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This blog will be updated in “real time” so make sure you come back often to get caught up. Feel free also to mock me about my use of the term “real time”, as that is one of those expressions that is as disingenuous as “Reality TV”.

Sunday evening, about eighty Canucks, and a dozen Americans who crashed the bash, got IEG off to a rocking start with Canada Night. Besides the drinks and apps….the social got me thinking about something.

It amazes me how people who live and work in the same city, and the same industry, have to go all the way to Chicago to meet one another. If Person A had tried to reach out to Person B and randomly arrange a meet up, their odds of success might not be very high. But put drinks and snacks in the hands of the same two people in a low key Chicago sports bar, throw in some name tags and you’ve got an instant business opportunity sparking.

We work in a people business. A relationship driven industry. Whether we are sellers, buyers, advisers, or inventors…we can get a lot more done when we aren’t at our desks.

Are you headed to the IEG Sponsorship Conference in Chicago next week?

If you’ve never been before it can be a bit overwhelming. 2014 is the 31st year of the conference, and I’m old enough to have been to more than half of them. So let me throw some unsolicited advice and tips your way.

1. Stay in the conference hotel. It’s a real drag that IEG left its former base at the Chicago Hilton a few years ago, but regardless, being onsite at the Sheraton makes it so much easier to network, attend sessions, and squeeze work in…that it’s worth it.

2. Attend the keynotes above all. I usually measure my annual IEG trek on the keynotes alone. For me they make or break the event. 2013 was a “break” as in bad. 2012 was a make. Let’s hope for some even number year magic to return.

3. Attend a Sunday workshop. Pick one, any one. They tend to be more hands on, less crowded, and a great way to extract early value.

4. Make a new friend. If you’re going alone, be warned, this is a big conference yet it feels like everyone already knows everybody else. Pick a digital channel to connect with someone early and use them as your bar stool until you get to know others.

5. If you’re a client or brand marketer, change your name and adopt a corporate disguise. The hunting that goes on at IEG is over the top. I’ve had people think I was the other Trojan and start pitching me on sponsorships and some exciting Trojan activations before they even introduce themselves!

6. If you’re Canadian, or want to pretend you are, or just want to make some new marketing friends, come to Canada Night at Theory on Sunday. There will be plenty of conference goers who will be happy to provide even better guidance than my rambles! Send me a note and I will have you added to the list.

7. Attend a Wednesday session. Much like Sunday they are less crowded and there are a couple this year that look like they will send you home with that last home run idea to solidify your conference ROI!

Day 4 of SXSW found me primarily bedridden with bronchitis.

Made a valiant effort to attend a workshop on CX and Content, but was ill-equipped to listen to the presenter babble on more than the 2.5 hours I prevailed. Found a walk-in clinic who put a massive whole in my glut. They called it medicine. Limped fifteen blocks to a pharmacy. Sat through a keynote by the co-host of Myth Busters. Pretty sure he was funnier than my aching head realized. Everyone else was laughing. Picked a horrible spot for lunch and subjected my colleagues to tourist food. Put me over the edge and on my way back to bed.

Hidden meaning?

Not really one you could subscribe to.

In actuality I missed the Berlin party last night.

Plain and simple the Berlin party is what it sounds like. A party put on by the city of Berlin. Interestingly enough, Berlin and Munich had joined forces at South By to promote their cities’ as creative hubs. They created a German Haus where innovators, entrepreneurs, and marketers were encouraged to congregate and ideate. They ran full page wraps around the newspapers delivered to key Austin hotels. They threw the aforementioned parties.

So while I was sleeping, the true SXSW economic engine was motoring on. Living proof that big events are less about what happens between the lines of the formal agenda and more about what happens in the margins.

Day III of SXSW made me sick.

I wish it was because I over indulged at the Mashable party after successfully talking my way in through the VIP line and skipping a cue that went around the block halfway to San Antonio.

Instead I was headed home in a cab at 10:30, hacking up a lung.

Don’t know if I caught the Austin flu, but something knocked me out.

The good news is I had enough strength to attend a fun workshop called Idea Vomiting. Run by three kids, and I mean kids, from IBM and frog design…this brainstorming workshop illuminated powerful techniques in idea generation. The best of which is the introduction of absurdity. Our workshop task was to brainstorm ways to improve SXSW.

It was an easy task.

SXSW is super inspirational. Buzzing with energy. Racked with cool. Unfortunately it’s highly disorganized. That’s an understatement. It’s a cluster “puck” to say the least.

Lines are long. Sessions oversubscribed. Shuttle buses lost. The app is brutal. The guidebook is missing sessions. And the weather has been brutal. Yes I’m blaming the organizers for that!

The room had a lot of great ideas to help improve the event. Our team focussed on Volunteers and ended up story boarding an idea where volunteers wore different coloured shirts based on their expertise. But my favourite idea came from the group next to us.

Their idea was “Kiss My Badge”. Love the name.

Technically they wanted to load the delegate’s badges with RFID technology so we could instantly talk to our fellow attendees, get Real Time updates on session attendance and schedule changes, share feedback on sessions, and receive travel alerts related to your specific hotel.

That’s one sick idea!

Mark Cuban has some advice for you.

Don’t take the best paying job you can get. Take the best earning job. He also believes he is the luckiest man in the world, American universities are in for financial upheaval, it’s a waste of money to go to Harvard – unless it’s for your fourth year, he is successful due to his relentlessness, the SEC is inept, he’s the same guy he was when was poor, Microsoft needs to make small bets to inspire innovation, Apple is the only company that successfully innovates on big bets, Blackberry should sell to What’s App?, Nikon and Canon are irrelevant, he is living his bucket list every day, and business has more to teach sport than sport has to teach business. His most important life lesson? The only person who can determine how much effort you put into something is you.

Cuban was my last session of the day. His moderator is one of my personal heroes, Macintosh wizard Guy Kawasaki. He is a remarkable keynote in his own right, so interesting to see him moderate. Even more interesting to see him take swipes at Apple, the very company that made him a gazillionaire.

I also popped in on a session featuring Texas Tech HC Kliff Kingsbury. He of the my Head Coach is HOTTER than your Head Coach fame. Given the number of young digital marketing women in the room, thus campaign seems pretty valid to me. But I loved the fact KK would prefer the shirts and mugs to read “My Head Coach WINS MORE than your Head Coach”.

My day started with an amazing Digital Marketing Workshop. Anytime you can get to spend four hours in a classroom, the content has to be compelling. I didn’t want to miss a minute.The founder of Little Bird is the most interesting geek I have ever heard speak. When he mentioned that Cuban is an investor in his firm…..I wasn’t shocked.

The best news for my staff from me attending this session? I’m ready to not just listen to your crazy ideas….I’m now ready to help make them come to life!

Day 1 of my SWSX I (for me) was a sizzler.

Met the head of social media for Amazon, who kindly paid for our cab ride downtown.

Gary Vaynerchuk swore more in his keynote than I do at football practice. But his core message of “give value” to your fellow conference delegates before hitting on them for business smartly tackled the real curse of conferences.

I couldn’t get into my afternoon session, Power of Design Principles in a Connected World, and pouted over a pink Margarita at Manuel’s on 4th street.

Then headed to the SXSW newbies meet up and hung out with a Univeristy of Texas student named Jeff who will graduate this spring and head to Silicon Valley w PwC. This kid has already launched six startups in his life.

After that I went to a presentation by Octagon about reaching diverse consumer psyche groups through sports using multiple channels.

Minutes later I was at the Octagon party and three parties later it was a pricey Uber ride home to my hotel which is Oklahoma I think. (Actually it’s by the airport).

So what did I learn? My conference sucks! Okay not really. It’s not a fair comparison, because SXSW is part conference, part new business investment market, part job market, part party central, part motivational retreat, partly religious, and more than partly cultish.

In short, it’s an experience, amplified.