

Andrew Turner Mapufacture

Michal Migurski CTO, Stamen Design

David Heyman Axis Maps LLC

Elizabeth Windram Senior User Experience Designer, Google

————————————————————-

http://delicious.com/tag/sxsw+neocartography
http://www.everyblock.com/
http://teczno.com/faumaxion-II/
http://www.mysociety.org/ (cool overlay powered by sliders to display cool info.
http://www.london2012.com/in-your-area/map/index.php