400 Bad request

I’m sure you were bombarded with #sxsw tweets and Gowalla checkins to various parties so here’s an overview of what it’s all about.

Talks/Panels

I don’t have an exact figure but there must have been at least 500 or so talks over the course of SXSWi.

It’s very overwhelming and hard to get a plan together. So many good topics and speakers all happening at once so you have to take a risk and choose one over the others.

On top of that you’re meeting people and socialising outside the talks.

I attended quite a few UX and design talks but the problem with this is you end up hearing about things you already know or have read about elsewhere. The better talks are about things you have an interest in but that wouldn’t be your main domain.

My favourite talks:

• Startup Metrics for Pirates
• Metrics Driven Design
• Google’s Marissa Mayer Presents

I’ve still to hear the keynotes though, which I’ve heard good reports about.

Networking Socialising

Plenty of opportunities to meet and greet people at SXSW. As most people at the Conference Center are either in a talk or on their way to a talk, the best place to socialise is at a bar or a coffee shop (depending on the time of day).

Everybody at SXSW is looking to meet people so the best thing to do is just go up to someone, introduce yourself and ask “So what do you do?“.

Parties

I heard this quote mentioned a few times:

SXSWi is 40% business and 60% parties

—Anonymous

Every night there are a tonne of parties hosted by the likes of Mashable, Gowalla, Foursquare, Vimeo, YouTube, Media Temple, MMXINI that are attended by everyone in the industry (plus the occasional celebrity).

The parties are definitely the best places to meet people and if there’s someone you really want to say hello to you can usually stalk them on Gowalla or Twitter.

The Ginger Man was a local favourite for meeting up with designers and developers. And I was able to meet up with a client, Sharethrough, at the Say Media party, which was the first face to face meeting we’d had in 18 months.

Travel advice

If you’re thinking of going next year:

• Get a US sim card – try UK2Abroad $1.50 per day for unlimited data
• If staying in a hotel outside downtown, make sure it’s on the shuttle route
• Get a Thomas Cook travel credit card – very handy
• Use Planzai to plan your SXSW trip

Anything cool?

• GroupMe and Beluga were the “break-out” apps this year. Both group messaging apps, although GroupMe not available in UK yet
• Foursquare and Gowalla featured heavily
• Noticed Uber everywhere – a new type of taxi service (SF/Austin only I think)
• QR codes are a *big* thing – they were everywhere
• Apple turned a Gold’s Gym into an Apple Store for the launch of the iPad 2
• Quite a few “Reserve your username” apps like Connect Me and 1Username popping up
• Planzai’s Rich Dale did a great job pitching to Dave McClure, Eric Ries and Robert Scoble

Thanks to Invest NI

Big thanks to Invest NI who sponsored 25 interactive companies from Northern Ireland to attend the conference in Austin, alongside Digital Circle and Digital Derry.

Special thanks to Terry Reilly who helps us plan the trip and keeps us right when we’re over there.

And thanks to the NI delegates who made it a great experience.

Would I recommend it?

Absolutely.

I was able to meet lots of cool people, learn lots of stuff, make some connections, get some work, and come home fully charged and inspired.

Who’s going next year?

Thanks to the support from Invest NI and Digital Circle, I’ll be heading out with a team of innovative and creative companies from Northern Ireland.

Keep track of what I’m up to

I’ll try not to overload you with too many #sxsw updates but you can keep track of what I’m up to via the following:

1. Twitter – for tweets and OHs
2. Posterous – for short blog posts
3. Gowalla – to keep track of where I am
4. Instagram – for any random photos

Are you going to be there?

If so, let me know (comment, email, Twitter).

If we’ve met before it’d be great to catch up. If not it’d be good to meet.

If you’re thinking of attending next year, here’s an overview.

Talks

There are so many talks to choose from and so many good topics on at the same time. Choose wisely, as there are times when you’ll go to a talk and it turns out it might not be what you thought it was about.

Exhibitions

There is lots to see and do in the exhibition hall. Various companies are there with stands promoting their brand with a tonne of freebies from pins to tees to discounts. And obviously beer is the main winner (which gets a huge crowd around your stand).

As a spectator this is a good chance to get talking to the guys who run these companies, as they’ll listen to you as long as they can sell you their product as well. You might pick up a few leads here.

People

The people in Austin were very friendly. You could walk up and talk to anyone. Seems that everyone in the creative industry was there. People I have a lot of admiration for like Jeffrey Zeldman, Tim Van Damme, Jason Santa Maria, Wilson Miner and Ryan Sims. Or people that I don’t specifically know of but have admired their work. It’s inspiring to meet these guys who are working on some world class stuff.

Parties

It really is a full week of partying. But you’re not just out partying with your mates, you’re partying with some of the most intelligent and creative people in the world who work for some of the most innovative and biggest companies in the world so it’s a great time to get a chat with them, introduce yourself and tell them what you do over a beer.

Northern Ireland crew

It was good to get to know all the companies and people that attended from Northern Ireland.

A big thank you is due to Invest NI for funding the trip, and the team that was out, in particular Terry Reilly, and also Matt Johnston from the Digital Circle.

As far as I can tell everyone had a good time and came back feeling inspired, invigorated with new ideas and with a pack of new business leads and contacts.

I would definitely recommend the trip to all next year and also keep an eye out for more supported trips this year including WWDC and Web 2.0

A few tips about The States

For those of you who aren’t from there:

• It’s customary to tip 15%-20% of the bill for pretty much everything – even for bad service
• Tax is added to the retail price at the til – so don’t bother working out if you have the exact change to pay for that bottle of water
• The streets are laid out in blocks, as a grid system – it’s a lot easier for getting around
• Americans are very friendly people – at least the people I was chatting to :)
• They drive on the right side of the road – just like everyone else in the world
• Restaurants always offer you free refills – and free water

See you next year?

Some notes on what I attended today:

Social Search: A little help from my friends

Panel

Notes

• Users want personalised responses to questions
• Give something good to customers to talk about and they’ll start the conversation
• Social search is about providing the user with information on what’s going on right now
• Make it personalised and relevant – relate to friends, relate to location
• Aardvark – ask a question and it’ll find you the answer
• OneRiot – realtime search

Revealing design treasures from the Amazon

By Jared Spool
Really interesting insight into Amazon and how people use it.

Notes

• Website owners often think “Why don’t we do it like Amazon?”
• Alarm clocks aren’t going to get good reviews
• 1/5 of all orders are heavily influenced by reviews
• The “Was this review helpful” question is worth $2.7bn to Amazon
• Be careful when emulating Amazon features – you need the traffic first
• Phase in new design features – target non-cookie users first, then x amount of users, then open up to all
• Eliminate tool time – shorten steps, remove obstacles
• Don’t fear trying new ideas

@anywhere

Evan Williams, CEO of Twitter, introduced us to @anywhere – a new framework for integrating Twitter features into your website.

Product looks interesting, similar to Facebook Connect. The talk/interview itself was a bit underwhelming. No good take-aways, just chatting about Twitter.

Jonathan Cusick is also writing some good blog posts on the Northern Ireland gang too. Worth a read.

Notes

Some of the companies I was chatting to:

• Lytics – analytics tool
• Client Show – tool for showing clients stuff
• Sysomos – social media management for businesses
• iStock Photo – the world’s premier stock photography website
• Shutter Stock – also a very good royalty free photography site
• Snap Pages – simple website creation
• Rackspace – web hosting
• OneSite – social network solution
• Appiction – iPhone development
• Idea Foundry – training

The big brands are also here like Google, Microsoft etc.

There’s a 3D Panasonic TV on display and its absolutely amazing. Like looking through a window rather than at a TV. Apparently these are going to be the next big thing and will be in homes within the month.

Would be great to see some Northern Ireland companies here this time next year.

10 Commandments of UX

By Nick Finck and Raina Van Cleave.

Great talk about UX and what it means.

Notes

• UX is a focus
• The core elements are represented by the honeycomb diagram
• The user is always right
• Visualise your user – what do they do, what do they look like, what do they wear?
• Find the user’s sweet spot, which is a cross between your objectives, technology requirements and the user needs
• 95% of users aren’t reading 80% of your content – this makes your content even more important
• Access to your site is for everyone, not just your core users (all ages, all cultures, all devices)
• Think about the 1 thing users should be able to do and focus on that
• Learn from failure – Einstein, Jordan, Walt Disney all failed but got back up

CSS3 design with HTML5

Panel

An intro into CSS3 and HTML5.

Notes

• It doesn’t have to look the same in every browser
• There are HTML5 and CSS3 techniques you can use today
• Educate IE6 customers – if need be use the “it’ll cost more to make sure it looks the same on IE6″ technique
• HTML5 doctype is very simple – once you declare it you’re ‘buzz word’ compliant
• When using the new HTML5 elements use the IE Javascript fix (like this one)

Awesome day and loads of parties to finish the day off.

I’ve setup a posterous blog for various SXSW tidbits if you want to follow it too.

Beauty in web design

By Cennydd Bowles, Clearleft

The talk focused on created masterpieces in web design. To date we haven’t really had any – not to the measure of other masterpieces such as the IBM logo, London Tube Map or the intro credits to Se7en.

Notes

• We’re kinder to attractive people
• Beauty makes things easier to use – our brains respond differently to aesthetically pleasing objects
• 3 types of beauty – universal sociacultural and subjective
• 3 modes of design – visceral, behavioural and reflective
• How to get to your masterpiece – get emotional, think bigger, lead, thing long term, broaden horizons, be brave.

Get stoked on web typography

By Samantha Warren

Samantha’s talk was about using beautiful typography on websites, pushing the boundaries and not just settling for Georgia or Arial. Very inspiring and some great examples used throughout her presentation.

Notes

• It’s not about what font you use, it’s how you use it
• Get stoked = be completely and intensely enthusiastic about type
• Find the emotion of your site and based the type choice around that
• Start to experiment with modern web type solutions: Cufon, @Font-Face, TypeKit, FontDeck
• Start to endorse CSS3 and make use of text-shadow, multiple columns and rotation
• Create your own font for $10
• Or create a more professional font (for a lot more)

Simple steps to great web design

By Matthew Smith, Squared Eye

Unfortunately the fire alarm went off half way through Matthew’s talk and we had to evacuate, which is a real shame as he was building up to something great. But the basis of his talk was about how it’s not just about creating a lovely looking website

Notes

• Design around the content
• Great web design helps content get stuff done – on the web with pleasure
• Know your audience
• Know your content
• It’s all about knowing the core of what you’re designing for

So far so good for SXSW. Roll on Day 2.

Created for obsessive-compulsive designers, Build is no ordinary web conference. From internationally renowned speakers to a jam-packed social calendar, Build is bringing the best of the web to Belfast’s Waterfront Studio on the 5th November.

Build presented some of the world’s most respected designers and speakers and it was an honor to meet them and be in their presence: Eric Meyer, Wilson Miner, Ryan Sims, Andy Budd, Mark Boulton and Tim Van Damme.

The conference was a huge success, I thoroughly enjoyed myself not just on the day but across the whole week with various other meetups and Andy deserves a huge pat on the back. Well done sir! I even managed to win a ‘goody bag’ thanks to this tweet – sorry Tim ;-)

I can’t even begin to list all the awesome people I chatted to over the week as there are too many to mention but it was good to meet you all and next time you’re up for a drink in Belfast just tweet me :)

If you’re in Belfast later in the month check out the Adobe CS4 training day Wednesday 25th November (free event).

Round ups

• Front: Build Conference recap
• Pabcas: Building a better web
• Web Designer Notebook: #buildconf
• TaylorMade: Belfast builds giants
• Kyle Boyd: Build Conference – Belfast 2009
• Sam Brown: Build Conference – My experience graph
• No More Art: City of Culture eh? Well 2009 will just have to do

Press

• Wired: Belfast looks to build a hi-tech future
• BBC: The next Twitter or Facebook?

Photos

Front

Keith Anderson

Paddy Donnelly

David Parsons

Maykel Loomans

Yaili

Videos

Tim Van Damme – Designers Designers Designers (from @vectorfunk)

These are just some of the post #buildconf links I have come across. Please feel free to share your blog posts and photos in the comments below.

Please also take a moment to review or recommend any cool places you visited over the days of Build on Lookaly (another project of mine). Cheers!

• John Hewitt Bar
• McHughs
• Duke of York
• Ramada Encore Hotel
• Malmaison Hotel

Stay tuned for Build 2010.

Rather than listing everything that was talked about over the 2 day event I’ve put together some notes on things that stood out.

280 Atlas

Atlas is a development environment for building web/desktop apps with Cappuccino. Looks really easy to setup and should be available in November – check out the demo below.

PayPal Change How We Pay

PayPal are opening up their platform. What does this mean? Check out the ‘Anthem Video’ below.

Facebook Connect Wizard

Facebook now has an easier way for you to setup Facebook connect on your site. Check out Facebook Connect Wizard.

HTML5

Bruce Lawson gave a great talk on HTML5. I’m definitely a lot more excited about it now.

Check out HTML5 Demos for some cool examples (best viewed in Opera).

Go Test It

Go Test It is a useful tool for running website tests across various browsers. Sign up for a free trial.

Other speaker notes

• Addison Berry – Make your app ‘open’, the more open it is the more you will have people contributing for free
• Osama Bedier – Remove friction and enable innovation
• Chris Abad – praise your passionate community, incentivise users to market for you, make use of viral channels (e.g. Twitter updates)
• Robin Christopherson – 80% of Twitter is from mobile devices, captchas = 7% loss in conversions
• Alex Hunter – Be emotionally invested in your brand and be willing to risk your reputation on your app
• Lynne d Johnson – 35% of adults now have Facebook profiles
• Dave McClure – Less = more, remove features, focus on UX, make fast iterations and measure goals

As far as I know the videos of each talk will be uploaded shortly.

Met lots of great people at FOWA, all doing really interesting things. If there’s an opportunity for you to attend a future FOWA, take it :)

I’ll be joining the lineup of Andy Clarke, Drew McLellan, Web Standardistas and others.

The Belfast event is being held in W5 at The Odyssey starting at 8.45am.

Tickets are still available at £59 (bargain for a FOWD event).

I’ll be talking about ‘Rounding the edges of your website‘:

• Minor adjustments to ensure your user has an enjoyable experience
• How to optimise your site for optimal performance
• Essential checks before launching your website

Further links:

• Check out the schedule
• Check out the speaker list
• More Carsonified events

I’m very excited about the event and hope to see a lot of you there. Who’s going?