SXSWi 2008: "The Art of Saying Hello"

The hoopla over the Mark Zuckerberg / Sarah Lacy keynote at SXSW Interactive eclipsed a lot of the other great happenings at the conference. I blogged about their hour long "discussion", as did about 2 billion other people on the planet. There is a full range of things said about their chat, but I still thought it was just not great. I want more than "blahhhhh" from the keynote address when I attend a major event. Regardless of the controversy, it came up short, pre-scripted and self-serving.


That being said, thousands of people came to watch their presentation, while only about 65 were in the audience on the small "Day Stage" to see my book reading / conversation. So who am I to say things about them? (besides an underwhelmed audience member!)


I had not blogged about my own speech, but I did have a great time getting to participate at SXSWi,... and was honored to be on the program. My talk focused on "How To Network At A Conference (Like SXSW)" which I think is an important topic at all conventions. One of the major reasons people attend these types of events is for "the networking opportunities", so helping people connect is important!


Before the conference I told my friends that I wanted to have more than 20 people in the audience (I actually had a dream where only 3 people came to see me on stage) and I hoped that someone would blog about my talk. Both worked out!


I got several emails from people who said that they utilized some of my advice during the rest of their time in Austin .... and that it helped them to make more connections with others at the conference.


Today I discover a blog post on a website (taktak.net) that discussed my presentation. Dom Murphy was in the audience and wrote about the talk and his following actions. How cool. He sums it up with the following statement "This networking thing is easy!".

Click Here to read his whole post. I don't know Dom, but he made my whole week with his review.

Have A Great Day.

thom
www.thomsinger.com