In this light, I am going to continue to share this time-suck with all you Fresh readers.

This post is a spotlight on Los Angeles-based designer, art director, artist, entrepreneur and skateboarder, Michael Leon.

I have been keeping up with the guy’s projects, brands, and aesthetic for the past few years, and am constantly inspired.  He has the ability to design simply and boldly while maintaining a certain whimsical feel-good quality, leaving me with a smile on my face and a warm, fuzzy feeling in my gut.

He captures fun, skateboarding, California, drawing, and all of the youthful energy that inherently comes emotionally packaged with these things into each piece. It’s honest and original — two of the hardest things to consistently embody as an artist or designer.

A native Floridian, Leon designed his first pro model skateboard for New Deal while still in high school. Migrating to California for skateboarding and eventually art school, he graduated from Cal Arts in 1997. Over the years, Michael’s distinct design and art has been exhibited internationally. He is the co-creator of the brands Commonwealth Stacks and Rasa Libre Skateboards,  and has contributed iconic art direction and design to brands such as Fourstar Clothing, Girl Skateboards, Stussy, DC, Arkitip, and most recently, Nike SB (I believe Leon was a fellow Portlander for a time while Art Directing at SB — obligatory PDX reference).

Aside from the stellar design and art direction that Leon has contributed to countless brands, it is his personal work and fine art that I am most attracted to. The skulls with creepy wandering eyes behind shady aviator glasses, the skateboard-soil-strata, and the mirrored “displacement wallrides” and the “untitled” print of California with skateboard bolt holes drilled through it; all seem to speak very clearly to Leon’s own ideas about what inspires him and how, without any overbearing or obvious gimmicks.

Whether fine art or commercial projects, here’s the one definite unifying theme through Leon’s body of work:  it all looks like it was damn fun to make. And, it’s fun to look at. Mission accomplished in my opinion.

Through all the gushing, I almost forgot the point of this post: to share Leon’s work. Enjoy!

For good measure, and for some more on the guy’s vibe, check out this old video interview with him from 2003.

When we first began concepting ideas, we needed to clearly define why it was we even needed a sign. After all, we aren’t a retail space or a restaurant where people are walking in off the street for their next online campaign. Most people that come to our office know who we are and are simply looking for a clearly marked street address. It’s more way-finding than anything. We had to take into consideration things such as public transportation and parking, so we could position the sign in a place that made sense. Once people found us they needed to be buzzed in, so we also included an integrated call box into the entrance.

Initial sketches

Once we established these basic requirements, the challenge was to execute a unique sign that also reflected the eROI brand well. It had to be bold and modern, but also live within a building with history. In almost all of our initial drawings we used the eROI yellow as a strong element. We decided that our logo could be more understated if we could rely more on our brand color for recognition. We partnered with Aaron Loveitt of Altility Art Studio to help with the fabrication of the sign. Aaron’s unique work emphasizes simple design with a level craft that utilizes old and reclaimed materials. With the boldness of our high gloss painted yellow element, we wanted to balance that with materials such as walnut wood panels and old rusted steel. These added an element of history and made the sign feel as though it had always been a part of the building.

505 Couch St

Polished stainless steel eROI logo with jewel rivets

One of the key elements of the signage is the speech bubble graphic on the call box. Usually these units have a lot of unnecessary instructions. We thought it should be an intuitive enough experience that didn’t require a written explanation. By using a simple graphic and a single button we reduced the choices of what you can do to simple one thing: push the button and talk into the speech bubble. But more importantly, we wanted this to be a casual and fun experience to set the tone for what it’s like to work with the eROI Team. We spend so much time thinking about the user experience in an online environment that it was a fun challenge to think about how those same principles manifest themselves in a physical space.

On a side note: One of the benefits of working in Old Town is its concentration of mediocre graffiti writers. And we pretty much created the perfect canvas for them. We acknowledged this early on and made sure to use automobile paint and take certain precautions. We’ve been tagged several times now but apparently they’re no match for our building maintenance man Sharky. He’s been removing graffiti since before Old Town became, well, Old Town.

Recently, I walked around the office with my Flip camera and asked the eROI team about ecommerce sites. We talked about the ones that we liked, what could be improved, and what people should think about when creating an online shopping experience. Since we work in the digital marketing industry, it should come as no surprise that we’re highly critical of things like overall brand experience, way-finding, and ease of use.

Two things that are critical to address at the onset of any project are the measurable business objectives and analytic goals. In our design process at eROI, these things are kept at the forefront of every project; these two things guide our designers as they begin creating their web designs. By always referring back to the objectives and goals, and making creative decisions that strive to directly impact these things, we’re setting our clients up to succeed on those two fronts.

Our process helps to ensure that these things don’t get overlooked or forgotten about as a project evolves. I’ve visited other ecommerce sites before, however, where the functional and transactional experience is incredibly poor, and I end up leaving the site feeling disgruntled, confused, and/or frustrated. I’m sure that all of us have experienced a site that left us wanting more or saying to ourselves, “This site could be better if they’d only [insert awesome suggestion here].”

What are some of your favorite ecommerce sites and why?

I’ve acquired the unofficial title of ‘Yoga Ambassador’ for the company. I try to encourage participation by sending out a weekly yoga reminder via email to the entire office. Before I start creating the email, I reflect on the past week and try to tie in either current events, the current holiday, or something inspired by current emotions. Each email contains an image, accompanied by a related quote. I sometimes add in health tips or words of encouragement. I hope to inspire others to either join in the yoga practice, or encourage them to be happy and healthy. We are lucky to have the flexibility to hold yoga during the day at eROI. We practice yoga every Thursday afternoon at 4:30pm. Because this is during the normal workday, it makes it more convenient for employees to take time out of their day for yoga. Who wouldn’t want to be done with work an hour early and get a great workout and relaxation session?

I can go on and on about how great yoga is in the workplace, but I’m going to let some of our own speak for themselves. I gathered up some quotes, favorite moments, favorite poses, and more from many of our yogis. Enjoy!

From Mai:

Favorite pose? “My favorite yoga moves are the balancing poses because it pushes me to focus and stand still, which is really hard for me.”

Favorite eROI yoga memory? “My favorite yoga moment was when Jill first started and had to partner up with Ryan to do the double down dog.”

From Verity:

“I started doing yoga at eROI because I wanted to get serious about my health and fit exercise in whenever I could. My favorite pose is Crow. Yoga at the office is a great way to bond with my co-workers. I makes me feel valued as an employee that we have the opportunity to have the class here. It is much needed stress relief! My favorite yoga memory is either when we all did handstands against the walls.. or when we had the windows open and the guy outside was barking so loud it was disrupting class. haha!”

From Hannah:

“I trade cocktails for yoga on Thursdays and, shockingly, it is a great trade!” “I’m not a morning person so the new time slot change made all the difference to me. It’s a great way to end the day. I wish it was twice a week!”

From Mary:

Favorite pose? “Child’s pose — helps me to relax, and pigeon — helps to counteract all the sitting I do during the day.”

Why try yoga at eROI? “I thought it was a great team building activity that would be good for my health. So many eROI team building activities center around non-health-related events, and this is a bit more mellow and low-key.”

What do you like about doing yoga at the office? “The commute is great!”

Favorite eROI yoga memory? “The sexy cat from last week — so cute and funny! And, added bonus, your back feels great afterward.”

From KC:

It is great to work at a company that values and offers yoga and health wellness!

From Sydney:

Favorite pose? “Sun Salutations. I guess it is not a pose I just love the flow of connecting all of these poses together.”

Why try yoga at eROI? “Have you seen Jennifer Aniston’s body??”

What do you like about doing yoga at the office? “The ability for us to spend an hour together in harmony without having to even say a word. It also helps me to feel more grounded and relaxed in the same environment that can at times be very stressful.”

Favorite eROI yoga memory? “Group poses with Tanya :)”

From Jill:

My favorite pose is Half Moon Pose! But I don’t do it often. My favorite regular pose is Triangle – there is so much that I still need to work on in that pose even though it is one of the “basics”.

I decided to try yoga for a couple reasons: 1) I just moved to Portland (September 2007) and was looking to find a yoga class anyway, 2) I wanted to get to know some of my new co-workers outside of a work context (and outside of the bar!)

I like having a shared non-work experience with my co-workers. It’s fun and challenging at the same time, and it’s nice to have those kind of experiences in common – it gives you something to talk about later (that’s not work) :)

The eROI yoga memory that sticks out most in my mind is when we did partner yoga back in the old office. I’m pretty sure I hadn’t worked here for a month yet, and I ended up being paired with Ryan. An interesting way to get to know the CEO of your new workplace!

Like my emails, I’ll leave you with a quote: “The world may be chaotic around you; it may be full of fluctuations; it may be fearful; it may be full of pain; but the Yogi aims to be in peace even though circumstances are not.” ~Gurani Anjali

Namaste,
Christine

*All photos were taken by our fabulous designer, Elliot Olson. Thanks for taking the time out of your Thursday afternoon to snap some shots. We really appreciate it!

How HTML 5 is encroaching on Flash’s turf

HTML 5 will be the next version of HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) and with it will come some of the biggest advances in HTML’s relatively young history. The proposed new standard will change the way websites are built and looks to minimize the need for proprietary browser plug-ins like Adobe Flash and Microsoft’s Silverlight.

Some of the biggest impacts will be in how HTML handles audio and video without the use of rich media plug-ins such as Flash. This new functionality will be handled with new tags <video> and <audio>, while still aiming to be backward compliant with older versions of HTML.

This has led many to believe that Flash’s days as an interactive industry leader are over and that there will be a day when you won’t need to upgrade your Flash Player ever again. Don’t hold your breath.

Forcing the issue – How Flash is already getting the squeeze

Compounding Flash’s woes are the actions by companies like Apple. Apple’s lack of support for Flash on their iPhone and iPad is causing a lot of speculation and dividing developers and users alike. Officially, Apple’s terms-of-service agreement strictly prohibits third party plug-ins such as Flash.

There are plenty of reasons for Apple’s lack of plug-in support. Steve Jobs outlined these reasons in his post, “Thoughts on Flash”. In addition to security concerns and Flash’s heavy strain on the battery, there are also the financial reasons. Allowing Flash would relinquish the stranglehold they have on interactive applications running on their devices.

This has lead regulators to inquire into whether Apple has violated antitrust law by their requirement that developers use their approved tools to write applications for the iPad and iPhone.

Flash going forward

Flash’s video player dominance might take the biggest hit as many developers look to create players with the new functionality HTML 5 will offer. With that said Flash will have a place in video for many years to come as it will still be the backup video player for older browsers that don’t support HTML 5. Good development always requires graceful degradation and this ensures Flash video will have a place on the web for a long time to come.

One aspect that’s in less danger of encroachment is Flash’s hold on animation and games. It’s true that with Javascript libraries like jQuery animation can be done without the use of Flash.  However the animation is never as elegant and can look vastly different cross-browser.

Flash’s intuitive interface opens it up to non-developers to create engaging animation and visually stylized interactive sites with little coding knowledge. This is a point that often gets overlooked when the future of Flash is discussed.

The litany of components Flash offers out of the box combined with the ability to have a stand-alone finished piece still makes Flash a big player in today’s web climate. With functionally accomplished without Flash there will definitely be drop in the need to use it,  but that doesn’t mean Flash is going away. As for the Guatemalan cock fight that is Adobe vs Apple, we’ll just have to wait and see who gets their eye plucked out first.

The figure seems especially high considering that teens spend the majority of their day in the classroom, where things like texting and gaming are not allowed. Where do they even find the time? The influx of mobile devices has definitely had a huge impact on the accessibility to media, but at what cost? There are so many serious social implications that arise when a face-to-face interaction is regarded as inconvenient and that much time is spent detached and distracted. In some case it’s downright dangerous.

What’s even more astounding to me is that they are logging more hours than the average American work week. What happens when this generation enters the work force? Will they have enough focus to get through a whole work day? It’s been studied that when someone is interrupted by something like a phone call or email, it can take approximately 25 minutes to get back on task and refocused. So what happens when the interruptions are constant and overlapping? Is it possible to go through an entire day and not actually get anything done? Maybe the fine folks at Goldman Sachs can answer that one for us. As a manager of a creative team it’s something I contemplate often. Creatives are inherently hungry for inspiration and must to be able to reference a recent campaign or site they saw at the drop of a dime. At eROI, we have a fairly loose attitude toward employee’s internet usage. I believe it’s an important aspect of our industry to be connected and aware of what’s happening. In fact, I would have a bigger issue with an employee that didn’t spend a portion of their day perusing the web.

But at what point does this become detrimental to the work environment? I think it’s a complex issue, and one that really depends on the situation. For instance, if your job is an air traffic controller, and lives depend on your every decision, then checking your Facebook profile all day is clearly going to break your focus and compromise your ability to work effectively. On the other hand, I would argue that I have employees that are extremely productive despite the fact that a lot of their time is riddled with distractions. Besides the dinging inbox, and the in-person drop-by’s by fellow employees, they are also keeping up with sites like Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr throughout the day. All the while they have up to 7 or 8 client projects active at any given time. A big part of our team dynamic is also about collaboration and sharing knowledge. So, I don’t necessarily look at all of these technologies as distractions as much as just another tool to embrace. Even just a few years ago it was more common to share links and ideas with the team via email, but now those things are more naturally shared through these other channels. So, does this result in people working less time and being less productive? I would argue no, that somehow people have managed to adapt to this environment and remain productive.

I’ve noticed a few minor (albeit significant) adaptations that we’ve adopted:

1. Most of the designers on my team use some kind of application like Tweetdeck to consolidate a lot of their activity online. Instead of going to several sites throughout the day, they get most of it feeding into one place.
2. All of the designers are working on dual monitors. These two things combined allows for someone to leave their feeds going in one screen while still having their work front and center. In effect, the internet is in their peripheral vision and they can still have a level of focus on their work without getting completely derailed. Some have even theorized that just having a larger monitor can make someone more productive. This might be a stretch, and I’m not sure if that’s the right solution, but it’s definitely an interesting thought.

One thing that this study clearly shows us, is that media consumption won’t be going away anytime soon, it will only become more present. So, it seems we can either resist and reminisce about the good old days when we all had 8 hours of pure focus (well, or fewer media distractions), or we can begin to explore other ways in which we can adapt and maintain a healthy balance in our personal and work life and our relationship with technology.

Certain songs or genres of music aid me in different working scenarios.  Sometimes I find myself knowing exactly what song or album to play for my current mood or for the task in front of me. If I am on a deadline, if I am wireframing a new site, if I am working late, or if I am just plain old stoked on a design direction, zoned out, head down, gettin’ it done, I know what to listen to to make that task more enjoyable. There are songs for reading your RSS on Monday morning, drinking coffee, ramping up for your week, and there are songs for your Friday afternoon, winding down your open projects, and thinking about your upcoming weekend.

Here are 10 tracks, old and new, and the web-design/interactive dork scenarios in which they feel most appropriate, as those scenarios fit into a 5-day work week.  Try them out and tell me if they work for you too. Hell, you might learn about some new music, get way better at those deadline pushes, or at least grumble a little less to yourself when burning the midnight oil.

NOTE: These choices are based on a combination of the general pacing and mood of the songs, and their subject matter and lyrics. Sometimes more one than the other, sometimes a perfect balance of both. One thing remains consistent: It is all subjective jibba-jabba according to one interactive designer and illustrator’s listening habits. Take it or leave it.

1) It’s Monday morning.

You haven’t quite had enough coffee yet. You have an overflowing inbox, and an upcoming production meeting that will inevitably reveal a mountain of work ahead of you. Most creatives likely use this time to sip/chug caffeinated beverages, check RSS feeds, Facebook, blogs, and news headlines.

I like to keep my Monday morning selections mellow. My brain takes a bit of time to ramp up into full swing, as do my music sensibilities. I need tranquility, and ease in pacing. AA Bondy’s soft voice, and languid cadence seem to do it for me in these scenarios.  And, his albums are conveniently at the top of my iTunes alphabetic library.

AA Bondy - There’s a Reason

2) It’s Monday afternoon.

You’ve made it through the day, unscathed for the most part by the prospect of the week’s deadlines, the countless meetings and project kick-offs.  Somehow, you remain ambivalent to the idea that the aforementioned meetings made it so you really only got 2 hours of real work in before it was almost time to go home.

During those last few work hours, I find it best to realize that once you have made it that far, the rest of the week is a breeze. For one reason or another, Monday mornings seem to be the hardest to make it through, and next thing you know, it’s Tuesday. You will have your feet up at home with an adult beverage of your choosing, watching the boob tube in no time.  Let Oxnard’s Oh No and Long Beach’s Aloe Black serenade you as you glide into Tuesday.

Oh No feat. Aloe Black – Getaway

3) Tuesday morning.

So you made it through Monday, and have arrived at work with the attitude that no project, big or small could phase you.  You are a machine. A machine created to efficiently design or code anything the internets can throw at you, with impeccable attention to user experience, visual hierarchy, and typographic sensibility. “Go time, bitch.” you mumble to your computer as it boots up and you go fill your coffee mug. Perfect for wire framing, sketching, slicing, and file preparation.

Personally, I enjoy upbeat, largely electronic or synthed-out tunes at this stage in my week.  Minimal vocals are preferred, if not spacey/dreamy vocals that I barely can decipher anyways. This is my concentration music. My amiable, productive music. Nite Jewel and Caribou tie here as equally awesome productive morning music.

Nite Jewel -What Did He Say

Caribou - Sandy

4) Wednesday, late morning.

You have a call with a client at 3pm. You need at least an hour, to be safe, to prep for your presentation, so that means the designs/code need to be buttoned up by around 2pm. You look up at the time and it’s already 11. Shit. Gotta cancel those lunch plans. Time for a good old deadline crunch.

This is a scenario when I turn to punk and good ol’ rock and roll. The first albums that pop in to mind when I think of “go fast music” are by Portland’s own, The Thermals. 2003 and 2004’s More parts Per Million and Fuckin’ A have just the lo-fi, energetic grittiness that somehow makes deadlines and time crunches seem laughable.

The Thermals -Brace and Break

5) Wednesday, late afternoon.

So, as often happens, your deadline crunch made it so you had to push all other responsibilities off for the first half of your day. You now are looking at a bit of a late night, and as everyone around you packs up and heads out, turning off the lights as they file out, You need a little something to help brush off the reluctancy to work late, and to buckle down. Take a deep breath — you have that new DVR thingy recording that one show for you. You aren’t going to muss anything but the rush hour crowds.

What I have found pairs best with working late is anything garage-rock-driven. I need the almost happy twanginess combined with the slightly hessian badass undertones to kick my work’s ass, but not be mad about it. Old recordings by The Seeds or Anything by Black Lips or King Kahn usually works. Recently, it has been The Strange Boys that blare in the later evening work sessions.

The Strange Boys - Friday in Paris

6) Thursday morning.

You feel pretty good about staying late last night as you stroll into work, fully ready to finish off your responsibilities for the week. You need to focus, but you might not have to have the same kind of head-down-marathon you did yesterday. It is a mellow morning, but you are kinda psyched to sip free Pabst whilst milling around 1st-Thursday gallery openings after work.

This is often a hard balance to strike when trolling through your iTunes library. You don’t want to blow the roof off, but folk music is just not going to cut it either. The driving guitars and smoothed-out vocals of Olympia, Washington’s  Desolation Wilderness fits this time/work/energy niche nicely.

Desolation Wilderness – Boardwalk Theme

7) Thursday afternoon.

So close! You have put yourself in a good place for that Friday site launch, only have a few things to polish up before jetting out the door to meet a friend for a Thursday-evening beer down the street from the office. You are in a good mood, because, well, you killed it this week. Gettin’ shit done doing what you love feels damn good. It’s almost the weekend.

Turn your speakers up to 11, and finish your day off with David Bowie’s cover of 60’s Australian rockers The Easy Beats’ end-of-week classic.

David Bowie -Friday on My Mind (Easybeats cover)

8) Friday morning.

Somehow, another week flew by in the blink of an eye. You stroll a little slower than usual on the last few blocks to the office, soaking in the idea that 24 hours from now, you might still be still asleep, resting up for a long 2 days of whatever-you-goddamn-please. You have some work to do, so the job is not done yet. Time to get stoked for the last push.

Stroll a little slower still, maybe – listen to somethin’ a little badass, but not overbearingly so.  Something that reminds you of driving with the windows down in the summertime. Perhaps something by Brattleboro, Vermont’s King Tuff.

King Tuff -Sun Medallion

9) Friday afternoon.

I am not sure what it is about Friday afternoons, but all I can think to listen to is soul music. Loud, seated-dance-inducing, ear-to-ear grinning soul music. It’s just how I do.

I have not personally seen it done on the dance floor, but Eddie Bo’s Hook and Sling (presumably a dance move) always gets me.

Eddie Bo -Hook and Sling

10) Friday – the commute home.

You did it. Granted, you will have to do it again next week, but for right now, all you really have to do is enjoy your ride home. Slink down in your bus seat, slow your roll on your bicycle, or roll your window down and take a slow, deep breath. Decompression is key, and everyone has their own tricks and personal victory dances.

One of mine a little 2-part Friday night/party anthem by People under the stairs from their 2002 release, OST.

People under the Stairs -The Suite for Beaver Part 1

People Under the Stairs -The Suite for Beaver Part 2

Music is integral to my process. I know my work habits, and music tastes, and make a concerted effort to allow them to inform each other. It immensely helps my mood and workflow, and encourage you to pay attention to this balance in your own work/life. If it’s not these 10 tracks that make your week way more awesome, then it is another 10, but I believe everyone has tunes that speak to every mood and scenario. My recommendation is to seek them out and see what happens.

You can download all of the tracks included in this post as a handy .zip file by clicking here.

Disclaimer: These tracks are for promotional and preview purposes only. If you like the music, buy the album. All links will be removed upon request.

Finding Promising Panels

Sometimes a panel or session that looks amazing based on its short description in the official SXSW handbook turns out to be, ehhhh, not so great.  And of course the one you decided NOT to go to was the must-see panel of the day.  Although you’re not going to pick winners every time, you can help yourself by doing a little research beforehand.

my.SXSW and Sched.org

The official SXSW site offers up my.SXSW to help you browse the scheduled panels and save the ones that look interesting to you (you have to be registered for the conference and have an account in order to use it).  You can view events and panels in the traditional “list view” or “grid view“, which is nice for quickly checking which panels are happening at a specific date & time.  Once you’ve saved the events that you like, you can view your own personal schedule, and save your schedule to Outlook, Google Calendar or iCal.

An alternative to using the official SXSW scheduling app is to create an account at Sched.org (You can use Facebook Connect or sign in using Twitter). Sched.org presents the panels by day and time, in a format that is a bit easier to take in and browse than the straight list format of my.SXSW — but unlike the official site’s “grid view”, the listing format doesn’t require horizontal scrolling.

my.SXSW and sched.org work well enough for saving the panels and events you want to go to, but they don’t provide many tools if you want to dig a little deeper and find out more about the panel and/or speaker before you save it to your schedule.  Here are a couple of other tools that I’ve been using to help me sort through the sea of panels.

SXSW Panel Picker

Even though it was meant for panel proposals and voting, I’ve found the SXSW Panel Picker to be a good tool for researching accepted/scheduled panels as well.  Do a search for the title of the panel you want more info on — for example, I wanted to learn more about “The History of the Button”, taking place on Friday at 2:00 PM. You should find the proposal page for the panel which contains more information, including the “level” of the panel (beginner, intermediate, advanced) and categories as determined by the speaker/presenter. But even better, you can read comments about the panel written by those who voted during the proposal stage. Sometimes you can determine if the presenter has a reputation for being a good speaker, and/or if the topic has been presented before and if so, how it was received.  Sometimes you may find someone you recognize and respect has voiced support, even more reason to add it to your list.

Sitby.us and Plancast

So you’ve picked out some panels based on their descriptions, and maybe a few comments from panel voters. But which ones are your friends and peers going to go see?  One really awesome tool that’s new this year is Sitby.us, created by WeightShift. Unlike my.SXSW and Sched.org which show you the total number of people  interested in a panel, Sitby.us primarily shows you which of your Twitter friends are interested in a specific panel (though it also mentions the total number).  So I can see which of my ACTUAL friends are interested in a panel, plus anyone whom I follow on Twitter, including web design gurus such as Jared Spool and Jason Santa Maria.  Theoretically, in my mind, they have a better idea of which panels look promising, though realistically they could be taking a chance, just like I would be!

Another big draw for Sitby.us is its beautiful, simple design.  It looks as though it was designed to be viewed on an iPhone, but the design works well in a full-sized browser as well. It’s incredibly easy to navigate with just a few navigational elements at the top, and the color-coded time slots make the schedule listings both pretty and practical.

It also provides one feature that none of the other scheduling apps have: the ability to “check in” at a panel and indicate where in the room you’re sitting, which helps you either find your friends easier, or stalk your favorite rock star web designer. You can add an extra note (“back row, next to the water cooler”) and check a box to broadcast your location via Twitter (though if you do so, I’d recommend setting up a Twitter “barf” account like Stephen suggests or you might end up annoying your followers who AREN’T at SXSW ).

If you’ve already created a schedule on my.SXSW or Sched.org, you can import it into Sitby.us (I tried it with my my.SXSW schedule and it worked perfectly).  You can export your schedule into iCal format, but there is no way to print your schedule directly from the site unfortunately (why would you want to print it? See the next section).  All the same, I will be using Sitby.us as my primary online scheduling tool for SXSW 2010, just because I enjoy using it so much!

Plancast is another tool that’s new this year — although it’s not SXSW-specific, you could use it to keep track of which panels, parties or other events you plan on attending, plus see which events your friends are interested in.  I don’t have many friends with accounts on Plancast yet, so it has not been very useful for me this year. But from what I’ve seen so far, it seems like most people are using Plancast to announce which parties they are going to, so it could be very helpful for hooking up with your friends out on the town after the panels are done for the day.

Print it out or Write it down

With all of our fancy technology, in this day and age, at an interactive conference, WHY would you need to have anything on paper?  Why?  Because most of our fancy technology relies on internet connections, and internet connections can’t really be relied upon at SXSW.  I can almost guarantee that you will have moments of disconnectivity while you are there. There are a LOT of people hammering the free wireless and smart phone networks, so downtime and slow connections are bound to happen.  Don’t miss your next must-see panel because you couldn’t pull up sitby.us, sched.org or my.SXSW on your phone or laptop.

Whether you circle or highlight panels in the official guidebook, print your schedule from one of the scheduling sites, or scribble some notes in a notebook, get it all down on paper and avoid the stress of being disconnected at an inopportune moment.  I’m personally trying to fit all the information I need into a Moleskine, including print outs of maps, notes on good places to eat, bus information and of course, my panel picks. It won’t turn out as awesome as James Bridle’s SXSW 2010 Fieldnotes book (they’re not for sale! Dang it) but I think it’ll work just fine.

What else?

There are TONS of sites and blog posts out there with tips on how to make the most of SXSW and your time in Austin. Here are a few that I’ve read/used; have any you’d like to add? Put ‘em in the comments! Thanks for reading!

SXSW Baby! is absolutely essential for any SXSW-goer, especially those who are going for the first time!

Citizen Taco’s SXSW Essential Guide and Austin 360’s “Guide to SXSW Food Guides” will help you answer the all-important question: Where Should We Eat? (And you don’t have to eat out all the time, check out this post on SXSW Baby! for tips on snacks to bring from home)

And check out the rest of Austin 360 if you want to see what ELSE is going on in Austin (Yes it’s true, SXSW isn’t the only thing going on). And they have a comprehensive Guide to Austin, looks handy if you want to learn some facts and figures, or perhaps want to partake in some outdoor recreation while you’re there. How about a walk/bike ride around Lady Bird Lake?  They also have a pretty big, clean map of downtown Austin for your printing pleasure (for those times when you can’t connect to Google Maps of course).

Do I fill up countless notebooks with quotes and drawings, set up my handy tape recorder so next time I feel like re-living the whole weekend I can just flip a switch? Maybe I can just listen carefully and soak it all in, hoping the inspiration seeps in through my pores.

While I most definitely will have a pad and pencil in front of me, I will also have my iPhone, and where there is an iPhone in the hands of an interactive designer… there is the amazing micro blogging tool called @twitter. Have you heard of it? It is kind of a big deal these days. So much of a big deal that its use has become at times… well, overused. I am here to tell you a few easy steps to keeping your followers happy with your content stream. Remember kids, it is all about well placed, relevant content.

1) Spammin’ Your Barf Accounts
When I log in to my Twitter stream and see tweet after tweet from the same person, my eyes glaze over and I end up skipping 3/4th of what they have written. Not only that but eventually their avatar takes on a visual cue that says it is OK to skip their content, and eventually you ask yourself… why again am I following this person?

People throw up on Twitter all the time. Their content is full of corn or spaghetti, maybe a few chicken chunks or even some soggy Cheerios. Either way, the more content that gets spewed, the harder it is to digest. My suggestion: make yourself a new handle completely dedicated to your constant tweeting. Tweeting about your barf account handle from your regular handle about your plan to keep the spew out of your followers stream will be much appreciated and well received. If your followers want to get your constant content, then they will follow your other handle too. It just makes sense… right?

2) Shaking Their Hand Doesn’t Make Their Content Any Better
SXSW is all about being social. There are a lot of after parties, free food and booze events and yes a lot of hand shaking. You get to know someone there and you obviously dork out with them and grab their Twitter handle. Making new friends is amazing and exactly what this massive social event is all about… but seriously, is Twitter all about how many followers you have? If you hold dear to growing your Twitter followers and would mass follow @Ghandy’s followers to increase your goodwill toward humanity, then I am not sure you care much about your content stream. That is after all what it is all about. Get to know the person you shook hands with, take in what they have to say, who they are, what they have to offer you. Get their handle and check them out… but make sure their online bantering is consistent to what you want to hear.

3) Talking Yourself Out of a TUI
We have all had those late nights out with your closest friends, where one thing leads to another and all of a sudden you are handed two bottom shelf tequila shots. It usually involves karaoke, meaningless banter and maybe new friend or two. If you couldn’t tell this post in not about drinking, it is about tweeting. And when you drink… you better be prepared to own up to all your tweets. When we drink, some of us get happy and ride a wave of bliss, or become goofy with the friends we are with. Others get angry at the world or depressed at their lives, and this my friends is where good content turns bad. I would say a depressing tweet is worse than a drunk dial. The passive aggressive nature and complete helplessness your followers will feel is not what Twitter is for. So, when you are throwing back that 5th shot of Makers don’t tell the world you can’t feel your face, or ask for advice on how to approach a woman across the room. Ask the people you are with, disconnect yourself from the Twitterverse every once and a while and utilize the physical relationship of the people around you. Tweeting under the influence gives your followers a window into your world. Waking up the next morning with 10 replies asking if you are OK is guaranteed to lose you some followers.

So, what are my steps for healthy tweeting in Austin? I have my barf account set up and ready to go. I plan on shaking many hands and getting to know many new and interesting people. And while I will be having my fair share of drinks I will be tactful when I blast what kind of shot I just had. @waterproof for me, @waterproofbarf for all things SXSW.

Now, for all of you who are cruising down to SXSW there are a few ways to optimize your content flow. Many of you crazy tweeters probably utilize some sort of organization tool for your followers. A couple top rated ones to keep in mind are Tweetdeck, Twitterrific or maybe even Power Twitter. And for the mobile devices you could pop into Tweetie, Ubertwitter or maybe even Twidroid. I am interested to see what all of you use, or if there are better ones out there than the ones I have mentioned.

Be safe. I don’t want to see any soggy Cheerios all over my stream. I guarantee you won’t from me.

(disgusting vomiting Twitter bird illustration by Jill.)