35 vote-worthy SXSW social business panels
It took some time and focus but I dug through the 2,215 SXSW Interactive speaking submissions. I tried to avoid bias by blocking out the author names and reviewed only abstract titles. If the titles seemed like a fit for business, then I scrolled over the abstract. If the abstract seemed compelling I then saved the link and later went back and checked out the 10 questions that would be answered by the presentation. From there, I narrowed down the list. That's not the say that the ones not on this list are "bad" (minus the get rich quick schemes and blatant shock value presos, of course), it just means they didn't light a fire inside of me. Or, more important, didn't make me think "my readers need to know this stuff."
As an aside, there are some great titles for application developers, for the general consumer, and presentations on gender and cultural equality, and so on. Those didn't make the list only because I'm laser focusing on business tools and strategies. I also purposely did not include any of my own panels (but if you're interested, they can be found here). There are also some great panels led by women listed over here.
That said, in no particular order, I give you the 35 vote-worthy SXSW social business panels:
1. Measuring Brand Engagement in Social Networks and Communities Doug Collister, Foodbuzz
2. Keep 'Em Coming: Courting Customers with Content Colleen Jones, threebrick
3. Building a Team That Embraces Social Technologies Bert DuMars, Newell Rubbermaid Kami Huyse, Communications Overtones
4. Social Business By Design David Armano, Dachis Group
5. Innovation Overseas: The European Startup Environment Peter Robinett, Bubble Foundry
6. Finding a New Media Voice for Your Business Rob Blatt, Blattcave Productions
7. Facebook Connect Hackathon Sprint Ruchi Sanghvi, Facebook
8. We're Getting the Brand Back Together Aaron Long, Schipul
9. Strategies from Power Panel of Cloud Experts Jinesh Varia, Amazon Web Services
10. Keeping it Real: Authentic Corporate Social Communications Jay Berkowitz, Keith Burtis, Richard Binhammer, Shashi Bellamkonda
Next: 11-22 -->
11. Why You Should NOT Be Using Social Media Mark Williams, LiveWorld
12. Under 30? Underrepresented at SXSW (For Marketing Professionals) Len Kendall
13. Scaling Social Media: Getting Credible Content To Mass Audiences Maggie Fox, Social Media Group Jim Cuene, General Mills Yaron Galai, Outbrain Scott Kelly, Ford Motor Company Brett Wilson, Tubemogul
14. Prove It! Exploring Social Media ROI for Business Keith Burtis, Amber Naslund, Jason Falls, Justin Levy, Jay Berkowitz, Sue Murphy
15. Impact of Social Media on Training & Development Beth Galdieri, Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO)
16. Collaboration 2.0: Reinvention as an Economic Necessity Nilofer Merchant, Rubicon Consulting
17. Why My Social Media Campaign Sucked Cynthia Francis, Reality Digital
18. Social Media + Real Time > Sum of Its Parts Avner Ronen, boxee
19. From Trolls to Stars: The Commenter Ecosystem Kate Miltner, NY Social Media Roundtable
20. Case Studies in Social, Mobile and Local Advertising John Kim, Pelago
21. Managing a Crisis in a Hyper-Communicative World Rob Le Gesse, Rackspace
22. Filtering the Live Web: Managing the Information Age Andrew Mager, CBS Interactive
Next: 23-35 -->
23. What the Hell Does Online Marketing Do for My Business Anyway? Christine Perkett, Perkett PR
24. Wikis are Wonderful - Or Are They? Alan Porter, 4Js Group LLC
25. The Art of Conversational Marketing Jason Falls
26. Should I Shave? A Date With Social Media Daniel Neely, Networked Insights
27. Wrangling the Monkeys and Making Them Work for Bananas Joel Sasaki, Sony Online Entertainment
28. How Social Media Can Destroy Your Business Model Anjuan Simmons, Techlation
29. Generating B2B Leads Through Social Media: What's Next? Kipp Bodnar, Howard, Merrell & Partners
30. B2B Communities - Reading Lips Behind the Glass Door Scott Hanson, Dell
31. Social Media for Unsociable Companies Todd Watson, IBM
32. Performance Marketing: Making Customers Brand Advocates William Flaiz, Razorfish
33. What Is Your Social Conversion Rate? Brian Massey, Conversion Sciences
34. Building Social Strategies at Fortune 100 Companies Jim Storer, The Community Rountable Scott Monty, Ford Shawn Morton, Nationwide Rawn Shah, IBM Marty Collins, Microsoft Mark Yolton, SAP Lionel Menchaca, Dell
35. Taming the Social Media Monster Janet Fouts, Tatu Digital Media
I'm adding a 36th to this list as a reader brought it to my attention:
36. Social CRM: Managing Conversations to Shape/Protect Brands Damien Basile, Brian Solis
Thanks to Emilie Cole for the idea to do this blog post!