Thanks and That's All Folks!

I realized today that I never said good-bye... So this is it. My SXSW adventure wrapped up and I'm all the better for it. I met amazing people, experienced a new location and hung out with old friends. Keep in touch everyone! I'll still write on my personal blog Little Me, Big You so I'll see you there.

Twitter Is A New Opportunity for Opportunities

Today, one of my SXSW sponsors - the National Society of Collegiate Scholars - posted a sweet article on Scholar Scoop, the NSCS blog.

Below is the interview Steve Loflin did and for the full article he wrote, click here.

SXSWi Or Bust: An Insider's Guide

Hooray! Below is my insider's guide to SXSW Interactive 2009. Hope you enjoy it, I know I did!

SXSWi Or Bust: Insider's Report

View more presentations from Nadia Payan.

SlideShare Slideshow to Come

I've been dutifully working on making an interesting "Insider's Guide" for you wonderful readers and expect it to be ready for you all by Wednesday! Get excited. :)

First Glimpse

Flickr Fun - Here are the photos that make sense (and some that don't) of my SXSW Interactive experience!

Link to SXSW Photos = http://bit.ly/sxswfotos



Created with flickr slideshow.

Sneaking Into SES Parties!

Ok, so I didn't actually sneak in, but I WAS really excited when David Szetela invited me to the Clix Marketing/AimClear Schmoozefest last week! David was the only sponsor for SXSWi that I hadn't met in person yet so it was spectacular to have met him. The event was at Dave and Busters and I got to meet even more cool people. Thanks for the invite, David!

Proof:

Marketing Profs Daily Fix Article

One of my sponsors, Linda Ziskind of Think Polygon, recently wrote an article about Twitter, social media and it's implications for brands and marketers. The article was featured on Marketing Profs Daily Fix and features yours truly! Hooray!

No, Seriously. More Posts Will Come.

I'm sure you guys are wondering what's happened to me. Well, I'm still here. Just been super busy. I'm in the process of reorganizing the thoughts, photos, videos and notes from SXSW Interactive and when I'm done, it will be glorious and you'll be the first to know.

Promise.

SXSW Interactive Wrap Up

SXSW Interactive was an absolutely surreal experience this year. I'm working on organizing all my notes, photos and videos now, but thought you should know what I thought of the whole thing.

SXSW areas of improvement:
- I agree with Amber from The Amber Show. It would help if SXSW allowed you to search their panels by speaker. The panels were a hit/miss situation and I would rather make sure to see someone I know will inspire and inform than try and guess if this will happen through the subject line of the panel
- Interactive folks can see some films too! I really wanted to see the movie Objectified and NO ONE could tell me where and when it was playing.
- Wow, what an ugly, ugly badge. I know I wasn't the only one complaining about this, but for a conference that involves so much creativity, you would think they would have tried harder with the badges. I liked the bag I got more than my badge.

Pros Definitely Outweigh the Cons:
- I absolutely LOVED connecting with so many many new people! Twitter friends became in-person friends, strangers became buddies and everyone was just so freakin' cool!
- Info overload, in a good way. You thought the internet was info porn? Welcome to SXSW Interactive.
- Meeting three of my five sponsors! I was able to meet Linda Ziskind of Think Polygon, Betsy Aoki of Live.com, and Steve Loflin of National Society of Collegiate Scholars. (I know this could go under meeting cool people, but these folks deserve a special shout out)

Interviewed by the Lovely Jolie O'Dell

If you want to see more videos by Jolie, check out her SXSWi videos

Think Polygon

As promised, Think Polygon - one of my fabulous sponsors - has launched its site!

Check out more about who they are at www.thinkpolygon.com

Online Generosity

So Thursday's getting closer and it's starting to hit me. I'm going to SXSW Interactive. Before leaving, I wanted to give a HUGE thanks to my company sponsors:
Clix Marketing - expertly creates and manages pay-per-click campaigns on services like Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, Microsoft AdCenter and others

Think Polygon - a smart group of designers, technologists, strategists, and social media evangelists. Think Polygon's experience and expertise help businesses build their brands, connect with their customers, and communicate using the most effective social media, web, or print channels

Think Polygon's site will launch on Friday 3/13 and I'll post the link on that day

Hudson Valley Tours - the premier tour company of the Lower Hudson Valley. Whether in the tri-state area on a visit, or in need of a quick little getaway from your New York City abode, Hudson Valley Tours will provide you with a fun-filled day to experience some of the place and faces that make the Hudson Valley one of the most memorable places around

National Society of Collegiate Scholars - NSCS is the largest honor society recognizing the academic success of first and second year college students in the United States. NSCS members are ambitious, resourceful and community focused

Microsoft Live Search - Microsoft Live Search delivers results with a simple, unique design and advanced tools for helping people quickly find, view, organize and preview search results

Without these company sponsors, I would have had to tweet and email about this attempt for a lot longer than five days.

Now these companies were all large contributors, but I also want to say thanks to all the individual sponsors that happened via TipJoy. It's been an amazing experience to see how the online community supports those who are interested, ambitious and broke.

Thanks everyone!

Worktime Generosity

Since this sponsorship to SXSWi was largely funded by people online from all over the US, I wanted to take a little time to give some time to those who helped me offline.

Once word started trickling about what I was trying to do, my coworkers started contributing. I wanted to say thank you and make sure they got some time to shine on the SXSW Or Bust blog.

Thanks, guys!

In Austin Soon!

Photo Credit: Hi I'm Santi

Well, I leave for Austin on Thursday morning and I'm absurdly excited about being in the city, seeing old friends, making new ones, and attending SXSWi!

I've been taking the time to really delve into what panels I'd like to attend, meeting my company sponsors via email and phone, and just planning out this week in general. Now it's go time.

Top four things I'm excited about (in no particular order):
1. Seeing Terri Koen, an old MAIP friend who has been kind enough to let me stay with her instead of a hotel (hey, I'm resourceful!)
2. Visiting Austin for the first time - I've heard so many times that Austin is a large Gainesville, FL. Being the Florida Gator that I am, this appeals to me
3. Meeting people from my online community. This includes two of my sponsors that are outside of NYC and hanging out with one that is in NYC
4. Parties and music! Do I need to say more?

My SXSWi newbie guides:
1. SXSW - Steph's Don't Miss List! (and some tips) from Internet Geek Girl
2. SXSW Is Easy
3. The SXSW Survival Guide by Jeremy Wright

What I'll arm myself with for the plane ride:
1. The Watchmen and Outliers
2. iPod Nano
3. Canon Powershot with my new Joby Gorillapod (quite possibly my favorite purchase in a long time!)
4. Travel blanket
5. Comfy shoes

Wanna Chat? Contact Me at SXSWi Or Bust

I am still recovering from the shock and excitement of being sponsored for SXSWi this year. So many great people in the online community!

For those of you who are company sponsors, individual sponsors or just interested in contacting me about this experience, please email me at:

sxswiorbust {@} gmail.com

Looking forward to hear from you :)

It's Official. I'm going to SXSWi!

Wait a Minute... What's In It For Me, Nadia?

So I’ve been getting a lot of interest on this attempt to raise money to get to SXSWi 2009 and it’s going great! I truly appreciate you with hearts of gold willing to donate for nothing in return. But I’m sure a lot of you are asking yourself, well... what’s in it for me, Nadia? Well with some advice, help and inspiration from Reem Abeidoh, Rob Blatt, David Szetela and Sarah Cooley, I've come up with the answer.

Now SXSWi or Bust has two levels of contribution: Individual and Company Sponsorship.

What does it mean to contribute as an individual?
Any person contributing at the individual level will receive an ebook - “SXSW Interactive or Bust: An Insider’s Report to SXSWi 2009” - with great content I’ve created: photos, videos as well as key insights I discover during my experience at SXSWi.

Companies contributing $100 or more have a different deal:
For $100, I will be your brand emissary for one day of the SXSWi event. On your day I will wear your tshirt all around the expo and to any events I attend post-expo. You would send me a company shirt along with what you’d like people to know about your company. I’d share info about your company to everyone I meet that day and asks me about your shirt. Keep in mind, of course, that I’ll also have your company shirt on when interested folks tune in to SXSWi or Bust, so your company will reach a larger audience than those physically in Austin, TX.

As a company sponsor, I will blog about your company in a post about the companies sponsoring me. You will also appear on a post once SXSWi is over, in which I will be thanking my sponsors. Finally, since this is really just a way for companies to send their brand to SXSWi for a day, I will attend one panel or core conversation of your choice during your day. If you let me know what your goals are for “attending” the panel, I will use my razor sharp brain skills and learn, annotate, and interact for you! You can pick and choose your day (and therefore, really choose your panel), but please be aware that it’s a first come, first serve situation.

Why is all this good for you? Maybe you didn’t have the money this year (I mean, seriously, who does?) to send someone for all five days. This way you’ll be there and be well represented for one day!

Wondering what I’d look like in your company shirt? Check it (Thanks @szetela for allowing me to use Clix Marketing as my company model!):

TipJoy-ing My Way to SXSWi

Please help me get to SXSWi this year by donating and spreading the word! While I'm there, I will blog, vlog, draw and possibly sing (you may not want that) about my experiences there so that YOU can see where your money has gone.


Donate below:

SXSW Interactive 2009 or Bust!

Everyone who knows me knows I’m trying to get myself over to Austin, TX for SXSW Interactive between March 13-17. Long story short, I can’t afford the SXSW ticket AND the plane fare. So I did what any sensible yet broke young person in NYC would do.

I asked around.

Reem Abeidoh, in her ever-growing wisdom advised to ask for sponsors. She also reminded me to use my growing network. So I contacted Chris Brogan, who remembers me now because of a post I wrote about his face.

Chris brought up two great ideas: Tweet for sponsors. Ask if I could volunteer at the event. Brilliant!

Chris was kind enough to tweet about my SXSWi dream which resulted in some kind words, some retweets, and lots of new followers from the great state of Texas, but sadly, no sponsors.

When I emailed SXSW about volunteering, they kindly told me they were volunteered out. No room for one more volunteer. Sadness ensued followed by a visit from the idea muse.

I would ask for multiple sponsors!

I am reaching out to the communities I am a part of both online and off to donate small amounts of money for the SXSW Interactive ticket!

A ticket to SXSW Interactive is $500.

Please donate as much or as little as you can today via TipJoy. Every dollar gets me closer to Austin and follow me on Twitter to keep up to date with my quest for a SXSW Interactive ticket!