Jim Storer Sr. Director, Social Media Strategy Return on Community
Jim Storer : Return on Community
SXSW Conversations with Mzinga - Part 1
Most of the parties at South-by-Southwest (SXSW) are pretty cool. You meet really passionate people, there's usually an open bar and the conversations are great. From the moment we got wind of the Conversation Starters Party, it was clear this was one not to be missed (thanks to the folks at Dell, Federated Media and The Social Media Club for pulling it together). The guest list was packed with VIPs (very interesting people) and since we were leaving mid-day on Tuesday, this was going to close out the SXSW experience for the Mzinga crew.
Little did we know it would top our lofty expectations!
Let's take a quick step back... A couple of months ago I started looking for a portable podcast solution with SXSW in mind. I talked with podcast guru Bryan Person and settled on the Zoom H2 and added a 4gb card so I'd have plenty of storage space. By Monday morning at SXSW I'd captured nothing [cue gasps]. Sure, I'd had plenty of great conversations, but just hadn't snapped into "reporter-mode", instead listening, absorbing and sharing via Twitter updates.
On Monday afternoon, I broke out the H2 for Mark Zuckerberg 2.0 at Pangaea. This was a fascinating q&a in an intimate setting and I caught it all (unfortunately a cell phone was sitting next to it for some of the q&a, so I'm doing my best to dull the disturbance). More on this recording in a separate post.
So there we are on Monday night at the Conversation Starters party at the Iron Cactus. Earlier, I'd tucked the H2 in my pocket with a gorillapod and some spare batteries just in case we had a chance to record some conversations. My colleague Aaron Strout started lining up interviews shortly after we arrived and what follows are those conversations.
I present them in the order we conducted them so you can hear the changing dynamic of the party (and our interview style). We did our best to ask each person the same three questions:
1. Tell us a little about yourself... who you are and what you do. 2. What do you like/not like about the SXSW experience? 3. What would you say to an enterprise that's just getting started in social media?
Each interview is somewhere between 5-12 minutes. I did minimal post-production, instead letting the raw/naked nature of the setting bleed through. Aaron and I hosted most of the interviews, with our colleague Colin Browning standing in for a few. Our other colleague Heather Strout was there for pre-production assistance and guest relations.
Chris Brogan - @chrisbrogan on Twitter I hadn't formally met Chris before SXSW, occasionally chatting with him via Twitter and posting comments on his blog posts. He's referred to as the "Mayor of Twitterville" for good reason. He's one of the most inclusive people I've ever met. He may be having a conversation with Robert Scoble and he'll pull you over to join in. Really incredible. And before you discard this as fanboy histrionics, check out this story. A handful of us, including Chris, decided to try Stubbs for dinner on Sunday night (look for a review from Chris coming soon). On the walk, Chris kept bumping into people and invited them to join us. We grew from 8 to 15 people on the five block trip. Because of Chris, I met some real social media rock stars, including Liz Strauss, Wendy Piersall, Rick Calvert, Britt Raybould and Becky McCray. Good times! Download the podcast.
Robert Scoble - @scobleizer on Twitter The one word I'd pick to describe Robert is approachable. If I had two, I'd add in engaged. Again, I'd never met him in person, but he acted like we'd spent time in high school together. And once we settled into the interview he was not distracted. He was there... with us... talking about community and social media with passion. Download the podcast.
Jackie Huba - @jhuba on Twitter I'm starting to wonder if this one word description thing is getting tired, but let's keep rolling. I'll go with energetic for Jackie. This is a bit of an inside joke because Jackie was starting to hit the sxsw wall when she sat down with us, but I'll bet you can't notice it in the interview. She's a pro and it was great to meet her in person. Download the podcast.
Ben McConnell - @benmcconnell on Twitter It's was tough keeping a straight face when Ben first sat down (he was wearing a gold swami hat), but we quickly dove in and had a great interview. As far as a one word description, let's go with comical for Ben. I met Ben the night before at the Blogger party and he just seems to be having fun with whatever he's doing. He talks about why he was wearing the swami hat on the podcast, so you'll have to listen to find out. Download this podcast.
Shel Israel & Jeremiah Owyang - @shelisrael and @jowyang on Twitter I'd use the word sage to describe Shel. Yeah, yeah... more fanboy stuff. Another first time meeting, Shel just knows what he's talking about and I like to think he's really enjoying this latest little bit of disruption. Jeremiah joined us mid-way through and the interplay between the two was cool. The word for Jeremiah is probably just that... cool. He just exudes rock star. Download this podcast.
So this is the first five. More to come tomorrow, including Lionel Menchaca (@lionel_menchaca), Scott Monty (@scottmonty), Liz Strauss (@lizstrauss), Laura Fitton (@pistachio), Chris Heuer (@chrisheuer). And we have more to come either late tomorrow or Friday (we'll keep them a surprise for now).
Enjoy and let us know what you think by leaving a comment.
Looks like we'll end up with 15 total. There were a couple of re-takes in there and general crowd noise recordings (thankfully we didn't lose any actual interviews to the noise).Jim
Good stuff!
Jim - I think we set a new record with 17 podcasts in one night!
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SXSW Conversations with Mzinga - Part 1
Looks like we'll end up with 15 total. There were a couple of re-takes in there and general crowd noise recordings (thankfully we didn't lose any actual interviews to the noise).Jim