FG SQUARED – Austin Interactive Initiative

Posts Tagged ‘Austin Interactive Initiative’

Bijoy Goswami: Austin Excellence

Posted by Mike Chapman on August 7th, 2009

Like many people in Austin, I had heard of Bijoy Goswami long before I had the chance to meet and get to know him personally. He was referred to me by numerous smart and connected people in our community who share a certain belief that he is one our brightest, rising stars. When I utimately had the opportunity to meet Bijoy, I quickly understood why he has so many friends and admirers.

Bijoy is very representative of the excellence we have in abundance among the creative class of Austin and a true leader in finding innovative ways to adapt to the new economic models of the 21st Century. He is one of only a handful of people that I would openly try to convince to seek elected office in Austin. Because of his tremendous communications and organizational skills, his global perspective, love of Austin, and a knowledge and skill set that is equal to or greater than that of the leadership of any community, Bijoy would be a great choice to take us forward.

Bijoy_Goswami

I encourage you to check out Bijoy’s website to get a visual into his amazing thoughts and actions. Born in Bangalore, India, he lived in Taiwan and Hong Kong before moving to the US and attending Stanford where he studied Computer Science, Economics, History and inter-disciplinary honors in Science, Technology and Society. He also spent a term at Oxford. In 1995 he moved to Austin, TX, to join a software startup and cofounded Aviri software in April 2000. In 2003, he began in earnest, his work as a model-builder, bootstrapper and evangelist.

As it is so nicely described in his IA09 bio, Bijoy “expresses and communicates his models through books, music, film, community, and websites. The process also deepens his understanding of the models and how to effectively convey them. Collaboration is at the heart of this process and he has been very lucky in finding extraordinary partners. Their expertise combines with the model, and through multiple iterations, a unique creation results. Some of these include Bootstrap Austin, The Human Fabric and Mystic Cab.”

A great biograhy, like Bijoy’s, can tell you a lot about the person being described. As Bijoy’s quickly makes clear, he is very intelligent, successful in most things that he attempts, and very focused on a career that he is deeply passionate about. What is really engaging about Bijoy is his “real life” persona. Frankly it is always a pleasure for me to know someone who is at the same time highly intellectual, and still so grounded and comfortable in his or her own skin that treating others according to the golden rule is effortless and even visibly enjoyable. Bijoy can be the smartest person in the room and easily make everyone else around comfortable to be in that same room.

I’ve had the chance to be around Bijoy Goswami and see all of these qualities in him. A very real benefit of the Interactive Austin 09 conference earlier and now the Austin Interactive Initiative will be the added opportunities for all of us to work with and learn from Bijoy Goswami.

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Tags: Austin Interactive Initiative, Bangalore, Bijoy Goswami, Bootstrap Austin, Hong Kong, Interactive Austin 09, Oxford, Software, Stanford, Taiwan
Posted in Squared Root | 2 Comments »

David J. Neff: A Social Media Natural

Posted by Mike Chapman on July 28th, 2009

I wasn’t at all surprised when I heard that my friend, David J. Neff, had been named as one of the top three non-profit marketers in the country for 2009 by the American Marketing Association and its foundation. It’s not that I think it’s an easy accomplishment or that I take it lightly in any way. It’s a major and very prestigious award. It’s just that I’ve spent a good amount of time around David and I know he’s an extremely talented person and him winning seemed obvious.

What was nice about the award being given to David, from my perspective, was that a national organization with a great history and reputation would recognize the new kind of marketing that David is a leading innovator of. It was proof that the AMA appreciates the concepts of community that are the real value of social media marketing when done the way they should be done.
davidneff

The words that describe social media are familiar to most of us by now. Transparency, authenticity, real and long-term relationship development through conversational communications models are the ideals we strive for. What I love about David is that he intellectually understands all of this and actually conducts his business and his life in the same way and along the lines of the adjectives that fit the ideals listed. He doesn’t just talk the talk, he walks the walk, to use phrase I rarely use because of its tremendous importance and the reverence I hold for the man who used it most famously.

What this means is that when you engage in conversation with David Neff online, you’re meeting the real person, not just an online version. When you see one of his now award-winning social media programs being implemented, you’re looking at an idea that is sincerely important to David. I know from being his friend that his work for the American Cancer Society is motivated by a sincere concern for the people the organization represents.

David J. Neff is not only the Director of Web, Film and Interactive Strategy for the American Cancer Society’s High Plains division, he is also the Executive Director of Lights. Camera. Help.

In his capacity at the American Cancer Society, David directs all web and interactive strategies and online properties for six states in addition to managing the division’s eRevenue strategy, social networking/media strategy, and online community strategy. As the executive director of Lights. Camera. Help., he is working to start the world’s first nonprofit-focused film festival.

David is a two-time recipient of a Futuring and Innovations grant, which he used to create C-Tools and SharingHope.TV. C-Tools was the first PDA software tool for the prevention of cancer developed by the American Cancer Society, and SharingHope.TV is the nonprofit world’s first totally user-generated content Web site. In 2009, the Austin American-Statesman recognized David as one of the top 25 Social Media People in the state of Texas.

I’ve been involved in efforts with David around helping the homeless, the hungry and those in need of special medical attention. He has a seemingly endless amount of energy and a heart the size of the internet. We’re lucky David calls Austin home and I’m fortunate to have him as a friend.

This weekend is the first Non-Profit Film Festival hosted by Lights.Camera.Help. Tickets are still available. See you there.

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Tags: Aii, American Cancer Society, American Marketing Association, Austin American Statesman, Austin Interactive Initiative, David J. Neff, Lights.Camera.Help., SharingHope.TV
Posted in Squared Root | 1 Comment »

Courtney Ryan Buie: Austin’s Creative Class Personified

Posted by Mike Chapman on July 16th, 2009

One of my most often repeated themes is that Austin is the creative capital of the country. I didn’t make it up. I took it from Richard Florida’s book, “Rise of the Creative Class.” According to Florida, Austin comes out ahead of all the other U.S. cities for having the right mix of technology, talent and tolerance in our community. We have an abundance of techies of all kinds. We have very talented artists, musicians, actors and creatives. Combine that with some of the most tolerant people anywhere in the world, and you have Austin.

This past week we held the first organizational meeting of the Austin Interactive Initiative, an economic development initiative that a group of us are starting and hoping to recruit others to join. The purpose of the Aii is to find ways to let the world know just how much talent there actually is here in Austin and what a great place to business it is. Ultimately we want to convince outside entities to always have Austin on its short-list when consdering where to search out smart and talented people and companies for their interactive needs.

Of the many, really outstanding people who attended the meeting, in my view one attendee really epitomizes the qualities of tech, tolerance and talent that make us the creative capital – Courtney Ryan Buie.

court023

Courtney has been an active member of the Austin music scene for years, she’s been highly involved with SXSW and has her own production company, Slip Productions. Courtney is an interactive marketing expert for FG SQUARED, putting her squarely in the mix of techies who are an important component of the interactive scene of Austin and critical to the economic development efforts taking shape in this space.

I’ve had the opportunity to spend some time getting to know Courtney. She really fits my image of what makes Austin’s creative talent so unique because of her empathy and tolerance. Courtney combines an ability to be truly good at business and still be a kind and generous person with a sincere and deep concern for others.

Many of us in Austin refer to our home as the “Oasis of Texas.” The reason that’s so true is because of the many, many people who could easily live anywhere else in the world and succeed wildly, but choose to stay in Austin and then are part of making it the great and very creative place that it is. For me, Courtney is individual proof that we are a collection of some of the smartest, most talented people anywhere.

Note – Courtney has a very special, four-legged friend who is battling cancer and needs our help. His name is Booker and you can read all about him by going to http://slipaustin.tumblr.com for info or paypal to crcooper@usa.com. Any help you can provide would be great.

book

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Tags: Aii, Austin Interactive Initiative, creative capital, fg squared, Slip Productions, sxsw
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Wesley Faulkner: Social Media Engineer

Posted by Mike Chapman on June 28th, 2009

Can you think of someone in your business or social circle that you’ve seen around for months, you’re not sure who they are, but you feel like you need to know them? Maybe you’re not sure if they are necessarily a future business contact, but you sense you need to introduce yourself just to find out who they are? Wesley Faulkner is that person you see everywhere where there is a gathering of techies or social media enthusiasts. He’s exactly the kind of talented individual who embodies the best of the Austin interactive community and someone I made sure that I got to know.

In my view, Wesley Faulkner stands out in the Austin community as one our most valued members. He’s an engineer for a major technology company in the city and he’s also a vital member of the group of creatives and techies that make Austin the great community that it is.

You’ll run into Wesley at meetings of the Social Media Club, the Social Media Breakfast, at the Kickball Tweetup, the Austin American Statesman tweetup and just about anywhere you’d find active members of the interactive community. Wesley is literally everywhere. We’ve teased each other that we are stalking each other because we cross paths so often.

Wesley’s bio on Twitter really captures what I think makes him a very important member of the Austin interactive community: “Tech enthusiast and social chameleon. I’m looking for friends not followers. Let’s chat and get to know each other. Search #GTKWW for more.”

Like a lot of us in the social media and interactive community, I have a host of favorite groups I participate in and places online and off where I tend to congregate with people who have similar interests to mine. It seems that I run into Wesley Faulkner almost everywhere I go; which makes me think I’m attending and joining the right groups. Mainly, though, I’m glad I made the effort to meet Wesley online and in person and to become his friend.

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Tags: Aii, amd, Austin American Statesman, Austin Interactive Initiative, Social Media Breakfast, social media club, Twestival, Wesley Faulkner
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Alan Graham: Interactive Compassion

Posted by Mike Chapman on June 23rd, 2009

This past weekend I joined my friend Alan Graham President of Mobile Loaves and Fishes, David J. Neff, and others on the streets of Austin to spend 48 hours with our homeless friends. It was my second time to sleep in the great outdoors on cardboard and asphalt with the good people of MLF. Both times Alan and I brought along some of the gadgets Alan actively uses to create various forms of social media, including some Flip-Cameras, iPhones and a Netbook, to assist with the MLF mission. They make it possible to document our experiences and share them instantly with followers who are supporting us with encouragement and even visiting us during the 48 hours.

Following is a YouTube Alan recorded before the retreat started which explains more fully. When it finishes you can view more updates added during the weekend.

Our hope for the weekend was to help bring about more awareness for the work Mobile Loaves and Fishes does to alleviate the suffering of the homeless population in Austin and other cities, like New Orleans, where they’re located. What I’m really excited about, though, is that we also engaged in some pretty serious policy discussions surrounding the City of Austin and the creation of a community on the grounds of my old high school in Del Valle. We discussed ways to utilize interactive marketing and social media channels to raise funds and organize around this initiative.

Look for an action plan describing Alan’s initiatives and our ideas to help in the very near future. Mobile Loaves and Fishes has already been working to build the necessary tools and after seeing what Alan is already doing, I think anyone would agree that we can actually help make a difference.

The image below is of a small mobile recreational vehicle that can be used to house a currently homeless person. It’s an actual solution – a home. (Click the image for more information.) It’s not just a vision, it’s already being done. What will be new is the use of interactive strategies to make more homes available faster by utilizing the online tools for fundraising and organizing.

Alan Graham is an enthusiastic user of social media and interactive tools. I’m very excited that his willingness to employ these new technologies and the power of online communities could help make Austin the model for its handling of homelessness. Please follow Alan at @MLFNOW on twitter and ask how you can help. You can also contact me at @MikeChapman and I’ll help connect you.

David J. Neff, known to many of us as @daveiam because of his Twitter name, was on the street retreat and submitted this great post about the weekend. Following, also, is a YouTube David put together documenting our experience this weekend. Enjoy.

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Tags: #Homeless, Aii, Alan Graham, Austin Interactive Initiative, David J. Neff, Del Valle, Mobile Loaves and Fishes
Posted in Squared Root | 3 Comments »

Bill Leake: The Search Specialist

Posted by Mike Chapman on June 17th, 2009

Austin is rich with talented people who could easily make their way on either coast of the U.S. or anywhere else in the world. The reason we live in Austin is almost spiritual. It involves more than a quantifiable checklist of pros and cons – it’s a feeling, a “vibe” that we plug into as we’re getting off the airplane at ABIA or driving back into the Austin metro area after we’ve been away.

Because of its unique attraction, Austin has an abundance of talented people who you might think are based in Silicon Valley or Boston if you had just met them. They purposefully choose Austin instead because we not only have plenty of other techies to work and socialize with, we also have a vibrant creative community that interacts socially and professionally with the tech community.

Sure, we have some big-name celebrities that are really well known, including Willie Nelson, Lance Armstrong, Sandra Bullock, and Michael Dell. That’s great. What really makes Austin special, though, are the people who not only call Austin home, but are also fully integrated with the rest of the community and truly making it the creative capital.

Bill Leake, the CEO and Founder of Apogee Search, is one of those Austinites who can, and has, demonstrated that he could thrive anywhere but chooses to make Austin his home because of its unique character and creative mix. He’s not only a leader in our local community, he is known around the country as an expert in the interactive, space including search engine optimization, paid search advertising and website effectiveness.

A former McKinsey consultant and Dell veteran, Bill Leake draws on a deep expertise in both business and marketing to help increase revenues for a wide range of clients. He has been involved in driving provable revenues through internet marketing techniques since the early 1990s when, as part of the management team at Power Computing, he built the first company to sell $1 million of product over the internet. Bill has guided Apogee Search from inception to its current position as the largest search engine marketing firm in the Southwest, and one of the 20 largest in North America.

I used that last paragraph from Bill’s official bio purposefully because I could easily write a few thousand words telling you his story, as I know it, and without even getting to the business side of his personality. Bill is a walking encyclopedia when it comes to online technologies and business and just about any other topic you feel like discussing. He’s also a great family man and member of the Central Texas community. As a leader of the Austin Interactive Marketing Association, Bill is a major part of the conversation regarding the interactive community here. Most importantly to me, though, he’s a good friend to a huge number of us.

As the Austin Interactive Initiative takes shape, Bill will be a major resource and community leader in bringing attention to the interactive community of Central Texas. He is very available and is someone I would recommend anyone consult with if they want to know where search and technology in general is headed in the future. We’re lucky to have Bill, his family, and Apogee Search here in Austin.

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Tags: Aii, AIMA, Apogee Search, Austin Interactive Initiative, Bill Leake, Lance Armstrong, Michael Dell, Sandra Bullock, Willie Nelson
Posted in Squared Root | 4 Comments »

Michelle Greer: More Than Just a Geek

Posted by Mike Chapman on June 12th, 2009

When I think of the people who exemplify the best of the best of the interactive community of Austin, Texas; Michelle Greer always comes to mind. Michelle is easily one of the most recognizable people in the Austin creative and tech circles and has been justifiably recognized for her acheivements in bringing people together to use the tools of social media for the good of the community.

Recently, Michelle was selected from among her peers as the overall winner of the first Texas Social Media Awards given by the Austin American Statesman. Personally, I don’t think there could have been a better choice for the honor, which included nominations and input from across the interactive and social media communities throughout the nation.

The Statesman article on the TSMA winners, which described Michelle’s contributions to the Texas social media scene, gave a good glimpse into who she is. Michelle is a web strategist by profession, a geek’s geek by reputation, and one of the most sincere and caring people you could ever meet in real life.

She works to help refugees, to raise money for clean drinking water for poor people in underdeveloped countries, to increase donations to the blood and tissue center, to increase awareness for the hungry and the homeless, and, no doubt, for a number of other causes that even her closest friends can’t keep up with.

I consider Michelle to be the kind of person you want as a friend, an ally and as a member of Austin’s burgeoning interactive community. She’s fiercely loyal, she’s smart, she’ll tell you what she thinks and then listen to your ideas and opinions too. When she talks about “community” in the context of the online world, she absolutely does so with the belief that we’re here to look out for each other and not just to locate new markets and customers for our products and services.

From Michelle’s point of view, a view I share, those companies, organizations and individuals who present themselves in an honest and open manner - in other words, they’re authentic and appropriately transparent - will succeed well beyond those who try to simply sell to the online communities.

As we work to establish Austin as an important hub for economic activity on the socially engaged web, we will do very well to use Michelle Greer’s approach to life and business as a model for our overall efforts for Aii and beyond.

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Tags: Aii, Austin American Statesman, Austin Interactive Initiative, Geek Austin, Michelle Greer, Texas Social Media Awards
Posted in Squared Root | 4 Comments »

Steve Golab: Interactive Evangelist

Posted by Mike Chapman on June 5th, 2009

Last week I promised to begin a series focused on the people who will be playing key roles in the Austin Interactive Initiative, or Aii for short. In order to give a fair representation of the organization and movement, I need to start with the person who is one of the most vocal and active evangelists for Austin’s interactive community and who will be very much at the center of the Aii – Steve Golab.

Steve has spent his entire career integrally involved in the interactive community of Austin. His journey started while he was still a student at the University of Texas almost two decades ago. There he piloted the College of Engineering’s Multimedia Lab. He is an original founder and partner of FG SQUARED – the second G in the company name – and he now serves as CEO and President. In his current role, and as the title of this post declares, Steve is an active evangelist for the interactive community of Austin.

In the interest of full disclosure, Steve didn’t know that I would be writing this post. In more than seven months working with him he has never read a post I’ve written before it was published. That level of openness and trust, in my view, is a solid indicator that Steve understands that a collaborative approach to business can bring out people’s best and most effective thinking. This willingness to solicit and allow everyone’s point of view, and then strive for the mutual benefit of the community, gives Steve real credibility in his efforts on behalf of the Austin interactive community.

Aii, as Steve envisions it, will provide a vehicle for the community and create the “bigger pie” from which everyone can benefit. For those of us who are believers in the power of collaboration, community and conversational communications, Aii is a welcome development in the Austin business community.

To kick-start the process, Steve has been working with some well regarded community leaders in Austin to put some initial thoughts on paper and to create a plan for a gathering of community members and local leaders who want to work together.

In my conversations with Steve, it’s clear that he is genuinely concerned about the global economic situation and the pain it has caused our local economy. He’s somewhat taken aback, given the level and amount of creative and technical talent in Austin, that we’re not receiving the recognition that other communities and cities do. Our city is more than a great place to hold SXSW and it occurs to him, and to many of us who are working with him, that we need to better communicate to the rest of the world the depth of resources that exist right here in the Central Texas area.

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Following are the specific bullet points that have been developed for the purpose of beginning a conversation:

1. Aii is an economic development movement in the Central Texas region that aims to help make Austin be better recognized by global business communities and media outlets as an epicenter for Interactive and Social Media.

2. By working together in a collaborative manner, customers will be attracted to the whole of the talent that resides and works in the Austin area and that focuses on interactive and social media.

3. To accomplish this, the Aii would establish an active online community where stakeholders can communicate and collaborate around the issues of economic development as they pertain to the Austin Interactive community.

Please join the conversation and comment. In the true spirit of community, all who are affected or interested are invited to get involved.

Twitter Contacts -

Aii (http://twitter.com/atxii)

FG SQUARED (http://twitter.com/fgsquared)

Steve Golab (http://twitter.com/stevegolab)

Mike Chapman (http://twitter.com/mikechapman)

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Tags: Aii, Austin Interactive Initiative, collaboration, community, conversation, Economic Development, Steve Golab
Posted in Squared Root | 6 Comments »

Social Media Workshops at #IA09

Posted by Mike Chapman on April 18th, 2009

In the past few years I have met many, many people who are passionate about social media and the social web. Two people that would have to be on any top ten list – keep in mind that this is out of thousands – would be Connie Reece and Dave Evans. I’ve also had the pleasure of working with both of them.

Connie and Dave will be leading workshops on April 27th as a part of Interactive Austin 2009. True to the description of IA09 as interactive, these workshops will give practical examples through case studies and allow for direct participation by attendees.

If you are interested in attending Interactive Austin 2009 and are interested in talking to me about it, please reach out to me on Twitter at my address @MikeChapman. I know a discount code or two that I can still share with you if you register soon.

The workshops alone, which are described below, are well worth the price of admission. The opportunity to network with the keynotes, panel participants and other attendees and FG SQUARED team make it a bargain.

~Mike

Social Media Means Business – Three Workshops That Show You How.

Monday April 27, 1p – 5p.

Join New Media Lab’s Connie Reece, founder of Every Dot Connects along with Dave Evans, Social Web Strategies Principal and FG SQUARED strategy partner and also the author of “Social Media Marketing: An Hour a Day” for a series of workshops covering the essentials of social media as it is applied to business and professional branding.

In three sequential, hands-on sessions Dave and Connie will take you through actual cases of successful and not-so-successful blogging campaigns as they will dive into metrics and the case studies that show how the best practices, along with what to avoid. This set of workshops has been developed exclusively for Interactive Austin 2009. Spend some time in this workshop track and come away prepared to put theory into action.

Workshop Session #1: 2:2:45p “Getting Social Media Right”

Copywriter Amy Lemen, founder of Writeous Words Communications and PR professional Alan Weinkrantz join Connie and Dave in the first of three workshops. Connie and Dave will cover the basics of putting social media to work while Amy and Alan offer serious and practical hands-on tips from copywriting to developing your PR strategy as they show you how to create an effective social presence. You’ll see the essential elements and best practices that drive successful social media based marketing efforts and learn how to integrate this into your current marketing program. You’ll see how to plan, measure, and track your results.

Social Media Marketing Workshop Session #2: Social Media: Inside the Enterprise

Susan Scrupski of SoCo Partners along with Information Architect Chris
Almond, most recently with IBM’s Redbooks project, will lead a
“barcamp” style session where individuals can dive into discussions
surrounding real-world issues related to enterprise adoption of 2.0
tools and philosophies. This session will be user-generated and will
provide an open forum to hear from leading evangelists, peers, and
practitioners on the frontlines of Enterprise transformation.
Moderated by Dave Evans, this session will give you the insight you
need to develop a customized roadmap for your business.

Workshop Session #3: 4:00 – 4:45p “Social Media: Outside the Enterprise”

Having a great product or service, and the internal culture to sustain it–is only half the challenge. Join Cynthia Jackson, Director, Communications and Marketing of Baylor University along with KXAN’s former Twitter maven Charlie Ray and Austin’s own John McElhenney as they walk through the strategic and tactical aspects of the social strategies they helped create. Facilitated by Connie Reece, this workshop will show you how to put the Social Web to work.

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Tags: #IA09, Aii, Austin Interactive Initiative, Connie Reece, Dave Evans, Every Dot Connects, New Media Lab, Social Web Strategies
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