Last Monday offered us the chance to spare a thought for the poor souls who spend their days veering between vilification and rejection, often overworked and underpaid, yet ‘one of the most powerful groups on the internet’ according to Marketwire – yes, it was Community Management Appreciation Day. Read more »

So social by itself does work ? or is it the sum of the parts ? or (more cynically) is this just a serendipitous tweet ? Well I think it is not any of these in particular, but in fact all them – in short BA is a ‘Social Business.’

The final day featured a UKTI and Chinwag networking event – The Great British Breakfast including Heinz Baked Beans and specially imported Yorkshire Tea as an incentive for everyone to get up early !

There were a huge variety of different attendees with the best of the brightest of the UK digital media industry (Us) along with US investors and International media. There was a great buzz about the week and lots of difference perspectives about the event, the talks, the parties and the launches and what was the next big thing! Read more »

The day kicked off with more sunshine and UKTI sponsored roundtables attended by Google, Twitter, Microsoft, Pepsi and Discovery – we each had 45 minutes with top 2 choices – I met with Pepsi and Twitter.

- Josh Karpf at Pepsi told us how they are actively investing in tech / development as a means of keeping up with what was going on and give back to the community. They really seemed to be following a test and learn philosophy and he claimed it was working well for the brand with new work coming out soon. Read more »

Woke up top Sunshine and 80 degrees – YAY !

Started the early day in a Austin Café filled with runners, chilling and delegates mixing – coffee, pancakes, emails and Twitter.

I decided to see a different side of Austin and stayed away from the Convention Centre and Hilton and opted for panels in OMNIS and experience the breadth of the offering at SXSW with lateral subject such as How to Think, be creative and learn more about technology and software development. Read more »

Saturday brought more British weather but on an American scale as the heavens literally opened meaning I missed the first session of the day trying to avoid getting completely soaked.

I attended 3 sessions – a reading on transmedia storytelling #SXacg2ts and two keynotes on career / life planning #SXstartyou and How to read the World#SXThurston on the role of technology, comedy and satire in transforming the world around us. Read more »

Avoid FOMO (fear of missing out) – I was warned about this in all the briefings but had not understood the relevance until we were thrown into South By (as it is known ) after the briefing when you realize the enormity of the conference – 14 venues across the city attended by 20k people – as per the title of the blog – it was immediately cool, hectic, unsettling, inspiring, scary….all at once !

After an eventful trip involving engine problems, missed connections and cross country transfers the UKTI SXSW mission group found itself arriving bleary eyed at Dell HQ in Round Rock Texas to a pre SXSW kick off “Unconference”

If you haven’t been to Dell the comparison to the Death Star is entirely apposite with 5 Hangers named appropriately Dell 1-5, as you drive up you see Michael Dell’s very own 501 Legion of Troopers arriving in their SUV’s – polo shirt and chino clad clutching their silver coffee travel cups – Dilbert is alive and well and working as a stormtrooper in Texas ! Read more »

Ever wondered where Foursquare was launched, where Twitter hit the big time or where you can hear keynotes from the likes of Jimmy Wales, Guy Kawasaki, Craig Newmark, Evan Williams or even Mr Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, himself – well Austin, Texas is where it is at in March as SXSW comes to town.

And next week we will throwing ourselves into the madness of SXSW Interactive as part of the UKTI Trade Mission along with 39 other companies from the UK and over 25,000 others from round the Globe. We will endeavour to bring you daily updates as to themes, new ideas and creative technologies on show along with the weird and wonderful from Austin. Read more »