SIC2011 Recap

I've rounded up all of my notes and am ready to dive into all that I learned this past week at the Seattle Interactive Conference. I liked what @gknutson wrote over on What the Klout about how he used Twitter to take more effective notes.

"[W]hen I sit down to write a recap...there will be no need to sort through pages of hand written, torn, coffee stained notes"

 I was smart enough to ditch paper notes after the first session, switching instead to Macbook Stickies & tweets. Still, all I have are shorthand notes and I really dislike writing. So, what I have decided to do is copy my notes directly onto this blog post.

Lazy? Sure. I'll own up to that. However, I will go an extra step and flesh out the discussion points that are a little vague or could use a bit more meat. Here we go...

Beauty, Constraint, & the Atari 2600     Ed Fries
**Full disclosure: I was still taking notes old school, so they're pretty skinny**

The following were all examples of ways in which constraint can turn out a beautiful outcome. Ed Fries concluded his talk by saying that he believed gaming was entering an impressionistic period.

• Origami—an elaborate creation from a single sheet of paper
• Poetry— it's better when lyrics aren't too specific
• The musical writings of Bach

 Meme & Miasma: Context Shifts in Social Media     Louis LoPresti
 This was one of my favorite talks at the conference.

• Conversion to Transaction
• Don't invade their personal social space.
• Treat brands like relationship; no longer about making a "wow" ad
• Weak-Tie Connections 
• See link on fb page, and click/like (weak tie)
• Strong-Tie Connections
• Conversations—have an authentic voice
• Be dedicated to the brand, not the social media "marketing has to get over the fact that marketing is marketing"
• "Facebook is a place we go to to celebrate ourselves"
• Tweet what you know/are interested in. What do you want to talk to the world about?

 Mad Woman
There was a panel of speakers for this one. Most of the questions were in relation to clips shown from the tv show Mad Men.

• Woman should be the natural choice for the emotional sell
• Don't sell what or how...sell the why
• Don't stand up and burn your bra...figure out how to live in the mind of everybody else in the room and invite them into it.
• New is a relative term. The other extreme is something that's nostalgic. Value Village=find a treasure

Making a Mess     Matthew Mulder

• "If you know what you're doing you aren't trying hard enough"
• Opt-in culture; experiences must be unique & meaningful in order to engage
• 4 Things to go by:
• Be artisans
• Be conversationalists—Speak w/ conviction then shut up and listen
• Think like entrepreneurs—Understand your goals, make your own opportunities
• Keep an open mind—Avoid mental traps: digital vs. analogue

There were other sessions I attended. Some ended up being something I wasn't expecting. For example, the UX Design panel mostly talked about startups and how there is more creative freedom in that particular environment.

Then there was the one session that didn't really cover anything new and was oddly sexist. Rather than take notes, I ended up sketching a pretty picture on Stickies.