Are we there yet?

It’s been months in the planning, and it’s hard to believe it’s here: SXSW Interactive starts this week.  Beaconfire is ready, packing our bags and heading out to Austin.  On Friday, the Beacon Lounge will open on the 3rd floor of the Austin Convention Center, and the fun will begin.

If you’ll be there, check out what we’ve got planned for the lounge – and be sure to stop by and say hi!  We can’t wait to meet all the non-profit, socially-conscious geekeratti at this geekiest of conferences.

Don’t forget to add out panel, Will Kiva Kill Your Nonprofit?, to your schedule.  These nonprofit rockstars are going to uncover the future of fundraising, and you won’t want to miss it.

If you won’t be there, you can still follow the excitement.  Just subscribe to the Beacon Blog, where you’re sure to find great insights, interviews, and other surprises as the conference gears up.

This post was originally supposed to be about the ASAE Technology Conference. We here at Beaconfire are big fans of the conference – attending, exhibiting, presenting – and we were once again looking forward to being a part of the expo and programming. But the recent (historic) weather in the DC area has forced the cancellation of this year’s event.

Fortunately for conference registrants and other interested parties, an intrepid band of volunteers led by Socialfish’s Maddie Grant and Lindy Dreyer, along with Omnipress, ThePort, NFi Studios, and Avectra, sprang into action and created UnTech10, the Technology Unconference. What is an unconference? It’s an informal, participant-led gathering to explore the topics that were going to be addressed in the official ASAE conference. Free to the nonprofit and association community, UnTech10 will feature live and virtual presentations from Technology Conference speakers. Beaconfire will be leading a session on using metrics to optimize your social media presence.

It’s unfortunate that the official event had to be canceled, but we encourage all of you who are a part of the nonprofit and association community to check out UnTech10, and participate as you can. It is open to all; you can register here, view the list of sessions, and follow the conference on Twitter using the #unTech10 tag.

… You really won’t want to miss THIS.

Remember back in August when we asked for your help to get our panel ideas accepted to South by Southwest Interactive? Well, this last week we have been dying to share really exciting news with you, but have been sworn to secrecy .. til NOW!

Thanks to the hard work, brilliance and tenacity of own Shiloh Stark, Jo Miles and Michael Cervino, “Will Kiva Kill Your Non Profit: Donations 2.0″ has been chosen, featuring Skylar Woodward from Kiva.

From sxsw head honcho’s email:
“We received more than than 2300 outstanding proposals via the SXSW PanelPicker — so being selected for the event means that your idea represents the best of the best of the best. Congrats!! And, thanks again for putting together such a great proposal.”

Does it get any better than that? See you all in Austin!

Today, I had the honor of speaking on a great panel sponsored by Google and the Ad Council along with Jane Kirchner from American Farmland Trust, Andrew Marshall fromthe Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research (AHRQ) and Carley Graham Garcia from Google.

Huge props to Kate Emanuel of the ad council for pulling it all together and inviting me to join the assembled rockstars. For anyone playing the home game who would like to see my part of the presentation, enjoy!

Great facelifts are not just for the Hollywood elite anymore. In these challenging economic times, organizations are discovering the wisdom of reorganizing their existing wesbsite real estate rather than going under the knife for a complete site redesign. Think botox vs. nose job – If you had limited time, resources and a pretty low pain threshold, which would you choose?

All kidding aside, these days a “facelift” or a “site refresh” may be just what the doctor ordered for several reasons:

1. Your organization has rebranded, updated your collateral, or changed your identity in any way that resulted in a lack of overall visual cohesion.
2. Your site was last designed when Front Page was the cool kid on the block, IE 6 was the best browser on the market, and it’s just begun to feel dated.
3. Your whole site is in flash, no search engines can find you, and you cannot edit it easily.
4. Your information architecture and labeling is largely sound, but could use a tweak to update the language based on some user testing results.
5. You don’t have the time or the money for a complete redesign, but feel your organization’s message and mission are suffering because of a less than optimal site design and user experience.

While I’m a big fan of the transformative power of a fresh coat of paint for your website, here’s a few road-tested suggestions to consider before you drink the facelift kool-aid.

1. Assemble a small, nimble and responsive team to do the work. Do not skimp on a great PM who is no pushover but knows which battles are worth fighting.
2. Take the time up front to define the project requirements and keep them narrowly focused. Make scope creep an offense punishable by organization wide ridicule. Seriously.
3. Commit to a launch date and do not change it unless cats and dogs start falling from the sky. Same for major deliverable deadlines. This will be the “Project that never ends” if you don’t.
4. Do not let process bog you down. Be flexible enough to try a simpler way of doing something even if it represents a shift in “how you’ve always done it”.
5. Set reasonable expectations for the project amongst the organization’s stakeholders, and make sure you keep the lines of communication open at all times.

At the end of the day, the mark of a successful website facelift comes down to effectively using your available resources to help your users better engage with your organization.

And by the way, you look FABULOUS. Did you have some work done?

P.S. If you want to learn more about effective design strategies for your website, don’t miss yours truly (and some other cool folks) speaking on Oct 1st at this Google/Ad Council seminar: “Extreme makeover: Taking your website to a new level”

If you’re not busy on Saturday, why don’t you join one of the waterway clean up projects being organized by Ocean Conservancy?  On Saturday, Sept 19th people around the world will be pitching in, diving in, and helping clean up any body of water we can get our hands on (or near).  Last year teams around the world picked up 6.8 million pounds of trash which means that’s 6.8 million pounds less that’ll end up in our oceans.  Over 400,000 volunteers, 100 countries, and 42 states participated in last year’s worthwhile effort.

A Beaconfire crew will be joining the Ocean Conservancy team to work on the banks of the Anacostia River.  You can learn more about this international event (and sign up!) at www.oceanconservancy.org/icc

Odds are, you have heard about all the amazing Non Profit panels being proposed for South by Southwest interactive 2010, and your vote has been courted over and over again. After 2 weeks of this (with one more to go), odds are even higher that Panel-Picker fatigue has hit an all time high and the last thing you want to see are the letters s-x-s-w in that order.

Rather than hear from us about our amazing panels yet again, we thought we would share some comments from the sxsw community. The people are talking, and we invite YOU to join the conversation. Panel picker voting ends on Friday, Sept 4th so don’t delay – time is running out to weigh in on these great panel ideas, like these folks have:

Will Kiva Kill Your Nonprofit? Donations 2.0

Ted Fickes, The Wilderness Society
Definitely an interesting set of questions. Do people need or even want most/many organizations when there are local and/or highly focused or short-term projects out there and ready made ways to raise $ for them?

Sundeep Ahuja, The Extraordinaries
These days I see a lot of non-profits and cause oriented organizations borrowing pages from Kiva.org – from fundraising to marketing, Kiva.org has almost become an example of a “next-generation” non-profit. There’s something about the way Kiva.org embraces transparency, operations, and engagement which has made it a phenomena. WRT fundraising specifically, in a way Kiva is doing what Radiohead did when they launched their album for free and asked fans to pay what they wished; at the point of transaction, Kiva says “hey, we’re offering this service for free, but if you wish to help us do what we do, please pitch in” — and it’s working. I for one am very curious to see if this model (and the associated transparency and required operational efficiency) might work for other organizations as fundraising is one of the biggest challenges non-profits face.

Skylar Woodward, Kiva
I’m really looking forward to this discussion! We spend so much time engrossed in our model we don’t often get to step outside of Kivaland and consider how this is affecting online philanthropy at large. The intimacy and transparency of a Kiva loan certainly comes at a cost. To what extent is it reasonable to expect other organizations to correlate every dollar to good done in the world? Are we setting donor expectations too high or is this the reality of technology-enabled world driven by postmodern values? If this is the future, how do we scale operations, especially on a non-profit budget, to keep accurate data flowing between donors and recipients?!? At Kiva we’ve certainly had to find the balance between perceived impact and explaining what’s actually going on under the code and on the ground.

Cynthia Greenwood
This is a great idea for a panel. One of my concerns about these new online giving models is whether big donors will now choose to go online to fund loans to entrepreneurs of their choosing versus giving donations that can be used at the organization’s discretion to support the most needed programs and operations. Perhaps this could be addressed by the panel.

Milo Sybrant, Amnesty International
This discussion proves to be an interesting one because it raises important questions about the ethics of direct-to-beneficiary fundraising when the human lives are involved. It’s one thing to make a gift to cover the costs of snacks for children in a New York City school (as is possible through orgs like DonorsChoose). But it’s a different proposition to ask someone to make a contribution in order to get a specific political prisoner released from detention in Iran.

Joe Baker, Care2
This should be an interesting panel. It is fairly straightforward to see how the Kiva/DonorsChoose models of micro loans and direct donations can apply to/possibly supplant organizations that primarily serve as bundlers, vetters, and conduits for individual projects and direct assistance. I’m curious to see how the panelists feel the model can apply to other spheres such as advocacy groups.

Can Double-Clicking Change The World? Slacktivism 101

Robert Rosenthal,Volunteer match
Have to say, there’s a delicious irony to a bunch of people in a room watching other people talk about other people slacking. Causes in Facebook ($10 million from 240,000 causes, or $41 per cause) has been a convenient target for slacktivism charges because it’s big and they’ve been open about their numbers, but I think it’s clear our communities need a better model than “click for change”. At some point, individuals need to donate either real time or real money in order to make a difference. Should be a good panel.

Jean Russell, Nuture.biz
Really great issue to debate. i hope we can talk about what has traction without a lot of action and what looks sexy, but doesn’t get much traction – from both an activist org view as well as a contributor/slacker view.

Kiva Wilson, Kaboom.org
I’m stoked to see that SXSW has finally decided to take on this most worthy of topics. Slacktivism opens SO many doors for causes and volunteer/service opportunities. I’m eager to hear what the panelists have to say on the matter.

Michael Cooper
This is a great topic. Non-profits are doing some of the best work in the social media sphere – experimenting where others fear to tread. Big projects have big barriers to entry. If non-profits are to generate mass action, they must use these forms of media to have low barriers of entry to start and encourage folks to take the next step. Should be a great discussion.

Kathryn Lusk
I love this topic – it’s exciting to think about the potential for “slacktivism” to inspire real live activism!

Data, Data, Everywhere: Drowning in a Sea of Analytics

Danielle Brigida, National Wildlife Federation
I think it’s really important to pick the data you track carefully! There is so much to choose from. I hope this panel gets picked!

Jason Cooper, Kaboom.org
As someone who used to compile monthly reports in excess of 50 pages on everything you could imagine related to analytics, I’m very interested in hearing about Question #9. (“What stats can I ignore? “)

Joseph Kelly, Infochimps
Beaconfire does great work. Learning about actionable metrics is a metalesson that can be applied in all sorts of other fields. It will be interesting to see what you guys come up with.

Yoga For Social Networkers: Striking The Right Pose

Renee Hamilton, Operation Smile
I love this idea and the yoga tie in–it seems like it will benefit both newbies and experienced social media geeks who are always look for ways to stretch our time and talents and new positions for us to get into!

Ed Schipul, Schipul: the Web Marketing Company
Great to see Beaconfire, a strong supporter of the non-profit community and a firm that walks-the-talk, representing at SXSW. Not sure I can do the interactive portion of the presentation…. oooooh shiny! … oh wait, what was I writing about? Oh ya, I am in favor of any panel that helps us naturally limit our ADD tendencies and gain focus. This is timely for non profits, for businesses and for ourselves during the Great Recession!

It’s Not All About You: Respecting Your Users

Raffi Darrow, Rdesign inc
I wish everyone knew this: your site isn’t there for you, it’s there for your users!

Thank you for your support! Panel selection decisions will be made in October so watch this space – hopefully we will have some good news to report.

If you’re an avid follower of this blog, you may have noticed that the people at Beaconfire are full of great ideas, and not shy about lettin’ em loose on the world. From social media to design to web metrics to just general non profit tech guru-ness, we leave no stone unturned. But there is one thing we have not yet accomplished – and for that we need your help, dear readers.

Driven by our desire to share what we are most passionate about on a larger stage, we have submitted five innovative, thought provoking and exciting panel ideas for consideration at the South by Southwest Interactive conference in Austin, TX this coming March. Among the overwhelming landscape of 2210 other great ideas in the sxsw panel picker (a crowdsourcing approach to selecting conference content, which counts for 30% of the overall decision-making) we bravely stand toe to toe, competing with the rockstars, the uber geeks and other movers and shakers in the tech world. South By, we are Beaconfire! Hear us ROAR!

Helen Reddy-inspired bravado aside, in order to be able to present these great ideas anywhere outside of our own conference room, we desperately need you, our dedicated community, to help us. So now we humbly ask that you not only cast a “thumbs up” vote for our panels, but also post your insightful comments on each entry to let the sxsw “deciders” see how timely, thrilling, brilliant and ya know, really cool , our ideas are. You will have to make an account first, but we know that won’t hold you intrepid souls back. Forge onwards, brave readers, and let your voice be heard! Without further ado (or any additional hyperbole) – our panels:

Yoga for Social Networkers: Striking the Right Pose
Organizer & Speaker: Amadie Hart
There are hundreds of social networks, but only one you. Instead of overextending yourself, you need to bring focus on the important things and let go of the rest. Learn how to center your social media practice and balance your online activities. Bring your yoga mat! (don’t miss the video preview!)

Will Kiva Kill your non profit? Donations 2.0
Organized by Shiloh Stark, Jo Miles and Michael Cervino
Speakers: Skylar Woodward, Director of API development at Kiva; Ian Scott Haisley, OptINnow.org, Milo Sybrant, Amnesty International
Connecting donors directly to the beneficiaries of contributions is a game-changing fundraising strategy. Will traditional nonprofits need to adopt new technologies and fundraising models as donors demand greater accountability for their funds? This vibrant, moderated discussion will include representatives from Kiva, OptINnow, and 2 national advocacy organizations.

Can double-clicking change the world? Slacktivism 101
Organized by Eve Simon & Ali Cherry
Speakers: Jacob Colker, CEO of The Extraordinaries; Premal Shah, President of Kiva; and Jason Cooper, Online organizer for Kaboom.org and at least one other rockstar “surprise guest” to be named later.
Sl’ack-Ti-vism. Noun. Taking action for social change without lifting a finger. As the latest technology allows people to “engage” from their computers/phones rather than getting their hands dirty IRL, will this impact the future of volunteerism? A panel of experts will debate the pros & cons of couch potato activism.

Data Data Everywhere: Drowning in a sea of Analytics
Organizer & Speaker: Marissa Goldsmith
A Web site gives a nonprofit access to data that makes old school direct marketers salivate. But many organizations find themselves getting bogged down in producing graphs every month, obsessing over drops in pageviews, throwing their hands up on the air, and deciding they don’t have enough resources to maintain this kind of analytics analysis. Stop obsessing about the small stuff, and start learning about creating a goal-oriented, actionable analytics plan that can help your Web site thrive.

It’s not all about you: respecting your users
Organizer & Speaker: Jo Miles
Google practices it with AdWords. Facebook learned it the hard way. The truth is, your site isn’t there for you or your board; it’s there for your users. All the clever marketing tricks in the world won’t win their loyalty if you don’t give them a little respect.

Of course, not to be all “Me me me” about this, we also kindly ask that you share some panel picker love with these other great sxsw sessions, proposed by non profit tech rockstars, social media visionaries and really, really smart people:

Crowd Sourcing Innovative Social Change
Beth Kanter, Beth’s Blog

Non-Profits and Social Media: Not the Usual Suspects
David Neff, American Heart Association

The Real Housewives of Social Media
Jordan Viator, Convio

Advanced Brand Monitoring: Let the Haters Hate
Carie Lewis, The Humane Society of the United States

Competition > Innovation > Change: Examining Competitions For Social Change
Amy Sample Ward, NetSquared

Can Social Media Change Global Consciousness?
Panelists include: Amy Sample Ward, Danielle Brigida and Stacey Monk

Evolution, Creation and Extinction (of the organization)
Ted Fickes, The Wilderness Society

Handheld Awesome Detectors: Sustainable Apps
Rachel Weidinger, Rachel Weidinger Consulting

Building an Employee Platform for Social Change
Patrice Thramer, Nike, Inc

Doing More With Less: How Not-For-Profits Leverage Technology for Change
Nancy Lublin, DoSomething.org

Digital Marketing for Non-Profits
Amy Seidenwurm, LA Phil

A Different Documentary: Online Storytelling & Social Change
Boyd Neil, Hill & Knowlton Canada

The Socially Conscious Geek: Makin’ Money While Doin’ Good
Leif Utne, Zanby

SMS And Social Change: Lessons From Senegal
Terra Weikel, UNICEF

We all look forward to representin’ the non profit sector in Austin this spring, and can’t wait to see everyone in The Beacon: Lounge with a Conscience again. (details to come – watch this space!)

It starts innocently enough. A blog post here or there. You sign up for Facebook to see what everyone is talking about. Perhaps you even started Twittering, because if Ashton Kutcher could do it, anyone could do it.

Next thing you know, you’re an information junkie, obsessively checking your accounts for your next fix, broadcasting the play-by-play of your daily activities and thoughts to anyone who will follow you, and realizing that you would have forgotten what your partner/spouse/kids look like if you hadn’t posted the photos from your vacation to Flickr.

Stop.

Put down the iPhone.

And breathe.

While social media presents a valuable toolset for you and your organization to stay connected with a far-flung network of friends, family, supporters, members, and advocates, you must find a way to center yourself before you become overwhelmed. It’s no longer just a question of work/life balance — this has become work/life/social network balance.

We have just the thing to help you find your way. For South by Southwest interactive this spring, I have proposed a session called “Yoga For Social Networkers: Striking The Right Pose” suggesting that the ancient practice of yoga can help you find the social networking balance you seek. But we need your help to make it a reality.

With the help of a real Yogi, this mind-expanding hour will offer practical yoga-inspired solutions like:
• Shedding your tendency toward multitasking and be fully present when you participate in social networks.
• Finding balance between the online and offline world, and resist the temptation to be checking your networks 24/7.
• Realizing your limitations to avoid overextending yourself.
• And, most importantly, setting your intentions clearly from the beginning by understanding what you are trying to achieve and working toward that goal.

A preview of some of the “poses” you will learn:

By the end of the session, we hope you’ll discover how to get more accomplished in the same amount of time, that your friends and followers are finding more value in what you put out there, and perhaps you’ve even increased your social network flexibility a bit.

So start your “practice” today by voting for (and leaving comments on) our Yoga for Social Networkers panel entry.

Your karma will thank you.

SXSW Panel Picker Page: “Will Kiva Kill Your Nonprofit? Donations 2.0“

Kiva has been connecting donors with low income entrepreneurs since 2005. Their model of microlending has proven meaningful, effective (they have a current repayment rate of 98.7%), and popular (over $80 million in loans have been made so far). They’ve been such a game-changer in the nonprofit fundraising space that we want to bring Kiva together with other national nonprofits at SXSW Interactive 2010 to talk about the future of online fundraising.

Kiva creates a one-to-one relationship between donor and recipient. Donors know exactly where their money is at all times and can see the tangible effects of their dollars – if desired, they can completely avoid a general fund, symbolic gift, or representative success story. It’s also a gift that keeps on giving – as recipients pay back their loans, donors can reinvest in new ones.

One question that both traditional nonprofits and startups are facing is whether this model poses a threat to the status quo of fundraising appeals. Will donors demand more accountability for each dollar? Will they expect a personal relationship with the end beneficiaries? How do the principles of Kiva apply to advocacy-based organizations?

If “Will Kiva Kill Your Nonprofit” is chosen for SXSW’s program, Skylar Woodward of Kiva, Ian Haisley of OptINnow, and others will tackle these questions in a vibrant conversation moderated by Beaconfire’s own Michael Cervino.

SXSW wants to know what you think about the panel idea before setting the program.
Does this topic sound intriguing? If so, drop a comment and place your vote on the panel picker page: “Will Kiva Kill Your Nonprofit? Donations 2.0.“

If you’re like me, you just can’t hear enough about using multivariate testing to optimize nonprofit web pages. If you’re in DC on Wednesday morning, don’t miss the Bridge Conference’s early bird session on MVT (that’s 8:30 AM – don’t forget to set your alarm clock!).

I’ll be giving an overview of MVT, and Feeding America’s webmaster, Dan Michel, will give us the skinny on their latest testing. We’ll talk together about the characteristics of a successful test and how to know if MVT is a good fit for your organization.

If you’ve been thinking about setting up a testing program or are just interested in recent case studies, this session won’t disappoint.

What’s that? 8:30 AM is too early, you say? In that case, check out Beaconfire’s white paper on multivariate testing.

PS – If you’re going to be at Bridge Thursday, don’t miss Iron Chef: Battle Nonprofit

After our well-flavored and succulent presentation at NTC in April, The Iron Chefs are on the road again, this time at the Bridge Conference in the DC area. You now have NO reason to miss it!

To refresh your memory: Using just one secret ingredient (a small nonprofit), three web teams will compete in the heat of battle, offering up exceptional tasting ‘menus’, each featuring a delicious new homepage design, a well-seasoned fundraising campaign and a perfectly balanced social networking plan. Only one team can prevail – who will it be? Come see how this unique project brought together a dozen web pros from competing firms, created amazing work for a very special organization, and taught us all the true power of our industry. We promise you won’t leave hungry.

Beaconfire’s own Ali Cherry and yours truly will be moderating this unique session at 3:30 on July 23rd and Susan Finkelpearl of Free Range Studios, Andrew Cohen of Forum One Communications, and Maureen Wallbeoff of Firefly Partners will round out the panel’s incredible talent.

Don’t miss it!

Confession time. When I started designing for the web nearly 14 years ago, I pretty much made it all up as I went along. Brave souls all, we ventured out bravely into the wilderness, hoped for the best and called our mistakes “lessons learned”. Most of us survived to tell the tale, emerging stronger, smarter and a little more acclimated to this brave new world. Others just grew gills, but that’s a story for another time.

As the web industry has matured, it fascinates me that processes and best practices have developed to the degree that all of us are singing a similar song, even though we may not have all gotten the same memo. Working in the web these days feels like spending time on the Galapagos Islands. Evolving to fit our environment, we have somehow still retained the elements that make us all unique without sacrificing forward progress and growth. I always knew Darwin was a designer at heart.

So combining the passion I have for design with my desire to share what I have learned the hard way about the ways of the web, on occasion I stick my hand in the lion’s mouth and go talk to people about it.

Sharing the stage at OneWorld.net’s Web Design for Non Profits workshop with Mckenzine Lock (Senior Communications Manager, Communications and Outreach at Women Thrive Worldwide) and Shirley Sexton (Director of Interactive Marketing & Fundraising at See3 Communications) was further proof that we have learned how to speak the same language without sacrificing our own point of view. Exploring the challenges facing non profits on the web these days, we tackled the same subject from 3 different angles: as a designer who creates visual environments to support an organization’s complex ecosystem, a client who just survived a redesign rooted in best practices, and a marketing evangelist who lives and breathes this stuff every day.

And wouldn’t you know, without comparing notes or peeking at the other’s presentation ahead of time, we shared a cohesive message with our audience. Amazingly, we empowered these non profit professionals in their pursuit of a great new website for their organization, transformed their ability to achieve their goals, and left them excited to take their mission to a larger audience online.

Ain’t evolution fun? Check out my presentation here and tell us what you think!

On June 24th, I will be speaking about a topic that I could wax rhapsodic about for DAYS: Killer design. So sign up now for One World’s “Web design for non-profits” 2 day workshop on June 24-25 and hear what we have to say on the topic. Just don’t heckle me from the peanut gallery. That always throws me. :)

Hope to see you there!

Who couldn’t love NTC? Great times spent with colleagues, excellent sessions from which to learn, and great conversations on what’s possible for nonprofits and technology. The three days at the conference were invigorating for me. And guess what? No one was disappointed to not receive a Beaconfire chachka. Instead, we had more than 100 deserving organizations recommended by the NTC community for Beaconfire’s Chachka Grant.

This year, instead of spending our marketing budget on stuff no one really needs anyway, we decided to give the money we would have spent on chachka’s to 3 organizations nominated and voted on by the NTC community.

And the winners … (more…)

If you are one of the record number of people attending NTC in two weeks, there is one session you will not want to miss: This is Iron Chef … Battle Non Profit.

Using just one secret ingredient (a small Bay Area nonprofit), three web teams will compete in the heat of battle, offering up exceptional tasting ‘menus’, each featuring a delicious new homepage design, a well-seasoned fundraising campaign and a perfectly balanced social networking plan. Only one team can prevail – who will it be? You be the judge, NTC! Come see how this unique project brought together a dozen web pros from competing firms, created amazing work for a very special organization, and taught us all the true power of our industry. We promise you won’t leave hungry.

Beaconfire’s own Ali Cherry and yours truly will be moderating this unique session at 3:30 on April 27th and Susan Finkelpearl of Free Range Studios, Andrew Cohen of Forum One Communications, and Maureen Wallbeoff of Firefly Partners will round out the panel’s incredible talent.

For more info on the session, listen to this podcast interview. Hope to see you there!

And we’re back!  After 5 jam-packed days at SXSW Interactive in Austin, the Beaconfire contingent is back in the office, catching up on email and trying to process everything we saw and learned.  In my case, what I learned was incredibly diverse – from the Beacon lounge to the panels to late-night conversations, from case studies to philosophical musings.  Some of these may become their own posts over the next few days, but I wanted to share some of the themes that emerged in my experience.  That’s one of the cool things about SXSW – everyone had a totally unique experience and learned different things.  Here are some of mine:

Non-profits love the web. This comes as no surprise to us, but I was impressed at how many non-profits and socially conscious companies were represented at SXSW.  We had a steady flow of these folks in the Beacon lounge, all of them happy to chat and tell you what they’re working on.  There was also a proliferation of panels on social change – where there were only one or two last year, I counted 8 on the schedule this year.  At lot of non-profits are still figuring out how to incorporate social media into their online activities, but these folks blew away any stereotypes about non-profits and technology, with some great examples of how we can use the web to change the world.  I hope that next year we put forth an even stronger presence!

SXSW loves Twitter. I can’t believe how prevalent Twitter was at this conference.  As a Twitter skeptic, I signed up for an account a couple days before, just to check it out, and I’m glad I did.  Nearly every panel had a Twitter hashtag, most speakers gave out their Twitter handles, and a surprising (to me) number of participants wore custom t-shirts with their handles written on them.  Twitter shared back-channels for the sessions, gave tips on the best parties, and facilitated meet-ups.  We contributed by tweeting away at the Beacon, and there was a lot of “IRL” chatter about how Twitter was going to change the web, from social networking to fundraising.  I think there was a bit of group-think going on at the conference – what seems “normal” to a large group of similarly-minded people may not be “normal” to the world at large, and Twitter is still in that category for me.  It’s intensely popular among the web elite, but plenty of people out there don’t use it, and that’s easy to forget at a big event like SXSW.  For my part, I’ll confess that I don’t get it.  (Phew.  I said it.)  I tried, honest I did.  I followed people I knew, and followed people who seemed interesting, but I found my Twitter feed repetitive and distracting.  While is was occasionally helpful or entertaining, most of the time it kept me looking down at my phone instead of up at the panelists or the people around me.  And while it came in handy for the conference, I’m not sure I’ll use it again until next year…

Crowds can be wise, but only if you help them. Crowd-sourcing on the web means basing your content and decisions on the input of your users.  Netflix uses it when they recommend movies to you based on the ratings of users with similar tastes.  And the New York Times does the same with their Most Emailed lists.  (SXSW even tried out a panel recommendation system on their site.)  This idea is both enticing and frightening for organizations.  In the past, I’ve heard two big concerns from organizations considering this sort of interaction mechanism: we’ll get bad input, and we’ll be obligated to do whatever the crowd says.  Not so!  (Unless your site is targeted by Stephen Colbert.)  In fact, you can, and should, curate your crowd-sourced data to make the best use of it.  Keep your goal in mind, be up front with your users about how you’ll use the data they give you, and make your data collection as simple and clean as possible.  At best, make sure that what’s in your best interest is also in your audience’s best interests.

Powerpoint presentations don’t have to suck. I actually went to a presentation about how to give good presentations – and as one might hope, it was a great presentation.  Did you know that bullet points are only marginally helpful in getting information through to your audience – and that they can’t process your text and listen to your narration at the same time?  To get our audiences to remember the information we present, we need to target it at the way the brain works.  Big, exciting visuals, meaningful animation, limited words, and strong narration are the keys.  I was reminded that the brain still has survival as its number one priority – if your presentation is exciting, maybe a little alarming, the brain will really tune in.  I don’t give a lot of powerpoint presentations, but it’s easy to see where these ideas could apply to the web.  We’re always trying to break up big paragraphs on web pages into bullet points, but if we really want to make an impact, maybe we need to push it further – cut out those bullets and toss in more engaging pictures?  This makes me think of a video I saw this week from Free Range Studios that uses no words, just animated images, to communicate some pretty strong ideas.

Social media is for grassroots activism. I talked with folks from a lot of non-profits, large and small, and some of the most exciting applications of social media that I heard about were focused on local or grassroots activism.  I met a local Austin group talking about building a social network for backyard farmers to compare notes.  I saw a demo of a CA-based non-profit connecting local chefs with local farmers, and letting them order produce online.  I often like to think about how the web is letting us connect with like-minded people around the world.  It’s nice to remember that it can also connect us with like-minded people in our own neighborhood.

More than any other conference I’ve ever been to, SXSW feels like it has it’s own social rulebook. The conference starts tomorrow and I’m pretty sure I’m the last of the 11,000 attendees to write a blog post or tweet about it. Since this is my first SXSW interactive, I’ve decided to try to decode this trend-setting event before I get there in the true spirit of my fellow conference-goers: the geekiest way I could think of.

As I was going through the 470+ sessions and parties listed on the site, some themes started to emerge. I noticed there are a lot of sessions on gaming, a bunch that address community and a few that talk about women and technology. But I’m only human so to find trends that I might not catch, I dumped all the sessions into excel, separated them by words and created a pivot table to do my own “tag cloud analysis” of SXSW 2009.  (Turns out Mike Rohde did an awesome tag cloud design based on the panel picker for the tote bag which is where this image came from). So here’s what I found by digging into the tag cloud:

1. There are two common denominators for SXSW: After dismissing filler words like “the” and “to,” two words emerged as the most popular: “your” and “web,” each with 34 appearances. Of course all conferences are tailored to their attendees, but SXSW in some ways sets the gold standard as one of the first to let people submit and vote on which sessions are offered (though it’s not quite that pure). It seems authentically about “you” (which appears 10 times in case you were wondering), though the only thing one person might have in common with another is that everyone cares about the web. Sessions address topics ranging from blogging to design to privacy to gaming. With such a variety to choose from – almost 100 sessions per day – attendees can really make it their own.
2. SXSW is a social community: Next to web and your, “social” appears 28 times in the titles of events at SXSW. This isn’t all that surprising really but what is somewhat surprising is how many words “social” modifies: social networking, social media, social good, social capital, social gamers. This is right up there with “community,” which in its various forms appears 13 times. At SXSW you can learn about measuring, mobilizing, building and managing strong social communities and join a dialogue about how they could “end racism” and are “killing the revolution,” as two sessions address. At the same time social describes more and more online sites and tools, community is being stretched too, making me wonder if both words will soon lose their meanings. It will be interesting to see how these words are used over the next few days.
3. Things are dying….or at least some think so: A shocking 8 sessions refer to death or dying. I sense a debate coming on. Is privacy dead? Friendship? Blogging? PR agencies? Print? There are sessions that either ask or declare that all those things are on their way out. What do you think? If you disagree, or would rather take a positive spin on SXSW, you might attend one of two sessions on books (so maybe print isn’t dead) or a session called “What does awesome sound like?”
4. You’ll leave knowing how to do something: Probably not unique to this conference, one of the most frequent words is “how” appearing 26 times, suggesting that in more than 1 in 20 sessions, someone is going to be teaching us an actionable skill. What kinds of tools or information are people looking for? Well, you can learn “how to fund a startup”, “how to protect your brand without being a jerk” and even (don’t tell your boss you went to this one) “how to leave your perfectly good job.” There are also a few sessions on Tips. I might check out “Tips for making ideas happen”
5. SXSW loves games, gaming and gamers (or they love SXSW): At least 14 sessions and 21 mentions of some iteration of the word suggest that games are being talked about from many angles: what we can learn from them, game programming, game research, game design, cinematic games, and the list goes on.
6. Startups and the recession actually work together: Speaking of learning how to do something, there’s a huge focus on entrepreneurs, startups, bootstrapping and freelancing (at least 14 mentions combined) even with 4 sessions that mention the economy or the recession. If this interests you, you might check out “What do I do with myself, now that the economy has collapsed?” or “How startups can take advantage of the recession”.
7. Creative session titles must win a special prize: We knew creativity mattered when we submitted a couple session topics, but it’s interesting to see which actually got picked. My favorite: “Reduce MySpace between waist & thighs so wiki live longer.” This is one of a few sessions focused on quality of life for web people, possibly another emerging trend? “Is being too ‘plugged in’ 24/7 destroying your health? There’s good news: web 2.0 technologies can help you optimize your fitness! Come learn and discuss.” Creative title and creative topic. I’m definitely interested to see what this has to offer.

By the way, if you’re at SXSW, please come by The Beacon Lounge that we are sponsoring!

By popular request, here is info about all the cool events in The Beacon during SxSW. Flyers will be available in the lounge for you to pick up so you don’t miss a second of the fun.

Also note there will be a featured organization in residence in The Beacon all day long sat-mon. Come lounge with a conscience with these featured non profits at The Beacon and find out how you can change the world!

Saturday March 14th
Lunch for a Cause
Blackbaud Internet Solutions is sponsoring lunch in The Beacon for people who donate their lunch money the Capitol Area Food Bank of Texas, a partner of Feeding America. If you can’t make it at lunchtime, come by their table anytime to help hungry Texas families.

Sunday March 15th
Entrepreneurs Ending Global Poverty
What if in one day, you could change the lives of hundreds in the poorest countries and help end poverty? OptINnow .orgwill be at The Beacon all day to show you how you can. Your Mission, Sxsw: Fund as many entrepreneurs as possible by 5pm!

Monday March 16th
SXSW Smiles
Operation Smile wants to know what makes YOU smile! Come by their table in The Beacon to find out how you can spread smiles around the world (and around sxsw), and be entered in a drawing for a one-of-a-kind gift. You can start smiling right now to get in the sxsw spirit!

In just over a week, the worlds hippest, smartest, network-iest people in technology will be converging upon Austin for South by Southwest interactive (known as SxSW-i to those in the know) and Beaconfire will be there in full force. Not only are we sponsoring THE coolest spot for non profits to hang out in (The Beacon – Lounge with a Conscience, Room 19A 4th floor) BUT you can meet the (in)famous Michael Cervino, Ali Cherry, Jo Miles, and yours truly (Eve Simon) there. What more can you ask for?

To get updates on all the cool things happening in The Beacon, including events from Blackbaud Internet solutions, Free Range Studios, NTEN, Operation Smile, Feeding America and Opportunity International, follow @TheBeaconsxsw on Twitter all week.

We hope to meet many of you in Austin next week, so please seek us out to say hi. For those not able to make the trip, we will be blogging between March 13-17, so hopefully you’ll feel like you’re there with us.