SXSW is hands down one of the best times of the year. Interactive+music is the perfect combo - probably not hard to tell which festival part these are from:

The one on the left is from the side of the day stage for Jason Fried's talk on his new book Rework. The book sold out at the festival long before the talk (and subsequent book signing) and if you follow 37signals at all, that likely won't surprise you. The photo on the right is from the music wristband pick-up.

Jason Fried's session was one of my favorites, along with talks from Ze Frank (clip below), Dan Ariely (highly recommend Predictably Irrational) , Dan Roam and the panel on infographics. Overall, I preferred the individual speakers to panels and found the featured speakers better than the keynotes. Two talks that I wish I'd seen: Clay Shirky and Michel Gondry, both got rave reviews.

Some overall trends: geo-location as one of the most lively topics on-stage and off, the power and pitfalls of privacy (see Clay Shirky and Danah Boyd) and an emphasis on making and drawing things (see Dan Roam's healthcare napkins below and Len Kendall's sxsw sketch notes here).

Two of my three favorite talks from last month's TED Austin are now available. The first is Steven Tomlinson,  who managed to combine his three disparate passions (theater, economics and religion) into one career in a cool, unexpected way. I found his talk by far the most inspiring of the day.

The second is Mark Rolston, chief creative officer for Frog Design, who talked about the intersection of technology with our perceived reality. Lots of really interesting examples, stuff I'd never seen before.

My third favorite was Carrie Contey, still awaiting that one. Oh, and Ruby Jane's performance is definitely worth checking out too - she's a 15 year old who's been touring with Willie Nelson and absolutely stunned the crowd. Stay tuned.

Last Saturday was TED Austin and it was awesome. I'll be doing a highlights summary of my favorite speakers and performers (I heart Ruby Jane) once the videos are up, but thought I'd pass along a few non-speaker related items too. 

So, here's the program. Cool right? Butler Brothers did them and each one was different. Watch the making-of here:

TEDxAustin from The Butler Bros on Vimeo.

And here's an animated video from Shiny Object about Austin itself. Favorite facts: Austin is the least stressful city in America, the leading city for start ups, and a top 5 U.S. city of the future.

Austin Kleon, one of the audience members, recorded the whole day via sticky note. Check it out -

TEDxAustin on Sticky Notes from Austin Kleon on Vimeo.

If you didn't catch Conan's last show on Friday, it's worth a watch. It's funny of course, but my favorite part was this 4-minute monologue  where he talks about his experience over the past 20 years. The final minute is the best.

Isn't Conan great? What was NBC thinking??

Lots of amazing stories right now around the tragedy in Haiti. Favorites include:

The Red Cross Haiti text donations pass 5 million, a mobile record.

NPR's piece on technology and disaster, see Google missing person's widget.

A short, interesting article on why donating will make you happier in 2010.

There's a great article in today's NYTimes called 'Old Fogies in Their 20's.'

It's basically about how the speed of technology is creating mini-generation gaps between people born just a few years apart. There's already big differences between how teens, 20-somethings and 30-somethings use email, text & instant messaging and it seems to be accelerating. I love this quote: "My friend's 3-year-old has become so accustomed to her father's multitouch iPhone screen that she approaches laptops by swiping her fingers across the screen, expecting a reaction." Definitely a different way of seeing the world.

Last February, I wrote about my favorite TED talk here. Never in a million years did I think I'd be applying to go to a TED conference less than a year later, but that's exactly what's happening... (insert drumroll) welcome TedxAustin ✌

On 2/20, TEDxAustin debuts at the ACL studio with 300 amazingly lucky folks. I've been to the ACL studio twice, once to hear David Simon speak about The Wire (best show ever made) and once for Pecha Kucha. Both were fantastic of course, but a TED conference - well, that would definitely take the cake.

In the June issue of The Atlantic, Joshua Wolf Shenk wrote an article titled "What Makes Us Happy?" chronicling a 72 year Harvard Study that tracks the lives of 268 men from the late 1930's to today. The project, called the Grant Study, is one of the most comprehensive longitudinal studies in history. The article is perhaps the best I've ever read.

The piece is absolutely fascinating and unfolds like the best of short stories. It's long and tough to read on screen vs. in print, but well worth it.

Here's one of my favorite excerpts:

Most psychology preoccupies itself with mapping the heavens of health in sharp contrast to the underworld of illness. “Social anxiety disorder” is distinguished from shyness. Depression is defined as errors in cognition. Vaillant’s work, in contrast, creates a refreshing conversation about health and illness as weather patterns in a common space. “Much of what is labeled mental illness,” Vaillant writes, “simply reflects our ‘unwise’ deployment of defense mechanisms. If we use defenses well, we are deemed mentally healthy, conscientious, funny, creative, and altruistic. If we use them badly, the psychiatrist diagnoses us ill, our neighbors label us unpleasant, and society brands us immoral.”

This perspective is shaped by a long-term view. Whereas clinicians focus on treating a problem at any given time, Vaillant is more like a biographer, looking to make sense of a whole life—or, to take an even broader view, like an anthropologist or naturalist looking to capture an era...This means that a glimpse of any one moment in a life can be deeply misleading.

And later:

In an interview in the March 2008 newsletter to the Grant Study subjects, Vaillant was asked, “What have you learned from the Grant Study men?” Vaillant’s response: “That the only thing that really matters in life are your relationships to other people.

Lots of award announcements lately, congrats to both Effie winners (here) and Addy winners (here). While awards definitely matter in our industry and around here, I like that we can have fun with them.

Pretty hilarious. Order here. Thanks to Clay & Marcellina for passing along.

The last two Sunday Times have had great articles for planners. The first, called Back by Popular Demand, is all about the return of nice. It cites the popularity of the affable Paul Rudd, the chipper tone of twitter and the Obama administration. It even quotes Ogilvy planning director Graceann Bennett talking about recent client preference for pleasantness. It's funny how everyone seems to get nicer when things are bad - though it certainly makes sense.

The second article, from last Sunday, is Put Ad on Web. Count Clicks. Revise. It's all about digital data-mining and the whole new level of analysis and accountability that's opened up to advertisers and media companies. There were no planners quoted in this article, though I think  we should be playing here too. It's all about messaging effectiveness, measurement tools and behavioral targeting - a very plannery skill set that seems under-utilized.

I like the two images from the articles above because I think they illustrate a world where planners are comfortable (cultural anthropology, trends, macro observations) vs. a place where we're a little uncomfortable (information complexity, digital experimentation, micro analysis). One was on the front page of the Sunday Styles, the other on the page 1 of Sunday Business. Interesting.

Every month our media team sends out a cool little e-newsletter about innovative things happening media-wise inside and outside of the agency. Here are my two favorites from this month:

For an Australian Childhood Foundation advertising campaign, JWT Melbourne used child-size mannequins to represent children suffering neglect. In high traffic areas in Melbourne, posters were pasted over the top of the actual mannequin so that only the feet and legs could be seen.

To promote its show True Blood, HBO has placed snap-off wooden stakes in construction zones and other areas with directions for stabbing a vampire in the heart. They have also launched a print campaign to tease the second season, using stimulating visual cues and the tag line "Ready for Seconds?"

Another smart True Blood idea: use other brands to promote your show. Read this article about how HBO invited BMW Mini, Harley-Davidson, Gillette, Monster.com, and Geico to get in on the action. (special thanks to @kaseykam & @brendanstarr for images and info).

Okay so technically it's more like two weeks ago at this point, but I've been meaning to write about a string of happy hours full of really interesting people doing really interesting things. I highly recommend checking out the handful of companies below if you haven't already:

Teri Wadsworth & Dig: Dig specializes in consumer insight films for all sorts of brands and topics. Basically, they make ethnography into engaging film — which has earned them a particularly large planner fan base. I worked with Teri in Chicago (former planner) and know Adam (former creative) too and I'm constantly impressed with what they're doing. They're great for current clients and have helped agencies win lots of new biz as well. You can also get their self-funded stuff a la carte on topics like economy's effect on millenials (sample clip here) or moms and social media (coming soon).

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Andy Hunter & Pursuit: Unlike Dig, Pursuit is brand spankin' new. Founded by a crop of entrepreneurs, they field a varied degree of work (marketing consulting, customer research, business analytics, interactive and brand strategy) but are simply about getting companies back in touch with what their customers are really doing -- helping brands re-connect to people on their terms. What I like most about them is that they're not afraid of a little complexity; agencies take note. Oh, and thanks to Andy (who knows absolutely everyone) for inviting me to the below happy hour with the Dachis crew.

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David Armano-Peter Kim-Jevin MacDonald & Dachis Corp: Lots of people have been talking about this firm for some time and buzz increased last month when David Armano left Critical Mass to come aboard. Billed as a social enterprise that extends beyond marketing and advertising, the effort is intriguingly vague and exceptionally well-funded. It's interesting because David, Peter and Jevin are all sort of brands in their own right and none of them actually live here yet. Happy to have all this brainpower in Austin, at least on the weekdays.

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Mike Mackert & the UT Planning Program: Alright so technically the UT ad program isn't a company, but it is a cool program to watch. All of our interns have been raving about Mike for awhile now and I was thrilled to have the chance to work with his class on a Planning For Good project this past spring.While Mike's main expertise is actually in message design for nonprofits, he's taken to planning rather effortlessly and has a ton of great ideas to get his students the kind of industry experience that most ad grads don't have. I'm psyched to be working with him - looking forward to fall semester already.

Last week kicked off week 1 of our all-agency UX workshop led by the planning & digital depts. 11 of us presented over 4 days, giving it a slight circus-y feel.

We're doing 1/3 of the agency at a time, starting with the directors and such, who were a surprisingly great audience & very patient as we worked out the kinks. They were also fairly competitive when we broke off into teams, as one actually jumped up at one point and proclaimed "we won!" despite the fact that this was not actually a competition. Week 2 is a milder crew so far. Working with some really smart people on this, learning loads of new things.

I've been buried in UX workshop prep all week, but couldn't resist sharing two really amazing videos that I recently came across (thanks Brendan & Faris).

Both are completely different. One is a film of a rescue mission from the Westpac Rescue Helicopter Service in Australia, responsible for 21,000 saves in the past 25 years. The visual treatment is absolutely stunning as is the music.

The second is a T-Mobile ad. Seems like it might be kind of a let-down after the rescue mission, but it's  great to watch. I wrote about another T-mobile spot awhile ago and this just ups the ante. There's a nice post by Faris titled 'Bring People Together and Give Them Something To Do' that you should read here.

Anyhow, both of these videos have a nice childlike quality that is undeniably appealing. The film treatment of the first makes everything look like toys, a surprising and novel way to frame up something serious like an ocean rescue. The second video showcases such genuine enthusiasm that it's like watching the inner 5-year-old of absolutely everyone in Trafalger Square.

Each is a nice reminder that the best pieces of communication and technology usually take us back to the most basic of things. There's something very innocent about all of the exuberance and experimentation surrounding social media and new technologies right now. Yes/no?