PLANNING AND LEADERSHIP FOR A BETTER WORLD
PLANNING AND LEADERSHIP FOR A BETTER WORLD | Table of Contents: |
No event better captures the mad American mashup of music, film, new media and emerging technology than the annual South by Southwest (SXSW) conference and festivals. Held each March in Austin, Texas, the 10-day hipster geekfest wrapped up its 25th uber-cool year on March 20.
Never heard of SXSW? (For heaven's sake, don't tell anyone, especially your 26-year-old boss.) Even if you're not into celeb sniffing (Is that Jake Gyllenhaal? Danny DeVito?), striver panels ("What Would Lady Gaga Do?"), buzz-hungry bands (Yuck), awesome fantasy films ("Dragonslayer"), hoodies, chain smoking, skinny jeans or projectile vomiting, you need to know what's happening here, Gramps.
Microsoft thinks so. It hosted big, as did Google, Samsung, Apple (Apple!), Adobe and many more you would recognize. IBM (sponsor of Smarter Technology) even hosted a two-day Smarter Planet Summit featuring Smarter Cities. And let's not forget this is where Twitter first peeped onto the world stage four long, irritating years ago.
Amid the 24 x 10 swirl of sight, sound and socializing, this year's SXSW showcased a number of consumer-oriented tech products with intriguing potential for adoption by IT and enterprises. If "consumerization" wags the tech these days, what better place to look than this event's best in show?
The following are all winners of 2011 SXSW Interactive awards. In different ways, they suggest interesting professional applications, for organizations of all sizes and interests to perhaps subscribe to, license or emulate. Beyond that, they're just pretty cool. Take a look …
Best in Show: GrouponWorks—Online discount coupons for collective buying
You've doubtless seen this latest shopping phenom, maybe even joined online strangers to get big discounts on local restaurants, spas, coffee and goodies. But have you considered how Groupon (or similar) could bring your company's goods (or even IT services) to a wider (or targeted) geography or B2B community? Resellers, partner programs, branch offices, this means you.
Breakout Digital Trend: GroupMe—Group messaging and conferencing
Like Groupon, GroupMe garnered lots of buzz before SXSW. Somewhat ironically, GroupMe is basically a retro "friends and family" calling/texting app. You plunk out a message on your cell phone. Only those in your predefined inner circle can read it, check each other's geo location and photos, or hop on an automatically dialed conference call. Kind of like Facebook, only with people you actually want to communicate with … and it's easier/cheaper than unified communications. Possible IT applications: ad hoc team collaboration, disaster recovery or emergency communications, Happy Hour planning, etc
Community: iFixit—Free editable online repair manuals
This is what online tech support and help desks ought to be. From cell phones to iPads to toasters to cars—you name it—iFixit provides nice, clear, friendly help and community support—and even spare parts. Think of this less as a threat to your service revenue and more a way to make customers, partners and resellers love you and your products. Join and start your own.
Business: Get Satisfaction—Online customer complaint department
Speaking of customer love, which is better: customers complaining about you on Facebook etc., or customers complaining to you in ways you can help? It's the latter, of course. Get Satisfaction offers a neat online community builder that helps you soothe customer gripes. The Enterprise version features domain aliasing, SLAs, integration with CRMs and more.
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