If you were on Twitter this week, and couldn’t figure out how to block all SXSW tweets, you might have felt like the only person who wasn’t in Austin. But if you had sifted through the heaps of “These lines are ridiculous,” “My phone’s almost dead” and “Heck yeah free sunglasses and/or breakfast tacos” tweets, you would find that you were not alone in your loneliness.

Here are our 20 favorite tweets from people who weren’t at South by Southwest this year.
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Once again, the ad world has come to SXSW Interactive — over 1800 strong by our count. In addition to the networking and learning opportunities that abound in Austin, several agencies are using the trip to showcase some of their creative talent on the web.

Here are six awesome sites that allow you to meet up with, stalk or live vicariously through agency folks on the ground in Austin. (more…)

After a record year for PR agency attendance at SXSW in 2011, we’re seeing another big year in 2012. Our number crunchers have found a 31% increase in the number of people PR agencies have sent to Austin. (more…)

After gargantuan growth into 2011, attendance at SXSW by advertising agency staff finally leveled off in 2012. Whew.

This year Digitas wins the King of SXSW prize, followed closely by Ogilvy and Razorfish. Last year’s King, Leo Burnett, fell to #9 in the SXSW agency list. (more…)

You’ve probably heard this question a dozen times in the last year: “Should an agency act like a startup?” Essentially, agencies share key ingredients of agile software companies, like designers, programmers and project managers, but do they have the patience to iterate and persist throughout a profitable product’s lifespan? And is coding products in-house just a great exercise, or is a viable new business model emerging? (more…)

South by Southwest Interactive, the Woodstock for geeks, kicks off next week. As the geeks at Blogads HQ combed the schedule of events, some keyword trends in panel titles emerged.

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photo by Doug Shick

One sure way to stand out from the 3200 proposals in SXSWi 2012’s Panel Picker is with a catchy title. With so many bold, provocative and timely titles vying for the votes of their peers, there are bound to be recurring memes. For March’s Interactive conference, 14 panels are proclaiming something to be dead. Either that is a very popular turn of phrase, or a lot of technology trends died this year (long live these technology trends).

1. Big media is dead. Why niche websites will rule.
2. TV is Dead. Video Advertising is Alive & Well
3. Television is Dead. Long Live Television.
4. Crowdsourcing is dead —> Enter Friendsourcing
5. The Creative team is dead. Casting the right team
6. The Landline is Dead. Long Live the Landline!
7. Blogging is Dead – 2012 Edition
8. Friending is Dead: Now what?
9. Banner is Dead: How Brands Can Innovate Online
10. Data Vis is Dead, Long Live Data Vis!
11. Your Social Media Job is Dead. Now What?
12. Journalism is dead. Long live journalism!
13. Social Gaming Is Dead, Long Live Social Gaming
14. The web is dead, long live the web

photo by Dave Delaney

The bloggers in our network are an active and impassioned bunch. It was no surprise to us that several of them have proposed panels for South by Southwest 2012.

It goes without saying that we highly recommend voting for these panels:

1. Monetizing Mommy

Featured blogger: Catherine Connors, Her Bad Mother

From the description: “Turns out, mommy’s become something of a cash cow these days. From bestselling books to six figure brand partnership deals, she’s raking it in – and she’s worked hard to deserve it.”

Best question to be answered: “Are Mom Blogs really viable career opportunities for passionate women?”

photo by katie allison granju

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It’s that time of year again! The SXSW 2012 Panel Picker is open for voting. We’ll be heading back to Austin this year for SXSW Interactive, and here are the panels we’d like see when we get there.

1. 2 Girls, 1 Cup and Your Brand

Rob Blatt

Maybe it’s because of the catchy title, or maybe it’s because we like to curse, damn it, but this panel is the office favorite at Blogads HQ. Rob Blatt and Gavin St. Ours want you and your brand to feel free to curse on the Internet, but they want you to do it right.

From the description: “If you bleep out a word, you might evade the lords at Apple, but do you think your show is still family friendly? Stop holding yourself back, this is the internet!”

Best question to be answered: “How can accepting the darker side of the internet help your brand?”

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