Below is my video. See all the videos here.

This is my deck. Download a PDF of it here.

This was the line-up from the day. More at the official website.

Screenshot By Mark Rosal

This morning Mark Rosal of Visual Gooodness (@visualgoodness) posted on their blog two screen shots of CNN’s website after it went down and came back online on September 11th, 2001. The attack on this country was 10 years ago.  Can you believe that? Looking at the CNN website that Mark posted made me realize a couple things.  First, I looked at where I was then and now.  I remember being swept up in the sadness of the tragedy that day.  Now, I’m getting married in less than a month. Second, I thought about how web technology and consumer technology as a whole has progressed. How much has changed for you personally and professionally in the last 10 years?

10 years ago we were just starting to recover from our hangover after the dot-com bubble burst. The idea of doing everything on the web was new. The great ancients Prodigy, CompuServe and AOL were still the common way America went “online”. Booking travel online was new and banking was years away. There were still a good deal of users on dial-up modems. Web technology was still in it’s infancy.  Windows users are still the majority today but back then total was nearly 100%.  The new advancement of Apple had just begun only four years prior when Steve Jobs returned. It might be hard to imagine that “God Jobs” [credit George Parker/AdScam] was never at the helm of the USS Apple but it’s true.  Even OS X had only launched six months prior.

The first popular web browser, Mosaic was still being used along with Netscape and Internet Explorer.  Firefox, Safari and Chrome had not yet been born.  Opera was around but like today, people unfortunately do not use it. Wikipedia has a solid history of web browsers.  In early 2000 I had assembled a multi-partition bootable PC with several operating systems and browser combinations that I had named Illuminati. I just remembered that I used the SuperHighway to print out a sticker that went on the CRT. Yes, a heavy cathode-ray-tube. No flat screens.

FutureSplash had just begun it’s new life as Macromedia’s Flash four years earlier. If you read the Wikipedia entry you’ll see that the Adobe machine has done a great job sweeping through Wikipedia and making sure that it says Adobe predominantly over Macromedia since the acquisition in 2005.  At first it looked like they were re-writing history.

Web 1.0 was still figuring itself out. I had not yet been asked if I understood Web 2.0 in interviews. “New Media” begat “Interactive” which begat “Digital”.

There was no Facebook (or even MySpace).  There was no YouTube and even though Google was in exsistence the idea of “googling” something had not entered into our lexicon.

The mighty iPhone that I switched to from my years of loyal Palm/Handspring support with Pilots and Trios was more than 6 years in the future.

The idea of sharing everything you do online was foreign. Believe it or not people enjoyed a degree of anonymity that the current online space could provide. There was no idea of being “social” online nor was it delivered by any media. The kids that are being hired today as experts by agencies or receiving millions for their startups, were most likely just starting high-school.

Obviously I’m a but of a history nerd. Especially when it comes to technology and it’s evolution and how people interact with it.

So if you were in the marketing/advertising mass-communication space in 2001 what were you doing with web technology?
Have you ever stopped to think about how far we have come and how integrated web tech is in our daily lives?

But this is nothing new…

In 1965, Gordon Moore (who would go on to co-found Intel a few years later) wrote an article where he laid out what would be known as “Moore’s Law“.  He basically said computing power would exponentially grow every two years.  Just look at what has happened even since the iPhones release in July 2007.  We are living in a new world with modern day industrialists.  Reminds me of the novels and even movies from the beginning of the last century like Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. When people feared that machines were going to replace the working man’s struggle.

I just received this letter from Scott Heiferman, the Co-Founder and CEO of Meetup.  At last look it was not available on their homepage.  It was a good old-fashioned email sent to Meetup account holders (Meetuppers).  I never knew the history of Meetup.  It’s just one of those startup darlings that just seems to have always just been there.  But if it was not for 9|11 it may never have. 

Fellow Meetuppers,

I don’t write to our whole community often, but this week is
special because it’s the 10th anniversary of 9/11 and many
people don’t know that Meetup is a 9/11 baby.

Let me tell you the Meetup story. I was living a couple miles
from the Twin Towers, and I was the kind of person who thought
local community doesn’t matter much if we’ve got the internet
and tv. The only time I thought about my neighbors was when I
hoped they wouldn’t bother me.

When the towers fell, I found myself talking to more neighbors
in the days after 9/11 than ever before. People said hello to
neighbors (next-door and across the city) who they’d normally
ignore. People were looking after each other, helping each
other, and meeting up with each other. You know, being
neighborly.

A lot of people were thinking that maybe 9/11 could bring
people together in a lasting way. So the idea for Meetup was
born: Could we use the internet to get off the internet — and
grow local communities?

We didn’t know if it would work. Most people thought it was a
crazy idea — especially because terrorism is designed to make
people distrust one another.

A small team came together, and we launched Meetup 9 months
after 9/11.

Today, almost 10 years and 10 million Meetuppers later, it’s
working. Every day, thousands of Meetups happen. Moms Meetups,
Small Business Meetups, Fitness Meetups… a wild variety of
100,000 Meetup Groups with not much in common — except one
thing.

Every Meetup starts with people simply saying hello to
neighbors. And what often happens next is still amazing to me.
They grow businesses and bands together, they teach and
motivate each other, they babysit each other’s kids and find
other ways to work together. They have fun and find solace
together. They make friends and form powerful community. It’s
powerful stuff.

It’s a wonderful revolution in local community, and it’s thanks
to everyone who shows up.

Meetups aren’t about 9/11, but they may not be happening if it
weren’t for 9/11.

9/11 didn’t make us too scared to go outside or talk to
strangers. 9/11 didn’t rip us apart. No, we’re building new
community together!!!!

The towers fell, but we rise up. And we’re just getting started
with these Meetups.

Scott Heiferman (on behalf of 80 people at Meetup HQ)
Co-Founder & CEO, Meetup
New York City
September 2011

1961 NYT article

The event started out a little too early in the morning.  Someone had forgotten to tell the super to turn down the air conditioning because it was refrigerator cold inside.

You can see the entire schedule below.  The better events for me were in the morning culminating with a great lunch panel with Boulder Digital Works at CU.  They are spearheading a great hashtag campaign #10rules.  A on-going working list of one liners that everyone in the business should read.  I’ve posted the first 24 they handed out below.  May favorites today are #’s 1, 7, 16 and 19.

These open in Flickr–it’s easier to read.

Alexander's collateral from CaT 6/10/10

The morning was one discussion after another that was engaging.  Thor Watson talking about building truly interactive machines that help a former graffiti artist, now paralyzed write again to environments for kids (and grown up kids).  Nick Law and Gerry Graf going at each other about story-telling. Just check out the schedule above and search for #crcat tweets to see the conversation.

Even though the room was freezing and the WiFi was terrible it was overall a great event.  Though the afternoon was slow, they had an excellent food and cookie spread.  Teressa Iezzi and the rest of the gang from Creativity/AdAge did a great job pulling it all together.  You could even get a real tattoo at the Pointroll booth by an artist from Daredevil/Funcity.  I’m not sure why.

Get a real tattoo courtesy of Pointroll

Cookie Spread

Food Spread

My Card for #iwny (enlarge)

Did we meet during #iwny and I gave you one of my cards? Thanks for taking the time to follow-up.

I post and tweet about many different things.  From advertising to theater to food.  Please read and let me know what you think.

My LinkedIn profile has my professional history with recommendations.

Did we meet at Creativity’s CAT Conference on Thursday?

You can also find me on Facebook and follow me on Twitter.

I hope you enjoyed your time at the events during #iwny.

Thank you,
Alexander Rea

Contact

My menagerie at home

Metal Voltron

I wanted to quickly respond to a recent post and 140 characters were not enough.

Ben Malbon at BBH just posted a great article on T-shaped people and the new creative production paradigm and used Voltron as a visual reference.  There have been a few other giant robot mashups since Voltron such as Transformers Constructicons that form Devastator but Voltron is the leader as far as I’m concerned.  And Lion Voltron, not Vehicle Voltron or any other spin-off.

It struck a personal chord with me not only because I personally identify with the T-shape model but also that I’ve been a fan of many of the great robot properties from the 80′s since their original run and long into sydication.  (We’ll keep this with animation only and not get into live-action because this would get long)

When I was a kid I was not able to have the Voltron toy because it was made of metal parts and had spring loaded projectiles.  Remember, this was the era of Kenner’s Boba Fett mail-away action figure that had a spring loaded projectile backpack.  Forcing Kenner to re-tool the line with the projectile attached.  (One of the originals sold at auction for $16,000 in 2003).  I’ve been collecting for as long as I’ve been able to buy my own things.  When I had my collectibles company and was working the circuit my appreciation grew for both products and licensing.  There was a plastic Voltron that was released years later but it lacked the character of the original heavy metal lions.  I finally bought my own metal Voltron off eBay seven years ago.

Voltron is a great reference for the nature of the business right now. The work that’s going on at places like BBH is helping change a business long mired in out-dated practices.  One day the word will spread up to the C-suite and we might see global change in how agencies are structured.  And I don’t think this idea is necessarily restrained to the advertising community but could be adopted across the board to all varieties of client-service companies.

There was a panel at SXSWi 2010, Jack of all Trades or Masters of One? that I covered in my writeup that could serve as a great primer for Ben’s article today.  I’ve included the presentation from SXSWi below and you can read Ben’s article at BBH Labs.

[slideshare id=3448651&doc=sxsw-specialistgeneralist-100316152054-phpapp01&w=600]

Search for #unconference to see what others are saying.

Search for #unconference and #oneshow to see what others are saying.

Postcard attached to the Stickybits sticker pad in the swag bag given to all attendees

It has been over a month since SXSW and since then the industry has seen two milestones from Apple and the advancement of Facebook footprint in your life.  First, Apples iPad, which I have not had the chance to touch yet, and iAd, the HTML5 based ad platform.  Then Facebook continuing to change how you syndicate what you like.  All of these will change the playing field for usability and advertising.  I’ve been writing and editing this since I got back home and I would have liked to have published this sooner but it’s been a challenge catching back up with my life after only a few days away.  I hope you appreciate what I’ve been able to compile here.  Your comments and tweets about this article are very much appreciated.

This was my second trip in a row to Austin for South by Southwest Interactive (March 12-16, 2010). Also known as SXSWi, or SXSW Interactive. Whatever you call it, make sure you put one of those number signs before it.  Also known as a Hashtag, this year’s SXSW starred hastags, optical code scanning and check-ins, with supporting roles played by HTML5 and a cameo by iPad.  The architects of the conference assigned a hashtag to as many things as possible so you might be able to track conversations on Twitter about them.

New this year – you could actually get online with your iPhone.  Last year AT&T’s local network was no where near capable of handling all of the 3G traffic.  Imagine that you are at one of the biggest interactive conventions and you can’t use one of the most popular devices.  AT&T was obviously scared of a torch-yielding mob because they had booster trucks placed around the area (medium size trucks with pop-up cell-phone towers).

For the first time, paid attendance is on track to surpass that of the SXSW Music. When the dust settles, Interactive is expected to have grown about 40 percent over last year to 12,000-13,000 paid attendees.

Austin360.com March 21, 2010

This review has been broken up into two parts.  The first movement focuses on aspects of the convention as a whole with no specifics on the panels.  In the second movement we dive into each of my days and the panels/parties that I made it to.

• N^o. 1 •

I know You Passed It

As you walked through the convention center, down the big long hallway, rushing from panel to panel, you walked right by an amazing view into the zeitgeist brought to us by Pepsico.  I saw this a few times but I did not pay it as much attention as it deserved.  I did not know until later that this was a website with so much more than I realized by just walking by.  The 60″ screen definitely did it justice with great resolution, and it was apparent the display quality of the application on a big screen was not an afterthought.  It should have been bigger and in more places.

Below are some screen shots and you can see it here until they take it down.

Agenda

This year for me was going to be different from last.  Last year I attended as the Director of Technology at The Concept Farm, and I went along on their dime to gather information.  I left the Farm last August, incorporated myself as The Rea Company and started working on projects for other agencies.  I wrapped on a project at Berlin Cameron for Movies on Demand called Cable Video Store the Wednesday before SXSW and got to Austin on the morning of Thursday, March 11th.

Yes that QR code worked though no one used it on me. It would take you to the your my.sxsw profile page. The "T" pin is from TypeKit.

(Hint: for those traveling to Austin for something at the Convention Center, stay at the Hilton.  It’s pricey but worth it.  You are right next door to to the convention center and it has a great gym and outdoor pool.)

This year was focused on relationships.  Right now I’m referring to personal, but in fact Relationships between brands and users was at the core of the convention.  This year was less on panels and more on real social networking.  Believe it or not, human networking is important even at a convention focused on digital.  All  year everyone is busy with their careers, family and other personal responsibilites, but for this one week in Austin you have to chance to escape your life and spend time with your peers at this professional retreat.

Of course people were talking about Twitter; they’ve been doing that for years.  But this year marked the one-year anniversary of Foursquare at SXSW and if you used the program then you received a new badge to commemorate the occasion.  The moment was also commemorated by a new player that has entered into the field, Gowalla.  Foursquare has a value-based system where one receives badges for completing tasks.  The Bravo television network has even signed on and you can now receive badges related to programs on the networks.  It has made it into the NYT on multiple occasions and has been the forerunner in the location based phenom sweeping the mobile based community.  Foursqaure is an application that you run on your iPhone, Android phone or the newer Blackberrys.  Gowalla a similar application, running on iPhone and Android phones.  I know some that are using both but I am sticking to Foursquare for now.

The Foursquare badges I received in Austin for SXSW

The Foursquare badges I received (above) from left to right: Panel Nerd; Super Swarm; Early Adopter of Foursquare; Austin Explorer; and Hookup (the latter is not what you may think).  A downside to the application is that any user may enter in any location they choose then check-in.  So the Hilton where I was staying could end up having multiple names because either A) the person who checked in was too lazy to find the correct location on the list or B) wanted to be creative.  The end result is that you could check into the same hotel you are staying in but under two different locations in the system.  This makes it look like you are staying the night in another hotel.  You can understand how getting this badge might get one in trouble. I’ve posted my check-ins during my SXSW trip at the end of this post.

The other heavily pushed ideas were matrix codes, which are 2D codes that are more advanced that your regular every-day barcode.  The most common out of the lot were QR codes.  The idea has been around for over 10 years and is primarily used in shipping and manufacturing.  This year you were finding versions of matrix codes all on various things.  From the Stickybits UPC scanning and sharing to the QR on the SXSW badges.  I unfortunately did not receive a scan of my badge’s QR code and I know few you have.  You need a special application for the iPhone.  Once you get it you have to scan someone’s code and then it displays a URL (in the case of a SXSW badge) then you go to the website to view more about your fellow SXSW attendee who is standing right in front of you.  Their info does not magically get transmitted into your phone or notebook.  You could have easily passed one of those analog things called a business card and been done with it.  Which, in the end, is what 99% of the people I met did.  And unfortunately, no one asked to “bump” once.  A very simple application that works very well.  Their API is great by the way - AND FREE.  Check it out if you want to incorporate proximity based sharing with your iPhone, iPad or Android app.  Learn more about that at Bump’s site.

The Bag

SXSW 2010 Bag Swag by But You're A Girl

After you waited in the long line and picked up your badge that you hoped had the correct information (mine did not) you were directed to pick up your bag.  I’ve been using last year’s tote both for its part in reducing my use of retail plastic bags and as a badge.  Yes, one of those who carries the tote with a load brand to advertise their allegiance to WNYC or Trader Joe’s.  You see them too, don’t lie, so we all know that it works.

Adria Richards of But You’re A Girl did a great break-out of the bag contents.

Stickybits sticker pad photo by Helen Klein Ross. Click here to read her article on SXSW. If you've never read her blog, Ad Broad, then click here this instant!

Besides the bag and some WordPress stickers the most useful item was the Stickybits pad.  Stickybits is a sharing community built around the ability to scan a UPC and attach a photo, video or comment along with geo data.  The clever pads consist of small stickers that are very easy to apply on the sly to anything or anyone.  In the end however, the stickers are not required.  The iPhone or Android application uses your device,s camera to scan an EAN or UPC.  It uses the Occipital Red Laser free SDK that you can use for your own applications.  The kicker is that you do not need to use a Stickybits’ generated UPC.  Any UCP or EAN will work.  The application scans the barcode and adds it to the database.  If you are the first one then you create the first entry in the database.  Along with the stickers and the ability to download a large image of one, they also partnered with Zazzle to have a unique UPC added to products such as business cards, mugs and t-shirts.

On Thursday I attended the Good Ideas Salon with Jan Chipcase of Nokia hosted by PSFK at JWT.  Jan is a user experience researcher who works for Nokia Design. The goal of his research is to understand the ways technology works in different cultures, with a focus on understanding technology 3 to 15 years from now. He takes teams of designers, psychologists, usability experts, and ethnographers all over the world to conduct this research.  In his own words he considers himself an anthropologist. He gave a presentation on Pattern Recognition in different cultures.  The presentation was great and you can find it on SlideShare.  There are also many other presentations of Jan’s on SlideShare worth reading.

PSFK Oct. 2nd

I met some great people that night and my business card, rather my “mini resume card” was well received.  Only a few days before the event I realized that I wanted something more than just a standard business card to distribute at functions like this.  I thought that a standard business card, though tried and true it may be, does not offer enough real-estate to convey a message as a letter or resume would.   It would be awkward to hand out a resume and cover letter to everyone at a corporate mixer.  ”Hi my name is Alexander, pleasure to meet you.  Please take my bulky No.10 envelope that I expect you to carry around all night.”  All of the envelopes would all end up left at the bar.  What’s left is a business card.  The classic 3 1/2″ x 2″ original social-networking profile.  Two sides.  Name and contact.  Simple.  To expand on this classic I decided to design one card that when folded would resemble the dimensions of the classic card but open to reveal more content.  Now add a little copy about the location or event that you plan to distribute the cards and viola, you have created a location based, time stamped, mini resume card.  With a simple opening line on the inside, “It was a pleasure to meet you at the Good Ideas Salon on Thursday, October 1st.” You might be thinking out cost, time and resources but really, anyone can do this.

Stand tall all you DIY folks out there because it is about to get all production nerdy.  If you would like to just know some more about me and be done with reading about this card then go ahead.

Blast Oct. 3rd

It would be difficult (and not to mention expensive) to get cards custom for an event printed by offset or digital.  Don’t get me wrong.  I use printers whenever possible but right now I am still working out designs and experimenting with a new brand identity.  And yes the paper choices aren’t cheap sometimes when you go DIY.  Luckily in NYC we have many great printers and paper suppliers. At least five shops I know of within a couple blocks of each other than all sell great paper, folders and some also print on site.  Letterpress too.  All around 5th Avenue in the between 23rd and 14th streets.

My favorite paper for business cards right now is Strathmore Bristol 88# Ultimate White. For this job I went true DIY and went to Staples and picked up a box of 5 1/2″ x 8 1/2″ invitations from Gartner.  White 80# card stock.  Maybe too thick to go through all of the rollers of a laser but I was planning on using my inkjet because there are no rollers other than the feeders.  Also I’ve found that the registration when printing double-sided is better with inkjets that most standard office laser printers.  Next steps were straight forward.  Design in Illustrator, print with trim marks, lightly score the fold, trim and fold.  Tip: When you are looking for company logos consider checking out Brands of the World.  I’ve been using them for years.  They are free and you can get vector for most logos. Nothing looks worse than a low-res JPEG of the company’s logo on the cover of your presentation to them.  Remember what Charles Eames said,“The details are not details. They make the design.”