• Kickin’ WiFi & great company
• Comfy couches & beanbag chairs
• Breakfast & coffee every morning
• Playing with your food during lunch provided by Convio
• Daily happy hour with live music on the Salsa Labs stage to benefit Sweet Relief Musicians Fund
• Mike Rodhe Sketchnote gallery

AND (as if the other stuff wasn’t enough)
• An overall energetic do-gooding vibe

Follow us @thebeaconsxsw for updates and more info as we get closer to Spring Break For Geeks (you KNOW you love it, don’t pretend).

Game on, baby. See ya in March!

7.  Eye contact anxiety. In a room/bus/street full of SxSWi folk, the majority of people have their head down tap-tap-tapping away on some mobile device, if not multiple devices. Back in the real world, not everyone is so obsessively connected.  Which had me a little paranoid on my commute to work this morning.  What exactly is everyone looking at?  What are they thinking about?  Are they really just sitting there?  Huh.  And, am I the only one on this bus wearing jeans and Chuck Taylors right now?

6. Hash tag fever. While prepping for a client conference call today, I actually took time to consider what the hash tag for the meeting should be.  #notsomuch.

5. Phantom geek speak. At SxSW I was constantly thinking, speaking, and overhearing in geek, which has led me to see and hear phantom geek speak everywhere I go. Flipping through a magazine on my flight back, I ran into an ad for SEO lip gloss.  I sat and stared at it for a little too long.  Could this really hold the key to getting to the top?  Nope, absolutely nothing to do with Search Engine Optimization.  I overheard a conversation on my lunch break about CSS and was wondering if they were as disappointed in the WC3 panel as I was.  But no siree, turns out were actually talking about the band with the same name.  I’m afraid this might be a long lasting symptom.

4. Device delusions. Did I remember to bring my iPad to work yesterday?  Yes.  Did I need it?  Not really.  Did I remember to bring my laptop to work yesterday?  No.  Did I need it?  YES!  Doh.  No concept of reality on this one as I almost even grabbed my SxSW badge on my way out the door.

3. WiFi High. I don’t know about you, but I’m still adjusting to the fact that there is not free WiFi and charging stations everywhere I go.  Leading to dead batteries and loss of connection.

2. Lone Star Dry Mouth. I didn’t have tacos, chips & salsa, BBQ, or beer all day yesterday.  Alright, so maybe I had a beer.   But only with dinner and not with lunch.  And definitely not between meetings.  And it wasn’t a Lone Star, nor was it free, nor was it surrounded by live music.  So needless to say, it left something to be desired.

1. Cat meme hallucinations. Between cats with mustaches, cat meme stickers, and conversations about famous internet cats carved out of giant blocks of cheddar, these pesky felines managed to have worked their way into my dreams.  I wish this was a joke, but it’s not.   I had a dream about cat memes last night.  Seriously disturbing.

meow

So in an experiment back home in being unplugged, I sat at a coffee shop sketching notes for this blog post on a napkin and the two guys sitting next to me were engaged in a in-depth conversation about donor database management.  That I can relate to.  Plus I work in an office full of geeks, live in a neighborhood full of hipsters, and it’s 70 degrees today here in the DC area. So maybe my reality isn’t that far off from my time in Austin.  In a good way.  One more day of SxSW and I might have turned into a robot.

I was like a little fangirl, really – tongue-tied and wide-eyed and barely able to form a coherent sentence (for those of you who watch Community, think of when LeVar Burton guest starred). There he was, right in front of me, signing my copy of his new book and talking to me about my name and how he was named after Guy Lombardo and being affable and personable and – dare I say it – enchanting. Talk about practicing what you preach.

But SXSW isn’t about starry-eyed adulation of your Internet idols. At least not entirely. It’s also about the next big idea; the next Twitter or Foursquare. It’s about having your finger on the pulse of the ONE BIG THING everyone in the hallways and panels are buzzing about.

For those of us here to discover what is on the cutting edge of marketing and engagement, it’s all about game theory. SCVNGR’s Seth Priebatsch discussed this on the macro level in his keynote on the coming “game layer,” even showing how game mechanics can help make impossible problems merely difficult. It’s all very fascinating (to me, at least) to think about the psychological effect that challenges and rewards and fun have on individuals in their decision to engage with an app or website (and by extension, the brand or organization that is using that app or website as a communication and engagement channel). And it’s not lost on the hundreds of app developers here in Austin trying to get their great ideas noticed, because it seems like everything has check-ins or badges or points or some other reward built into core functionality.

I enjoy games. Making engagement fun and taking advantage of peoples’ competitive nature seems to me to be a logical next step toward creating a product that is buzzworthy and has a good shot at more widespread adoption (my own favorite example: RunKeeper). But I’m curious to see if this model really has the ability to foster long-term relationships like the kind of ones that nonprofits need for fundraising or advocacy, or if it is merely a temporary amusing diversion.

We hope you’ll stop by to say hi, learn about us, and enjoy some yummy food!

I’ve solicited the advice of co-workers, friends, and blogs to prepare as best I could for what I expect will be the unexpected. I received a wide range of advice from “pace yourself, it’s a marathon not a sprint” to “rage on, you can sleep later.” I’m aiming for a nice middle ground. From what I’ve picked up, I’m thinking it’s going to be a lot like one of those choose your own adventure books I loved when I was a kid. You can plan all you want, but you can’t predict the twists and turns along the way.

However, in true PM fashion I’ve at least armed myself with the necessary tools for the journey: a very ambitious full five day-to-night schedule (created using 3 sites and Facebook) with alternate options for each session, an iPhone and (borrowed) iPad loaded up with apps + charger, a login for this very blog, a twitter handle (@kesah), the Beacon Lounge’s schedule of events, pen and paper and printouts of schedule and maps (just in case), RSVPs for a fistful of parties, comfortable shoes, a sturdy day bag, a reusable water bottle, sunglasses and an umbrella (fingers crossed I won’t need it), and hot off the press business cards with the new Beaconfire logo. Not bad for a freshman, right?

So Austin, I’m ready for you. The question is, are you ready for me? Here’s to hoping that with my planning helped laid the groundwork so that I can outwit, outplay, outlast and keep up at SxSW along with the best of them.

Stop by the Beacon Lounge and say hi to me and my Beaconfire crew and keep up with our journey through our blog and on our Beacon twitter account. See you soon y’all.

We take a lot of pride in helping our nonprofit customers be more successful in their endeavors through email marketing, event marketing, and social media marketing and are thrilled to be able to give back directly to one of them.

While we’re in Austin we’re also conducting quick video interviews (2-3 minutes) with SXSW attendees about the future of social media and email for small businesses and nonprofits that we’ll be putting up on our site. If you want to weigh in and will be at SXSW, direct message us on Twitter and we’ll set up a time to get together.

We hope you can join us for lunch and that everyone has a great SXSW!

Find us on Twitter at @constantcontact

This “Fishbowl” type booth has been designed to give you a comfy space, relative quiet and time to do just that. Come to the Beacon and sign up for a half hour slot Friday-tues, bring your flip cam, and make your own content!

Stop by and meet these great Forum One folks every afternoon in The Green room!

Chris Wolz, President and CEO
Jason Cranford Teague, Managing Director of User Experience
Courtney Clark, Content Strategy Lead
Jamie Prins, Senior Project Officer

Learn more about all the other cool stuff Forum One is planning in Austin for sxsw.

Don’t forget to sign up the Geeks for Good happy hour on Friday night! Tickets are going FAST!

For individuals who care about an important cause, FirstGiving aims to make raising money online easy, effective…and even fun! To that end, we’ve got some great FirstGiving t-shirts to give out to the first 50 people who set up a fundraising page with us, while we’re in the Beacon Lounge. Even if you miss out on the shirt, we’ll have a bulletin board where you can post your personal slogan for a rocking fundraising t-shirt.

FirstGiving is dedicated to one purpose: empowering passionate nonprofit supporters to raise more money than they ever thought possible for the causes they care about. We partner with nonprofit organizations to allow them to plan, execute, and measure successful online fundraising campaigns and charity fundraising events with our fundraising software.

Feel free to reach out to us on Twitter!
FirstGiving @firstgiving
Debra Askanase @askdebra
Andrew Urban @NPBuyer
…and of course in The Beacon Lounge.

We are encouraging direct donations to Marathon Kids, a local Austin nonprofit, during lunch. Donate directly to Marathon Kids.

See you there!

Inspired by that success, we have now taken this concept to the next level. Thanks to SalsaLabs, our amazing sponsor, we are thrilled to present a silent auction of the following items, the proceeds from which will benefit Sweet Relief, DonorsChoose & UNICEF.

(2) Newspaper Blackout Poem Posters, created and donated by Austin Kleon
(1) The System web comic poster created and donated by Ross Nover
(1) Sxsw 2012 Interactive badge, Donated by sxsw
(1) Keurig Elite K-cup Brewer with 4 boxes of K-cup coffee, donated by Green Mountain Coffee Corporate Social Responsibility
(1) Groupon package including $100 Groupon gift card, Canvas on Demand Groupon, Mixbook Groupon, Fancy Fortunte Cookies Groupon & other cool Groupon swag

In the Beacon, from Friday afternoon, March 11th through Tuesday morning, March 15th, you can bid on these items. The winners will be announced at 1pm on Tuesday in the lounge.

Not only can you get some really cool stuff, you’re going to be doing good at the same time. How can you beat that?

This year the talent is more incredible (national as well as local acts), and even more committed to helping Sweet Relief raise awareness and funds for musicians in need. Every afternoon, make The Beacon your spot to relax, grab a beer, support a great cause and listen to these fab folks-:

Schedule
Friday, March 11:
3-3:45 Jeffrey Nails
4:30-5:15 Avenue Elle

Saturday, March 12:
3-3:45 Jack Martin
4:30-5:15 John Wesley Coleman

Sunday, March 13:
3-3:45 Taber Maine
4:30-5:15 Judson & Mary

Monday, March 14:
3-3:45 Eliza Rickman
4:30-4:15 Tori Sparks

Tuesday, March 15:
12-12:45 Dynamite Walls
1:30-2:15 Elyse Haren
3-3:45 Rob Michaels