Finally this weekend, I had the time to re-read my notes from SXSW and what a ton of insightful stuff.

Charlene Li (who’s one of the most brilliant people I’ve ever had the privilege of hearing speak) said:

Organizational stuctures and social media maps do not look alike.  Silos are being blown apart.  We’ve now got to place the customer inside the organizational chart; ideally at the top and center.”

Brilliant.

And if you’d like to see Charlene’s entire presentation it’s here:

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Small is the new big.  But don’t take my word for it.  I’ve often said, “You don’t need to be the smartest guy in the room, you just need to know where to get the answers.”  So here are some people much smarter than me who’ve got my back:

Peter Bregman said it this week in his blog post for Harvard Business Review.  

The gap of confidence between small companies and big ones is growing. We used to rely on the security of big companies. That’s why we worked for them. And hired them. And put our money in them.

But with the virtual collapse of AIG, Lehman, Citibank, GM, Chrysler, and many more — now even GE is in trouble — all that’s changed. Now it’s a risk to do business with the big ones.

We simply don’t trust companies anymore. We trust people. And in big companies, it’s hard to even find a person to trust as we scream “operator” into our telephones only to get transferred to another menu whose options have changed.  

That gives small companies a huge advantage.”

Amen, brother.

A little too scientific coming from a bastion of brain cells like Harvard?  How about a man on the street view?  Specifically my home state of Virginia (shout out to my homies from out here in Seattle!).

This article from America.gov shows small companies thriving during a recession:

They didn’t overextend themselves. They provide good service. And they make sure they are in a market with customers who really need their goods or services.”

These stories all point to something that we entrepreneurs all know, that small businesses are resourceful, tenacious, and there IS no bailout for us.  We have to make it work–we  don’t have a choice.  We can’t just pack it in and go home.

How is this meaningful to you as a marketer?  I’ve shown, in this very blog how small specialist shops are more nimble and will lead the marketing industry in new business wins as marketers are forced to do more with less.

But again, don’t take my word for it, listen to someone smarter than me.  How about the owner of the best ad agency in the business?  This week Alex Bogusky echoed exactly what’s being said by many others: that tiny can out maneuver huge.  At long last, the small agency is becoming a forced to be reckoned with.  

The smaller agencies that make up part of that 75% and will be doing the marketing to help lead us out of recession deserve a tip of the hat. The reality is they can do things for their clients the big monster shops can’t. With fewer people and less overhead, they offer the nimble and fast approach to problems a lot of nascent brands need.”

 Small will win big!   Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

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I just love the visual representation of  of what Wordle does with text.

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WOW.  WOW.  WOW.  My head is spinning.

So it’s the end of the week and I had such good intentions of blogging through the whole interactive craziness.  Up early, out late.  Meeting Rockstars.  Catching up with people I’d tweeted, facebooked, linkedin, emailed and phoned but not met; great getting to know them!  All in all, South By Southwest was incredible.

Need time to digest, but certainly lots to blog about.  Lots of great info, thoughts, opinions, projections and trends that will drive innovation at Hitch for our clients and partners.

Came all the way from Bellingham to meet people from, well, Bellingham.  And Seattle, Virginia, the U.K. and a host of hospitable Texans, Californians, New Yorkers, and possibly every other state in the union–although I haven’t even counted the business card collection just yet.

Met people from Apple, Microsoft, MTV, and dozens of other cutting edge companies and agencies, new partners, new friends, new clients and prospects.  It’ll be amazing to see the relationships that form from these 4 days.

Alas, no photos.  Took lots and even some video but today right toward the end my cell was stolen (ok, lost while it was right in front of me to be more accurate) and never returned.  At least not yet.  But I was listening to Guy Kawasaki interview Chris Anderson.  It was hard to be upset.

Happy St. Pats to ye all!

I’ve blocked out my calendar for March, 2010 in Austin….[more to come]

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This week, I’ll be one of a mere 10,000+ people descending on Austin, TX for the SXSW Interactive Festival; or what I heard refered to as “Spring Break for Geeks.”

5 days of cutting edge interactive and social media madness; and I sense it’ll be a game changer for Hitch as well as our partners, clients, and prospects.  A chance to talk to and learn from some of the brightest minds in the industry.  People driving change in our industry every day.

I’ve got meetings and meet ups scheduled between sessions or over beers and at least 10 different talks and panels every day.  

You can follow my twitter feeds from this blog (top, right margin.)  I’ll probably add a Flickr feed here as well during the week.

Looking forward to meeting everyone I’ve been chatting with recently:  Tim, Ian, Matt, CC, Neenz, Peter S, Chris B and a host of others known and unknown!  Can’t wait to share SXSWi with everyone who regularly checks out Hitch but can’t be in Austin.

Next year–be there!

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