I'll be making my first trip to SXSW this year and I'm very excited for a number of reasons. Certainly there will be some fantastic panels to attend. Tomorrow I'll share with you the ones I'm most looking forward to attending. Of course, there are some legendary parties as well, like All Hat. I'll share some of the ones I'm planning on checking out on Thursday. But the real reason to go to SXSW is to meet all the people that I've conversed and corresponded with via email, Twitter, Facebook and other platforms.
You so often hear the argument that social media keeps people from forming real relationships, that it isolates people. Nothing could be further from the truth in my mind. I've received encouragement, advice, knowledge and support from dozens of people whom, without the Internet, I would have never met. SXSW is a great opportunity to form an even deeper relationship with my peers. Many of them I have met before in person, but some I have not. Here are the 10 people I've yet to meet in person that I'm determined to track down in Austin. Maybe it will just be a "hello" in the corridor or a quick drink, or maybe it will be several hours spent in jail, who knows! But regardless, here's my Top 10:
I'm a big fan of Edward because he's clearly so not full of himself. As the Chief Innovation Officer at Mullen - one of Ad Age's hot shops - Boches could easily claim to be too busy to muck around with people below his level. But on the contraray, he's seems to always be promoting the efforts of the next generation of marketers. I really admire the way he looks to contribute to the industry and not just take.
An Account Planner with W+K, Anibal has always struck me as being a cool dude. He was kind enough to participate in an interview for this blog last year. He's also the brains behind AP Find, an incredible resource for Account Planners.
Dave is a Vice President of Digital in Edelman's Toronto office. He's always got smart opinions and truth be told his allegiance to Arsenal also was a factor. I'm always up for some footie talk. Like the others on this list, Dave always comes across as a real person and avoids making the jerk moves that are still seen all too often online.
Doug, who works for Voce Communiations, didn't make the list just because he's a Red Sox fan. I've long admired Doug for his consistent support of charitable causes like the Pan Mass Challenge and his obvious devotion to his family. I also really respect the way he conducts himself online. Never trying to call attention to himself, never looking to try to cut down others. He proves that good guys finish first.
Spike is the court jester of social media, slyly poking fun at the pompous and regularly calling out those who are clearly full of themselves:
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Spike has also been kind enough to support my efforts by participating in my crowdsourcing e-book, Everyone is Illuminated.
I've discovered Alicia somewhat recently. She rocks it at Six for Gold in Chicago. Can't quite put my finger on it, but I think she'd be really fun to hang out and have a great conversation with.
If Len Kendall had anything more going on in his life I'd suspect him of have a twin brother, or two. In addition to his work at Golin Harris, you probably know Len from the brilliant 3six5 project which I was fortunate enough to participate in last year. Len's also a comedian in training, writer at GOOD magazine and a master of visual note-taking. So, yeah, hanging out with Len feels like it would be a good time.
Conrad gets it done at R/GA and his blog (click on his name) consistently delivers the goods. Plus the dude is a self-described sneaker junkie so we will definitely be talking about the latest kicks from Nike.
The girl jumps out of airplanes. For fun. I first came across Sydney when she was just wrapping up school in Florida. My first thought was, "She's going places. Fast." She hasn't disappointed and it looks like she's starting a new venture which I'm interested in hearing about.
This is another dude who is just killing it. In addition to his work as Director of Strategic Planning for Media Associates, he also writes for Bloomberg BusinessWeek. His tweets are always enjoyable. Snarky, but never mean-spirited.
A win would be getting some time with all 10 of these interesting people. If you don't know them, look 'em up and start following them on Twitter, you'll be glad you did.