And on the Kipu front, we’ve got a Kipu iPhone app in development along with another round of updates to the Web app before we take it public. You’ll surely be seeing a lot more from Kipu this summer!

And all of this as we gear up for another excursion to SXSW, this time with Matt and Gabriel joining me. Though, sadly, for a much shorter period of time than in previous years when I had the chance to stay for music, with stops in San Fran, New Orleans and Chicago. But I’ll be sure to cram in as much chaos as possible into this year’s SXSW trip as I’ll be speaking with Jon Lax about value pricing at Monday the 14th’s Abolish the Hourly, DJing on the 12th at the Maple Leaf Digital Lounge and (hopefully!) again on the 13th.

And all the while we’ve been tackling a number of other great client projects which should start to see the light of day soon.

*phew*

And now back to work!

The post Oh dear, it’s March! Travel time, project updates, and more. appeared first on Say Yeah!.

Today is the last day for SXSW 2011 panel picker voting. Make sure you find those panels that matter to you and give them some love so you can enjoy your SXSW. Whether our Abolish the Hourly value pricing presentation, or the new gems we’ve spotted in the past week highlighted below, we’re sure you’ll find some panels that interest you.

Design and UX

Post UI Modern Design: Inspired by Frank Gehry
Paula Guntaur, Microsoftie
Yes, this panel will discuss and show examples of how UI design has evolved through the same historical process as architecture and industrial design, but please read the original description because it’s a work of art itself.

More Than a Feeling: Designing for Emotion
Aaron Walter, Mailchimp
When we design for emotional engagement, we create a powerful bond with our audience that makes them devoted fans and vocal evangelists. This panel will explore the psychology behind emotional design and share real world examples of how it’s changing interactions on the Web. Vote now!

Health, Inspiration and Working Smart

Stop Working Nights & Weekends and Get A Life!
Ryan McMinn, Microsoftie
While you worked 80+ hrs this week Ryan has been riding a bike down the US coast and is more successful than you. So it’s time you come learn tips, trick and lessons on how to get a life while still having an awesome career.

Get Paid For What You Do For Free
Taylor Davidson and Julien Smith
Transitioning from passion to paid is a difficult bridge to cross.We’ll share lessons learned from our personal and professional lives and create a discussion of the strategies and tactics used by everyone in the room.

Life After Wii Fit: Geeks On Fitness
Wesley Hodgson and friends.
Answering the age old question: How will getting active help me be a better nerd?

The Future

Sotropia: Life in 2040
Jodee Rich, Brian Solis, Stowe Boyd, Deanna Zandt, Mark Pesce
Let’s peer into the near future. It’s the Year 2040, 35 years after the social networking revolution began. How has human behavior changed? Just how blurred are the boundaries between public and private persona? How much do we share? And how will this impact the way we build relationships and find information?

That’s it. Get your vote on and we’ll see you in March!

The post SXSW panel picker in full swing, round 2. Last day to vote! appeared first on Say Yeah!.

We in the interactive industry are in the throws of deciding SXSW 2011 panels and presentations with panel picker voting in full swing. I found much to complain about last year after wandering into far too many crap sessions so I’m taking the initiative to help improve the quality by voting heartily, pitching our own presentation (a collaborative effort with Jon Lax that I believe is very important for the creative industry), and I’ve compiled a list of standout sessions for your perusal. Take a look and please take the time to vote for the sessions that interest you.

Theory and Practice

Abolish The Hourly: How Value Pricing Wins Clients
Lee Dale from Say Yeah and Jon Lax from Teehan+Lax
Following up on the NXNE value pricing panel, Lee and Jon will are developing a structure value pricing primer for the creative industry. From what is value pricing to why would a client be interested in the value pricing model, learn all you need to know to move from hourly pricing to value pricing.

Bend Over? Surprise! Agencies Are Screwing You
Lucia Mancuso, Meghan Warby, Scott Stratten
Our sister panel, from the client POV, agreeing the hourly model stinks. Well, from the agency POV, we agree!

Agile Ain’t Just For Developers: Agile People Manifesto
Andre Gaulin from Cineplex and Jay Goldman from Rypple
The Agile People Manifesto: a call to arms for managers and team leaders to re-evaluate, re-focus, and re-learn. We need to move on from old school mantras focused on hierarchies and heavy processes and embrace concepts like collaboration, iteration, simplicity, feedback, and culture!

How To Start A Social Commerce Bonfire
Kevin Hartz from Eventbrite
As the social web has lit a massive blaze of consumer engagement, sharing and social activity, the eyeball camp is winning and leaving the transactional camp looking for ways to get into the social flow. This presentation explores the question, “How and where does the transaction leverage the scale of social to realize a new level of transactional volume?”

Removing The Middleman, a presentation on moving from the ad barriers to shopping engagement.
John T Unger
One reason advertising fails to make money is because ads are actually a barrier to making a purchase, an extra click between buyers and the desired outcome, a middleman. Learn how to move from embedding ads on sites to embedding shopping.

Marketing and Intelligence

Understanding Customer Culture; Caution: May Require Cojones
Ujwal Arkalgud, Grant McCracken, Sean Howard, Sam Ladner and Paul McEnany
A wealth of knowledge and understanding remains hidden from most marketers today as organizations refuse to acknowledge the need to study and understand their audiences culture. This panel is informed through the collective knowledge of ethnographers and industry leaders who are conducting and executing such projects multiple times a year.

Shopping As A Revolutionary Act?

Tara Hunt and friends.
What happens when “the marketplace” is not a collection of customer fish in a sellers’ barrel, but a truly open space where relationships are genuine, meaningful, and mutual? This is the start of a revolution. The Shopping as a Revolutionary Act panel will look at some of the leading developments involved, where they are likely to head, and what changes these will bring to our economic, social and personal lives.

Let’s Kill Advertising And Start Over, a presentation on Vendor Relationship Management (VRM)
Uwe Hook from BatesHook
With VRM operation on the customer’s side, CRM systems will no longer be alone in trying to improve the ways companies relate to customers. Customers will also be involved, as fully empowered participants, rather than as captive followers.

Startup Marketing: It’s More Than A Twitter Account
Saul Colt, Sarah Prevette, Maggie Fox, Micah Baldwin, Ben Huh, and Krista Neher
This talk is going to cover a few tricks and tips for actually marketing your business from a start up perspective, focusing on questions like, can a non founder be the face of the company, rather than digging into social media.

Predictions, Preferences, and Personalization: Recommendation Engines Grow Up
Erin Richey
A presentation on how predictive technology is currently used in advertising, ecommerce, and social media, and which applications will be adopting personal recommendation engines in the near future.

Apps

Seductive Design: Creating Sites Your Users Love
Andy Budd from Clearleft
Using examples from the real world, this session will look at the various tips, tricks and techniques you can use to make your users fall in love with your product or service.

Real Users, Real Connections, exploring how customer connections can help make your software better.
Russell Sinclair, Microsoft
Building great software means understanding your audience. But how do you understand your audience if you can’t connect with them? And when you do connect with them, how do you get the most value out of that connection?

The Big Reveal, how do Web apps work behind the scenes, from marketing to support.
Mike McDerment from Freshbooks and friends.
Attend this panel and go behind the scenes to see how leading sites think about their businesses, and build things to support their internal teams and operations. Whether it’s systems for customer support, sales, marketing, ops, or managing feature requests, come and get sneak a peak of the potions, spells and charms that power your favourite web properties.

Friends With Business Benefits: How Integration Sells Apps
Michelle Riggen-Ransom and friends from Freshbooks, Google, MailChimp and more.
he Small Business Web is now over 100 web app companies strong. Together, we’re rewriting the rules for traditional business development by building the market for small business software through integrations. So how has it not devolved into fisticuffs and mayhem? And why does integration help both the consumers and the vendors who are building the applications? Vote now!

Inspiration and Action

Stop Dreaming, Start Doing: Tips For Execution
Scott Belsky, Behance
Ideas don’t happen by accident – or because they are great. Ideas are made to happen through a series of forces related to organization and leveraging the power of community. In this session, Scott will run through critical insights for any start-up and creative enterprise.

New Technology, Global Citizenship and World Peace
Lovisa Williams from the US Department of State
Global Citizenship is about recognizing we are not just citizens of our respective countries, but also to a larger global ecosystem. Let’s see what the future looks like when people around the world recognize they are part of a global community.

Scratching Your Personal Projects Itch
Cap Watkins, Leah Culver, Richard Crowley
From the designer with zero development skills, to the developer who freelances to fund their own project, to the dreamer who focuses full-time on scratching his own itch. Hear from three people who have each figured out their own unique ways to focus on personal projects while maintaining a full time job or relying on other people’s skill sets to help bring their project to life.

Social and Personal

We Love In Public social dating panel
Melissa Smich and friends.
Social media has made exhibitionists and voyeurs of all of us – how has this changed the dynamics of dating in a socially connected world?

More great panels?

What other great sessions have we missed?
If you have other suggestions, please let us know via Twitter or email and we’ll prepare a follow up post early next week before voting closes Friday, August 27.

The post SXSW 2011 panel picker voting in full swing. appeared first on Say Yeah!.