With thousands of panels listed for SXSW 2011 and an overall feeling that much of the content last year was mediocre (a statement that I vehemently disagreed with), I thought it might be nice to offer up some panels that I felt were worthy of consideration. Check them out and if you agree, please give them a thumbs up so that they have a chance of being accepted by SXSW.

The Panels

Weird Science: Lessons for Online Social Networks – Click here for more information and to vote
Submitted by: Burr Settles
Summary: What’s wrong with current trends in online communities, and how we can fix it? Virtually every CMS or development framework for the web today comes with apps, modules, or plugins for “social networking” such as friending, rating/ranking content, and making recommendations. And because they are readily available or trivially implemented, new websites are adopting these features in hordes. Surprisingly, though, recent research shows that these features don’t necessarily facilitate a pro-social user experience. Is this a problem? In this talk, Dr. Burr Settles surveys some of the scientific literature on this topic, and presents case studies from community websites—including FAWM (February Album Writing Month), which he founded in 2004. Solutions range from simple to implement design decisions (which can change community dynamics and improve the user experience) to forward-looking technologies based on machine learning and data mining to promote pro-social behavior.
Why? Burr Settles gave a talk last year about building a community. It was the single best presentation I saw at SXSW and I saw a lot of good ones. He should have been keynoting. If this talk is anything like his last one, it will take the conversation from beginner to advanced and have something for everyone in between. Burr is an academic who also activates. The guy is a genius.

A Panel About Nothing (You Don’t Care About) – Click here for more information and to vote
Submitted by ME!
Summary Preface: We listened to the feedback of influential attendees from last year’s SXSW. These people want new, interesting experiences and more advanced content. Challenge: Our crystal ball is broken, but we know that come SXSW, we will have valuable insight about mobile and social communications technology. The audience wants panels that are provocative, yet relevant. They need something that sets them up for a great SXSW by starting conversations about the topics they most care about. Goal: Create thought starters about the most important issues of the day. Bring to light how perhaps people may be currently screwing it all up and how to fix it should they care. Have the audience leave with several takeaways and viewpoints on each issue. How will we know what to talk about?: We will pick the most popular topics from the crowd, add some of our own and ask for suggestions from the SXSW panel picker team. Are there rules? Discussion will take place “Pardon the Interruption” style. Speakers on the panel will be given a set amount of time to talk about each topic and buzzed when it’s time to move on. At least one speaker must give counterpoint or divergent viewpoint. Success: Audience participation is vivid. People feel energized about SXSW feel encouraged to seek out more content. People seek deeper answers by attending other panels to take the problems we cannot solve to more pointed, focused groups. The panel is referenced in other panels.
Why? No one has done a panel like this to our knowledge. Having CC Chapman, Jenn Van Grove of Mashable and Jay Cuthrell on the panel ensure that dialogue will be vibrant and the innovative format promises to spurn debate.

Ad Agencies Need a New Model to Survive – Click here for more information and to vote
Submitted by Edward Boches
Summary: If the advertising agency is to survive in an era when the reigns of media have been transferred from a few professionals to 2 billion individuals, it will have to revamp its entire way of thinking. The mindset will have to shift from thinking about target audiences to communities. Strategy will require more insight about a consumer’s relationship to media and technology rather than just how she feels about the brand. The team will change entirely to include production, mobile, and experience design in addition to art and copy. And the consumer will play an active, rather than passive role, in the creation and sharing of everything. What does an ad agency have to do to survive? What are the practices it must unlearn? What new skills will it require? This panel, comprised of agency leaders, each in a different stage of evolution, will explore the challenges and offer ideas.
Why? Aside from a chance to ask Edward Boches the hard questions (read heckle Edward), this one has a direct impact on the agency world and the panelists are people who are not change averse and are very much testing into new and different models.

Understanding Customer Culture; Caution: May Require Cojones – Click here for more information and to vote
Submitted by Ujwal Arkalgud
Summary: 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 will examine why organizations need to immerse themselves in culture, how they can go about doing so and will unearth the hidden and real underlying reasons behind why organizations continue to ignore this domain. This panel is informed through the collective knowledge of ethnographers and industry leaders who are conducting and executing such projects multiple times a year. We however warn you, this will not be easy on the ears and you may need some serious cojones to take this to the field in your own organization.
Why: This panel deals with audience. The science / psychology of audience is the most important thing for a marketer to understand. If this panel can give us new ideas about how to gain an edge, it will be worth the price of the entire conference.

Creation, Curation and the Ethics of Content Strategy – Click here for more information and to vote
Submitted by Margot “Bloomer” Bloomstein
Summary: From Monet to MTV, what practices connect the salons of Paris with Danger Mouse, NFL.com, and Facebook? More importantly, what’s your place in that continuum? If you work with content, embrace your place in the ethical debate of creation and curation. It’s nothing new—but it’s time for user experience practitioners to acknowledge it. Why? Both companies’ and consumers’ expectations of user experience have matured, promoting content strategy in interactive teams, efficient projects, and satisfying user experiences. Content strategists shape communication goals, hierarchy, and taxonomy. Innocent choices? Or politics, discrimination, and the dark side of design? If you ignore these pitfalls of content strategy, what are the ethical implications? We’ll discuss this through the lens of content correlation and “merchandising” on news sites, editing and mashing up to “create” anew, and curating in traditional settings like museums. From seemingly benign audits and style guidelines through published content packages, do curators create meaning? If so, how should content strategists confront similar choices? It’s been a breakout year for content strategy. Come hear why now we need to confront its ethical relevance—and learn about the missteps of teams that don’t—through the lens of case studies and the perspective of the new publishing landscape.
Why? This is still an emerging topic. As owned and earned media become more mainstream, it becomes more and more important to understand how this role that straddles creative and (potentially) analytics fits into the overall machine. Plus, Margot Bloomstein is a creative, dynamic speaker who in the past has brought cookies.

The ROI of Customer Centricity – Click here for more information and to vote
Submitted by Aaron Strout
Summary: While some of us are single-mindedly focused on social media as a phenomenon, we often lose sight of the source of its importance…namely, its ability to enable companies to be more customer-centric. We define “customercentricity” as the intersection of brand values with customer passion points. Some customers find value in promotions and coupons, while others in customer service. Our goal is develop a measurable strategy that successfully delivers value to our customer. During this panel, hear from leaders at Comcast, Cirque du Soleil and GroupM about how they are driving ROI by putting the customer at the center of their marketing programs. Panelists will discuss best practices and insights, methods of measuring customer-centricity and suggestions on how other companies can replicate their success. Additionally, they will cover the essential integration of paid, owned and earned strategies to a customer-centric program.
Why? First of all, it’s a case study so it promises to have quality take-aways. As a strong proponent of Paid, Owned Earned, I want an opportunity to see if we are on the same page in terms of measurement and effectiveness.

Community Failure and How to Recover Click here for more information and to vote
Submitted by Heather Strout with Jim Storer
Summary: Many communities fail. While there are no sure bets on whether a community will be successful, there are ways to turn a community from a failure to a success. Learn how to redirect your community ship by 1) evaluating the ROI of your community, 2) re-assessing your community strategy 3) turning to your company to gain support and the resources your community needs 4) expanding or scaling back your community to create success and 5) trying new ideas and tactics you hadn’t yet thought of to breathe new life into your community. Whether your community is failing or you feel your community could be more successful, you will learn how to assess the health of your community by understand what measurements are valuable in determining whether your community is on the right path. We will provide you with valuable information on how to make sure your community aligns with your business to address business needs while also providing value to members. We will also give you concrete ideas on how to communicate community success to the business in business versus community terms. This will be a moderator-lead discussion with plenty of time for Q&A. Learn from a panel with a combined 32 years of community building and management experience.
Why?: Community is ridiculously important and many companies do not understand the amount of time and effort it takes to actually maintain one. They take a Field of Dreams approach, it dies and they wonder why they failed. It does not have to be that way. The people on this panel get it and the dialogue will be full of useful and actionable information.