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Saturday 11:30am - A Field Guide to Design Inspiration

One of the first good sessions. Jason and Rob were funny and informative. They talked about a great range of topics and I'll try to do some of them justice here.

Define Inspiration: How does one define inspiration, how does it differ from influence. They talked about the sum total of all our experiences becoming our influence to our inspiration.

Venetian Old Style Typeface: Some discussion about the origins and evolution of a good typeface. They also delved into the physical world of design and told a great story about setting lead type by hand and the experience of measuring and locking the blocks into place.

Business Cards: Jason went through the detailed process of creating some unique business and gave me a few really good ideas.

Birthday Bash: One outlet for their creativity and a great experience has become their yearly birthday bash. The first party was titled Camp Naked Terror and future parties expanded on the Camp and Horror theme. Each year had it's own web site and promotional materials, complete with a movie style poster.

If you'd like to listen to a podcast of this session it is available here:
SXSW07.INT.2007.03.10.FieldGuideToDesignInspiration.mp3

Moderator: Jason Santa Maria Creative Dir, Happy Cog Studios

Jason Santa Maria   Creative Dir,   Happy Cog Studios
Cameron Moll  cameronmoll.com
Rob Weychert   Art Dir,   Happy Cog Studios

Saturday 10am - Online Publishers and Ad Networks

This wasn't my favorite session but they did have a smattering of useful information. I felt that the topics and questions were geared more towards someone with little or no experience with ad networks.

They covered the basics of contextual ads, how to optimeze your sire for those ads, and how to get your site seen. One thing they mentioned that would be good to keep in mind when creating content is that some advertisers will be sensitive to sex, politics, and/or controversial topics.

Moderator: Jonathan Weber Founder & Editor in Chief, NewWest.Net

Jonathan Weber   Founder & Editor in Chief,   NewWest.Net
Larry Allen   SVP,   TACODA
Patrick McCarthy   Dir of Business Dev,   Right Media
Cody Simms   Sr Prod Mgr,   Yahoo!
Justin Ward   Advertising Operations,   FeedBurner

Friday 5:00pm - Your Video Blog Can Save the World

The only session we had to drive to, this was located in the auditorium of the Carver Museum Cultural Center. This was also my first trip to the "East Side" of Austin. Despite the reputation that part of town didn't look so bad.

I know I took some notes, but I'll be damned if I can find them now. I'll dig through the pile of swag and crap later and post more here when I find the card or get a copy of Mark's.

I enjoyed talking to Michael after the session and all three of them at the BuzzFeed party on Saturday night. More on all that when I blog about the people that I met.

Moderator: Michael Verdi , freevlog.org

Michael Verdi  freevlog.org
Jay Dedman  Spinxpress
Ryanne Hodson   Prod Editor,   RyanIsHungry.com

Friday 3:30 - The Real Story Behind Snakes on a Plane

The only other session at this time was "How to Rawk SXSW" and since we already know how to rawk we decided to see if the panelists had any good insight into why Snakes flopped so bad in the box office.

They mostly told us what I already knew. New Line waited too long to release the movie and all the hype was over. As most everyone who didn't have their heads in the sand knows, and knew weeks before the movie was released, it was about "mother fucking snakes on a mother fucking plane". Maybe this will be a lesson to the next major studio to get a hype buzz like this. Release the product BEFORE the buzz dies off.

Moderator: Alex Williams Dir of Community Dev, SplashCast

Alex Williams   Dir of Community Dev,   SplashCast
Corey Denis   IODA Digital Mktg Mgr,   IODA
Molly Wright Steenson  Girlwonder.com
Kris Krug   Pres,   Bryght