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Mar 14 2010

Hookups, Parties, Late Nights: Attrition at #SXSW "I didn't come down here to party."

Category: about me, community building, connections, lifestreaming, social media, sxsw — jmacofearth @ 10:16 am

[streaming Sunday 3-14-10 CST - my hookups for the day will be documented here.]

If you are reading this, SMILE! It's not that serious here at #SXSW. You're in Texas now.

Tonight for me, the PARTIES I am going to and have my EventBright tickets for are the:

AAS Texas Social Media Awards Party where I hope to bury the hatchet with @omarg over Mexican martinis and watch my pick, Alan Graham, pick up his award. Correction MR GOWALLA won. Oh bother! Geo-lactation rules! [Missed @omarg, dang. He did look happy and in his element. I didn't want to be a disturbance in the perfect evening.

Then I'm on to the Reverse VC Pitch Party put on by mad man of mystery Larry Chaing. That one's from 9 – midnight. And then there's a party after that. Wish me luck, perhaps I'll land an angel. (UNgrin) That sucked! And to think I PAID?

The rest of the evening will not be televised. I might put some images up on my FB page (it's the easiest way to get them off my phone) Until tomorrow AM, the hour more dependant on the popularity of the evening. Cheers, and See Ya Out There!

+++

I heard someone railing yesterday about the youngsters who are here to PARTY. "I didn't fly down here from Vancouver to party. I'm here for business."

And then today I had a new-met-in-the-parking-lot friend tell me that "hookup" meant "having sex." I had said, we'll hookup later. She also knew of the drug-fix hookup concept, but we both agreed that neither of the prior terms were in play in the way I used the term. I loaned her $2 for the parking meter, she bought me a cup of coffee. HOOKUP. See we, connected. THAT IS ALL.

So this morning, I am late for the 9:30 am panel, and since it's still only 8:30 am in my brain, it's no wonder the mid-ballroom coffee area looks like this. Who's UP EARLY at SXSW?

I'm picking up a bit of a charge for my older MBP. (current charge time with screen running at lowest visible power – approx. 1:10)

My refrain is "I'm from here." The clubs, parties, and more significantly "crowds" don't interest me that much. I'd much rather "connect" than hookup. And having a meaningful conversation in a packed club with loud music, well… that just hurts my voice. I wanted to hit the FROG party, and the Red Trailer Funnel Cakes party on Friday night. But I went home and slept. So here I am with fewer friends and a table to myself. Oh well… (grin)

So what's your strategy?

Was heading to lunch at the WordPress BBQ…

But I ended up next door.

Same wireless, no line, and TEX MEX. wOOt! And quite possibly and unofficially Los Loney Boys having Sunday brunch after a rehearsal.

Well, they are a rock band, but not Los Lonely Boys. One of the guys just said, "Having breakfast with some friends." (@1:10 pm. NICE!) Correction, they might be Los Lonely Boys, one of them just said something about, "When we were on Oprah." Or perhaps they are messing with the social media geek at the other table.

Time to walk back to the city.

Last year, I thought the 2009 SXSW MEME: TWITTER API. This year the MEME I'm getting is 2010 SXSW MEME: FKn BATTERY!(Here's my Li Battery Best Practices if you haven't seen it.) I have not seen as many people hovered around outlets, begging for a slot on the powerstrip, sitting on the concrete floor to be near the plugs. My laptop is about exactly 21 months old, my Li battery reports 720 load cycles. Well let me allow Coconut Battery to give you the story of my battery.

Looks like, if I believe Coconut Battery my battery now has a maximum of 28% of the original capacity.

@jmacofearth
permalink: http://bit.ly/sxsw-hookup

SXSW 2010 posts from earlier:

NOTE TO TWITTER: This is not funny or cute! Attn: @ev @biz @stop

Tags: #smbc3, attrition at #sxsw, geo-location, geo-location fun, geo-location hell, geo-location now, i came to party, I didn't come to party, interactive, interactive conference, just sayin, los loney boys, missing the parties, must be more positive, no checkins, not checking in, social media, sorry facebook sucks, south by southwest, sxsw, sxsw 2009, sxsw 2010, sxswi, up early, who you might see, why your UX sucks

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Mar 09 2010

What Is Your "Always On" Technology? How Should I Reach You Right NOW?"

Category: about me, community building, connections, executive learnings, how do i?, social media, teaming & leadership, tech opinion, tools, trust & reputation — jmacofearth @ 10:24 am

Pop Quiz: I need to reach you in the next 15 minutes about an opportunity, what would you suggest I use?

Facebook? Twitter? IM? Phone call? TXT your phone?

I've got some friends who don't answer their phones but will respond to TXT messages within minutes. There are folks who love DM in Twitter, or Messaging in FB. And then there's IM (Yahoo, AIM, MSN, GTalk) and Skype and G-mail and now BUZZ. Oh and get this, I have some friends who love Skype, but for CHAT. So let's count them up.

Phonecall direct (leave no voicemail)
Phonecall indirect (VM left)
Email
IM – Yahoo
IM – MSN
IM – AIM
IM – iChat or Jabber
IM – Skype
IM – Facebook chat
Facebook Messaging
Twitter (@ message)
Twitter (DM message)
Skype Video
TXT to phone
Google Buzz (not in my tool kit at the moment)

Did I miss any? And one other problem is even using some of the universal IM clients like Adium or GAIM, sometimes the special features of Yahoo Messenger for example, don't work within the alternative clients. So I've got one friend who likes to chat using Yahoo Messenger. I can respond via Adium (my favorite IM client) initially, but I have to open YM directly to access the other 50% of the data this friend is sending.

So I can't predict what works for everyone. Well, in fact, WE can't predict what works for *anyone.*

So my approach is to listen. Respond in like-kind to those who use alterna-connections. I tweet, and I update my FB status daily. But I rarely open IM unless someone I need to talk to is an IMer. (it's open right now and I'm chatting to one of my IMer friends.)

So I will give you the answer for me, in order of preference. That's the only system I understand, or pretend to understand.

Text me
Email me
Call me
DM me on Twitter
Message me on Facebook.

If you need me to pay attention to something. Or you need to transmit more that a brief status update:

Call me, talk to me, tell me what you want.

Email me if it's not urgent but has a lot of information or action items you want my response on. Oh, and if it's business use my business email. If it's personal it's likely to get buried in my business email deluge. BUT (I know this is complicated, so bear with me…) if it's urgent and personal, do these three things. TXT me. Call me. Email me. If it's urgent, continue to escallate until you reach me.

Oh and finally, to be efficient, put the ASK right up front. Imagine that even in email you've only got 140 characters to tell me what you are asking me for. It helps. Even if there's paragraphs of data behind the ask, just get to the ask right away. And if you are looking for and ACTION or RESPONSE put that in the subject line. (Subject: ACTION REQUESTED: Please review this document and reply in 24 hours.) And if possible, give the person a deadline. If they miss the message, and miss the deadline for some reason, you can then proceed.

That way, when the tumble of emails continues to scroll past me in Outlook, I can see there's an Action request. (Hint: Using URGENT message statuses never works. On mobile email systems it may or may not even show up depending on the software and settings.) So use the Subject line of every email to state *exactly* what you want.

I'm happy to respond. I want to talk to you. I do, it's my nature.

@jmacofearth
permalink: http://bit.ly/right-now

Tags: action requested, always on, business email deluge, Call me, contact me, deadline, direct ask, g-mail, G-talk, get to the ask, get to the ask quickly, give the person a deadline, how should i reach you?, how should you reach me?, IM, in outlook, in the next 15 minutes, Messaging, outlook, outlook hell, phonecall direct, phonecall VM, response requested, review requested, Skype, talk to me, tell me what you want, Yahoo Messenger

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Mar 04 2010

Real-Time Marketing & Promotion At Any Airport Near You: Scaling the "hotel wall"

Category: about me, connections, just for fun, lifestreaming, social media — jmacofearth @ 11:17 pm

You have to imagine this entire story with me laughing. I was smiling, and was amazed at each twist how far off the rails my experience was becoming, starting in the Atlanta airport. If you don't imagine my smile, you will hear sarcasm or worse, cynicism. We will have none of that here. So, you got it? Smiling, me. ;-)

As the afternoon burned on, I found myself here:

With friend and wing-man, MB sayin, "JMac, I don't think your gonna make your flight."

"That's okay, I'll just catch the next one out to Dallas or something."

The phone-person at US Airlines kept saying, "I'm sorry sir, you are supposed to arrive 2 hours early for any flight. We don't have anything else going out today. You'll be on the flight tomorrow at 5:30 am."

A quick jump via phone-web to Expedia, Travelocity and Priceline confirmed the damage. If I wanted to fly to Austin today I was going to pay more than my initial round-trip ticket. BB said, "Didn't you use the travel agency?"

"Uh… Yeah, it's called the Internet."

And that smart-aleck remark led me here, holding boarding passes for tomorrow morning. The lady at the US Airlines ticket counter called it a "hotel wall."

So the problem here is I don't have a clue where to stay, what to pay or how to go about assessing the opportunities and pitfalls. So I select a Mariott, where I stayed last night, in fact. Dial 97 it says on the plastic ad, illuminated with a picture of the front of the hotel and teasers like "free wifi, sports and activities room, best airport rates, only 5 minutes away."

I was tired. I was staying in Atlanta against my will. I wanted a room, cheap and fast. But mostly without a hassle.

When I got put on hold by Mariott Airport South, I tried Mariott Airport North. I honestly couldn't tell you if I was on the South or Northside of the airport, but I guess it really didn't matter. Well, it might have mattered, but I didn't go with Mariott. When I got Marriott North, I was quoted $169 for a room. I checked the non-descript picture on the illuminated hotel wall and dialed again.

This time I tried the Hilton Spot. Or something like that. Very cool picture, nice looking lounge. $179. "I'm sorry sir, we don't have any more rooms at that rate."

Next I dialed 98, clearly marked on the advertisement as DoubleTree Inn. Another serene image, of a dark smokey-looking bar area and an outdoor pool. This time I connected with a human on ring number 3. She sounded happy to hear from me.

"$54.99 for two doubles and $62.50 for a king," she said. "How many nights?"

"One."

"Okay," she said, again sounding rather friendly, "Can you hold on just a second I have to switch phones?"

I waited. She returned to the phone and started asking me all the usual information. Name, CC#, smoking or non-smoking…

"Is it very far away," I asked.

"No, only about one mile." She said, giving me my confirmation number. "See you in a few minutes."

DONE.

"This is the DoubleTree, right?" I asked, almost as an after thought as I was hanging up the phone.

"No sir, this is the Budgetel. You catch the shuttle between rows 23 and 29."

"Budgetel?"

"Yes Sir. See you in a few minutes."

I gave in to her enthusiastic sales style. "Okay, see ya in a bit."

Next step… Waiting for a shuttle to arrive with the name of a hotel I wasn't really quite clear on:

I was glad it was still sunny, because I had not packed a jacket, and I knew it would be chillier as the night wore on. I figured the shuttle, some shuttle would be here any minute.

Looking South I was at least reassured that there were a lot of other people in the same situation. Or at least waiting for a shuttle to a hotel. Perhaps slightly more well informed. And they had jackets.

Looking North the view was much the same. I seriously began to doubt that I had a hotel at all. As van after van drove by. I almost jumped on the DoubleTree shuttle, but I stayed and hoped.

And then my lucky moment arrived, and a van pulled up with the Budgetel logo on it. I'd never seen a Budgetel logo, since the ad was not on the "hotel wall" yet, but I could read the writing. And I was reassured when some other kind folks got on the shuttle with me. They were going to the Drury Inn, but at least we were on the same team. Or at least in the same bus.

And that's about the time that things started to get weird.

Funny, that sign looks familiar, something about the shape…

Oh, that's it. Red Roof Inn.

I made my way to my room only to hear a dog barking in the next room. I was tired, and now a bit dazzled by all that Atlanta's Airport hotel wall had done for me. I was ready for some food and perhaps a libation.

And while I can't testify that I saw their advertisement on the "hotel wall" for a sports center, I CAN tell you that I saw one.

And while I have so much more to tell, I will wrap tonight's episode with the punctuation point.

When I wake up in the morning, I'll tell you the rest of the story. Cause it doesn't end with the Rita–which was pretty mediocre. It got even more fun for a bit. But I'm to tired to type any more. And as they say in those old Motel 8 ads, the rooms are all the same once you close your eyes.

I'd like to add, "Not exactly," to the sentiment.

And of course I don't yet know how it's going to turn out.

@jmacofearth
permalink: http://bit.ly/hotel-wall

Tags: airport hotel, airport shuttle, Atlanta airport, Atlanta fun, bad hotel, budgetel, digital nomad, good hotel, Hilton, hotel wall, Marriott, red roof inn, rita, stranded in Atlanta, travel day, us airways, where's kevin smith when you need him, whoa Atlanta

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Mar 02 2010

A Study in Brand and Innovation: Your Favorite Luxury Car Manufacturer Is…

Category: about me, connections, social media — jmacofearth @ 10:00 pm

Here's a pop question: Name the top five worldwide luxury car manufacturers. (I'll give you a second.)

Next question: Name the top five US luxury car manufacturers.

Any names on both lists?

I will put out my top five cars that are not limited by geographic production: two are German, three are Japanese. When I try to add an American car into the luxury mix, I can only come up with one brand. And these days their cars look more and more like the Mary Kay rewards that they proudly resemble.

Here is the luxury car list from a major automotive website:

So if you are set on buying a luxury car you have exactly two car manufacturers based in the US. And boy, have their cars seen better days.

First I will share the Brand that is coming out of the bailout swinging with a whole new style. I want these US car companies to get back on their feet, but when the ads for Lincoln's new line began appearing, I began fearing that the new direction would seal the deal on the death of this once powerful brand.

I'm not sure what "the next level of vehicle interaction" is, but I can tell you, Lincoln has turned out some of the ugliest cars I've ever seen. Never one of my favorites, I cannot imagine what demographic these grill-hyped cars are aimed at. By summer 2010, when this car supposedly ships, maybe they will have done the marketing research to figure out who would be interested in this car with "intuitive MYLINCOLN TOUCH ™ TECHNOLOGY." But I think they've got an entire line of Aztek's on their hands. Maybe it updates your geo-location on Twitter!

And the other luxury car company from the US, has worked hard to stay stylistically ahead of the curve, but as they have tried to push innovation and design, I think they have invented more pink Cadillacs. I came across a brand new Escallade in the parking garage where I work, and I was stunned by how bulbous and ugly the car was. The paper plates were still on it and I really tried hard to imagine the new driver and their proud new purchase. (Maybe I should wait around and meet them, and ask them, "What were you thinking?" In a good way, not a mean way.)

So while I didn't use the image of the Escallade, I tried to use the most refined new Cady for this example, I can't get past how garish the grill and styling is. For lack of a better word, they have "pimped" the Cadillac to the point of extinction. No additional engine vents, larger-than-life logo emblems or pearlescent paint jobs are going to make this car into a successful luxury car. I wonder what demographic Cadillac is actually aiming for. In the $40k to $80k range, I simply cannot place their vehicles in the top 5 luxury cars.

So *my* top 5 luxury cars are, in *my* order of appreciation.

1. BMW
2. Acura
3. Lexus
4. Mercedez-Benz
5. Infiniti

And in a final self-revealed point of trivia, I asked my Facebook friends, "If you were a car, what car would you be and why."

And I can say, that my current car, a used car I bought three weeks ago, actually captures my self-idealized spirit perfectly. A 2004 BMW 330xi. And the words I would use to define myself and this car are: aggressive, safe, classic, driving performance, and controls mapped out for the driver.

I honestly cannot see myself driving a Cadillac or Lincoln, in any shape or form. But I've never been interested in the words that I can't help but associate with them: expensive, over-done, grandmother, realtor, Mary Kay.

@jmacofearth
permalink: http://bit.ly/luxury-cars

What car are you?

Tags: bmw, brand, brand as self, Cadillac, car as self, if you were a car, luxury car, Mary Kay, what car would you be, what do you see, your favorite car