Here’s my video interview with Jonathan Fields, author of the book “Career Renegade.” His blog is about entrepreneurship and personal development.

Stay tuned for more video interviews from SXSW.

What is your favorite web app so far this year?

For the GigaOM network’s complete SXSW coverage, check out this round-up.

Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub. req.): Enabling the Web Work Revolution

Here’s my video interview with Shama Hyder Kabani of The Marketing Zen Group and the author of the upcoming book ‘The Zen of Social Media Marketing.”

Based in Dallas, Shama is a real up-and-comer in the technology space, hosting her own Web-based televisions show — Shama.tv — on new media marketing.

Stay tuned for more video interviews from SXSW.

What is your favorite app so far this year?

For the GigaOM network’s complete SXSW coverage, check out this round-up.

Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub. req.): Enabling the Web Work Revolution

First, let me say that the experience I’m about to describe will not stop me from using the apps I mention. However, I found some weak spots that put me in a jam, and thought I’d share to help you avoid the same situation.

Where TimeDriver Falls Short

I’ve been singing the praises of TimeDriver, the personal appointment scheduler, because I love the way it lets me break my calendar into smaller chunks — or “Books” — and share them with groups of people who I want to see specific open time blocks on my schedule. I have a Book for my phone demos for WebWorkerDaily, one for my women in business podcast, another for my Second Life podcast, and then I set up one specifically for in-person interviews at SXSW.

What I learned the day I arrived here is that TimeDriver doesn’t translate to a third time zone, meaning that I saw the calendar as Alaska Time (where I live and work), every interviewee saw the scheduler in their time zone, and then we both arrived in Austin, which is in Central Time, we both got the meeting times wrong. The way I found out about this snafu? Missing a long overdue meeting with C.C. Chapman, a colleague and friend. Because of the time zone issue, our meeting actually coincided with my flight into Austin. There was very little I could do to rectify the situation from the air.

When I finally did get TimeDriver tech support on the phone (note: they are excellent and patient), the only solution they could offer was a workaround. Basically I should have switched my computer to Central Time before setting up the schedule Book, then reverted back to my time zone. Then the Book would be in the wrong time slots for Alaska and for the interviewee, but the correct ones for Texas. But then I would have to inform the interviewees (of which there are over a dozen) that they have to note the timezone discrepancy and make adjustments accordingly. Yikes.

Until TimeDriver adds the capability of an alternate “common” time zone for when meeting parties are traveling to meet in a time zone other than their own, you’re going to get very messed up using its scheduling Books.

The Quick Workaround With Meetwith.me

In a panic, I spent my night going through TimeBridge’s new scheduling solution Meetwith.me (which I recently reviewed) to see if it could be an alternative solution to my appointment dilemma. Unlike TimeDriver’s Books, TimeBridge doesn’t let you designate different time chunks from your calendar for different audiences. However, I figured out that I could sign up again to claim a second Meetwith.me page using a different email address, and then narrow my time availability to just certain blocks of time during my stay at SXSW.

I was able to then send out invites, get responses back and manage the first wave of responses to nail down times. But later, I realized that after the first wave of responses, more had arrived and since I was using a secondary email address, I didn’t see them and missed a number of interview opportunities. Luckily, some persistent PR folks tracked down my primary email and were able to make contact with me through other channels.

In the course of stressing over my scheduling apps dilemma, I ran into Mark Gingras, the CEO of Tungle, another scheduling app. I told him what I was going through and then scolded him. Why? Because when I tried signing up for Tungle.me to see if it might be a good interim solution, I could not access my newly-opened account. We discussed the third time zone issue, and Gingras admitted that Tungle.me did not have a specific solution for it, but he said it was a much-requested feature and hinted at integrating in the future.

It just goes to show that SXSW can test applications to near-breaking, but also provide unprecedented access to heads of application firms who can troubleshoot for you in-person and on the fly!

How do you manage scheduling in multiple time zones with two or more people and with calendar integration?

For the GigaOM network’s complete SXSW coverage, check out this round-up.

Here’s my short video interview with Scott Stratten of Un-marketing.com.

Statten’s an expert in viral and social marketing, which he calls “Un-Marketing.” He has a lot of followers on Twitter (45,000 plus), and also does a mean karaoke performance (photo here to prove it).

Stay tuned for more video interviews from SXSW.

What is your favorite web app so far this year?

For the GigaOM network’s complete SXSW coverage, check out this round-up.

A great conference leaves you feeling empowered, inspired and ready to take on whatever comes your way. And then you arrive home feeling overwhelmed as you unpack, do laundry, open snail mail and handle all the mundane stuff that needs doing. Not only that, but also you have so much information that you hardly know where to begin to put it to use.

Profit from a Conference in Five Easy Steps

Recovered? Rested? Don’t proceed until you are. For a day or two, focus on recovering and getting through the mundane stuff. You have notes, business cards, programs and handouts to help you remember what you need to know. Then start making your conference pay off with these five steps.

1. Review your content. This includes notes, business cards, handouts, people to follow up with and anything else that came back with you. Don’t use this time to read it all. Instead, sort the content into three piles:
   • Now: The information most important to you, and items with deadlines.
   • Next: The things to look after you finish working through the “Now” pile.
   • Never: Useless stuff you received and items with the least value. Be ruthless: Toss them in the trash. Let them go, otherwise you risk doing nothing with any of the things you brought home. Tip: Next time you go to a conference, do a review to toss the bad stuff before you leave, as it will leave less to pack and less to contend with when you get home.
2. Act on the quick “Now” items. Read the notes, enter business cards into your address book, drop a quick note to contacts, link up with contacts in social networks and make a list of action items that will take more time.
3. Schedule “Now” items that take more time. If you want to, say, write an article based in information received or study notes in depth, put them on your tasks list with due dates to ensure they get done.
4. Check for information posted online. You may skip this if you have all you need. Sometimes you find a gap in the information you have or wish you had notes from a session you couldn’t attend. Find out if the sessions were recorded or the speaker’s slides have been posted online, and see if the conference had a Twitter hashtag or web site where everyone shared notes.
5. Complete your tasks. Make sure to follow up on the items scheduled in step 3.

Go Deeper With Your Conference Knowledge

Everyone absorbs and uses information differently. Here are things you can do to make the most of your conference content. Just watch out that you don’t get overwhelmed;  it’s easy to fall into the trap of wanting to contact too many people, select too much to study or write too many articles.

• Follow up with people. Did you make any promises to contacts you made at the event? Do those first before pursuing the rest of your “Now” items. Only move onto the “Next” group after you have comfortably followed up and stayed in touch with the higher-priority contacts.
• Study the materials. Since you sorted out the more important content, study it. How you study depends on your learning style. Looking over it one time isn’t enough for most people to remember and apply the concept. As you learn the material, you’ll find opportunities to put it to work. After you feel you got what you needed from the material,  move on to the “Next” pile.
• Write blog posts or articles. For some, one of the best ways to learn the material and let it sink in is by writing an article or blog. Make a list of article ideas and then prioritize them. Write articles on the most important topics. Put away remaining ideas for safekeeping.

Next time you prepare for another conference or trade show, check out Judi’s “A Conference Survival Guide for the Web Worker.”

How do you make the most of a conference after returning home?

Photo by stock.xchng user Vicky 5.

Riffing off Dawn’s SXSW tips, here are mine:

1. Go lobby. While there are some incredible sessions, there are also duds like any conference. The real learning and connecting doesn’t happen in the sessions. It happens in lobbies, in hallways, in nearby cafes. Yes, you paid to attend, however, you will get far more out of the non-session moments than the formal panels.
2. Bring chargers. Dawn points out the dearth of power sources but so far I haven’t found power to be a problem. Just sit down in any hallway, and you’ll find outlets. But next year, think about bringing solar chargers, alkaline battery chargers, and any other options to make your charging more efficient.
3. Manage your contact options. I’m using Twitter, Foursquare, and texting as my main methods of contacting and connecting, with email as a last ditch effort. One communications device or application will not be enough.
4. Talk to strangers. No matter how shy you think you are, the person next to you may be even more shy. So be the one to break the ice, and just say hello. Start up conversations with the person in line behind you, with the person walking down the hall near you. Smile and make a comment about the long, long walks between sessions or the beautiful sunshine outside that everyone is missing. I met a guy from Belgium as I walked back to my hotel yesterday and got some wonderful insight into how others perceive our country and our conferences.
5. Move to the center. Of the row, that is. Stop sitting on the end. If you are going to bother going to a session, don’t prepare to exit the room by sitting at the outside seats. Move in and let the rest of us have a chair. The only reason to sit on the end is if you have a bladder problem.
6. Take photos. And upload them. There is something brilliant and beautiful about the photostreams on Flickr and Whrrl and the like emanating from SXSW. Tag the people you know. Share your experiences in pictures. Photos are great for those who are not here and for those of us who are here but missed that person, that scene, that moment. And of course, do an image vanity search when the week is over to make sure nobody caught that clothing failure when you were dancing and singing backup at TechKaraoke.
7. Invite others. If you are going to lunch, invite others to join you, even if you don’t really know them. Invite them to invite others so you meet new people. Don’t go solo if you don’t have to, but if you go solo (and aren’t doing it to have some alone time), ask to join a group. Be generous and inclusive.
8. Be the connector. I’m spending 99 percent of my time making sure that each person I’m with at the time meets all the other folks I know who come up to me to say hello. Why? Because there are connections to be made, and if you have a lot of contacts, be generous. And if I fail to introduce you to someone when you’re with me, introduce yourself because I probably have blanked on someone else’s name. Or yours.
9. Wear comfy shoes. I was in my Merrills yesterday. I’m in sneakers today. To hell with fashion. You will walk for miles — literally — in the week, much of it indoors but a lot outdoors as well. Erica wore non-comfy shoes. Her feet hurt. Get your sneakers, Erica.
10. Drink water. And plenty of it. I spike my water with Emergen-C, Airborne and 12 Salts, a natural remedy to boost wellbeing without the yucky crash of energy drinks. Don’t drink energy drinks. They dehydrate you. And if you end up having to go the the restroom a lot because you’re drinking a lot of water, use it as a moment to have some much-needed silence. Thank goodness for bathroom stalls far from the maddening crowds.

What are your off-the-wall tips for surviving and thriving at SXSW?

For the GigaOM network’s complete SXSW coverage, check out this round-up.

1. Parties. SXSW is all about the parties. Seriously. OK, maybe it’s more about the people and the conversations that you have at the parties. More on the parties in later tips.
2. Pronunciation. SXSW is correctly referred to as “South by Southwest” or”‘South by” for short. Never refer to SXSW as S-X-S-W.
3. Pace yourself. It isn’t unusual for various activities to continue well into the night. Nothing starts before about 9:30 a.m., so sleep in, plan for an afternoon nap if you need one, and pace yourself by not drinking too much or too early.
4. Skip the big parties. The big, official parties are usually too crowded to be able to move or have conversations with people, so skip those and head out to some of the smaller parties or informal gatherings. You can usually find these by asking about them on Twitter or keeping track of your friends on your favorite location-based social networking service.
5. Prepare to walk. Just assume that you will need to walk further than you expect. The convention center is huge, with sessions spread out all over it; you’ll probably want to walk somewhere for lunch, and many of the hotels and parties are a short hike away. Wear comfortable shoes and think carefully about how much gear you want to lug around all day. Consolidate everything into one bag, since it can be too easy to lose track of things in the crowd.
6. Arrive early. SXSW is a huge show, and it suffers from long lines and overcrowding. The line to get your badge on Friday is likely to be very long, so plan for something to do while you wait. You should also arrive early to keynotes and popular sessions, since they often fill up quickly and start turning people away or moving people into overflow viewing areas.
7. Power is scarce. Arrive with a full charge and don’t count on being able to easily find power. The back of many of the rooms and the hallways often have power, but you’ll find a huge crowd around most of the outlets. Consider bringing a backup battery if you have one or a power strip to share power.
8. Attend sessions. SXSW has some amazing speakers, so plan to attend the sessions. It doesn’t hurt to do some advance planning to work out which ones you want to attend, but you should also talk to people and be prepared to switch sessions based on feedback from others. If you get into a session that isn’t as great as you expected, take a quick look at Twitter to see what sessions people are talking about and move on. The number of sessions is overwhelming, so attend what you can, but keep in mind that in past years, the sessions have been released as podcasts after the event. I attend what I can in person and then catch up on a some others after the event by listening to the podcasts.
9. Crazy weather. The weather in Austin is unpredictable. I’ve seen it alternate between pouring rain and blinding sunshine or freezing cold and really warm, so dress in layers and bring a rain jacket or umbrella. Like most convention centers, the indoor temperature can also vary widely, so dressing in layers can also help while you are inside attending sessions, too.
10. Guacamole. The Iron Cactus makes fresh guacamole right at your table, and they have decent margaritas. Enough said.

These are my top SXSW tips. What are your favorite SXSW tips and tricks?

For the GigaOM network’s complete SXSW coverage, check out this round-up.

In his new book, “The Backchannel: How Audiences Are Using Twitter and Social Media and Changing Presentations Forever,” Cliff Atkinson provides an example of the effect that a Twitter-enabled backchannel (an online conversation between audience members) can have on a presentation. At last year’s South by Southwest Interactive festival in Austin, Tex., Pam Slim led a panel discussion titled, “From Blog to Book Deal.” The panel consisted of Hugh MacLeod, Guy Kawasaki, Stephanie Klein and Kate Lee. Kawasaki turned to the topic of getting book deals without having to write a proposal. Lee started to respond that not everyone has that opportunity when Kawasaki interrupted. Moderator Pam Slim studied the tone and body language of the panelists and determined that Kawasaki didn’t overstep his bounds.

But audience member Whitney Hess saw it differently. “She felt that Guy was being chummy with the other male panelist, and now he was aggressively taking over a female panelist who was not challenging him on it,” writes Atkinson. Hess tweeted that Kawasaki started taking over the panel when he told Lee to let him finish talking. Demonstrating the power of the backchannel, Kawasaki was monitoring Twitter from his laptop and saw Hess’ comment. “I want to know who Whitney Hess is, because she just said I’m being a total dick. What is this?” he asked.

Atkinson defines the backchannel as follows:

A backchannel is a line of communication created by people in an audience to connect with others inside or outside of the room, with or without the knowledge of the speaker at the front of the room. Usually facilitated by Internet technologies, it is spontaneous, self-directed, and limited in time to the duration of a live event.

The backchannel can either be a good or bad thing, depending on how the presenter and the audience use it. Presenters can use the backchannel to extend a presentation and engage the audience inside and outside of the room. The backchannel can also destroy a presentation when the audience posts negative feedback online for the world to see, or changes the mood in the room entirely.

Atkinson’s book covers in details the risks and rewards of the backchannel, explaining the different types of backchannel that can affect a presentation. These help the presenter understand what they are getting into when they join or discover a backchannel. He demonstrates how to prepare for a backchannel, and how to integrate Twitter-friendly ideas into a presentation, such as creating a hybrid of presentation and conversation, taking “Twitter breaks” and involving the audience through Twitter and the Internet.

He also shares a variety of real-world examples and how the speakers handled them. Atkinson tells Chris Brogan’s story of having to deal with an unruly backchannel from the presentation prior to his. Brogan changed his introduction to post the backchannel on the screen. He opened with a few lines of rap and managed to loosen up the audience with laughter.

“The Backchannel” targets presenters more than audience members, although audience members can also benefit from the book’s insights. The next time you make a presentation or join a panel, you can either be prepared for the backchannel or let it take over. If you want to be prepared, “The Backchannel” gives you the guidance you need.

What is your experience with the backchannel?

It’s been said that the apps that break out at Austin’s South by Southwest festival are those that help festival-goers navigate and orient themselves within the sprawl of parties, panel sessions and gigs.

The 2007 edition of SXSW was Twitter’s big moment, the tipping point for the now iconic service. The following year, many thought that SCHED*, a web-based event calendar and agenda builder, would be the breakout service of 2008 — the “new Twitter.”

Though such expectations were inflated by the media, SCHED* provided useful personalized schedules that have endured through two editions of the festival. The latest edition of the app now includes mobile support, iPhone compatibility, and the ability to integrate with iCal and Google Calendar.

As the organizer of a “proto-SXSW” here in the U.K. — LSx 2009, the second Leeds Web Festival — I figured this was a great opportunity to put SCHED* through its paces with the somewhat smaller schedule of events for LSx. Also, it’d be a useful trial run for a fuller deployment in 2010, when LSx will likely merge with the Live At Leeds music festival.

Here’s how things work:

1. Upon making an inquiry via the SCHED* web site, I was put in touch with the company’s business development people to collate our requirements and also to discuss which plans and pricing would be most appropriate for LSx. At this stage, SCHED* simply needs to understand the demographics, audience size and dates. The company offers Basic, Premium and Premium Plus plans, ranging from $399 to $850, depending on features rather than usage. The company was generous enough to let us experiment with the app using a nonprofit discounted plan.
2. Once the invoice is settled, you need to provide a logo, official conference/festival name, URL of the official site, your chosen SCHED* subdomain (http://lsx.sched.org), event location and the beginning and end dates.
3. Once your new site is live, it’s administered and updated in batches using a SCHED*-supplied offline Excel spreadsheet or online Google Spreadsheet. It initially seems an odd choice to utilize a spreadsheet interface to administer your SCHED* site, but the complexity of venues, events and categories would likely not work well at all in a web-based HTML form.

It’s unfair to compare SCHED* to Twitter as a SxSW breakout service — Twitter is a consumer app, whereas SCHED is really intended for festival and conference organizers. However, I found SCHED* to be competitively priced — compared with Crowdvine and Expectnation — and  it certainly adds value to the audience of a conference or festival. What’s perhaps even more valuable for organizers is the level of direct support and account handling that the company provides, something that’s lacking in most of the self-service web services around today. Well done for great service, SCHED*.

If you are involved in organizing meetups, BarCamps, work events and other gatherings, SCHED*’s a powerful tool for organizers and attendees alike.

What tool do you use for scheduling your events?

Laura reveals why screencasting app Jing (previously covered here on WWD) is her favorite. Strictly speaking, Jing is not a web app, but it’s a great choice if you’re looking for easy-to-use, inexpensive screencasting software.

What’s Your Favorite Web App, Laura Roeder? from WebWorkerDaily on Vimeo.

We have a few more video interviews from SXSW about web apps coming up. Find out when by following us  @webworkerdaily on Twitter.

Web designers have long been using CSS to customize font size, style, family, backgrounds and layouts across a site. CSS3 brings a much more powerful feature set to those designers, including:

Text shadows, borders, shaped borders, boxes with shadows. No longer will you have to fancy up fonts as graphics files and embed them. Also, because of the detailed specifications for shaping a border, gone are the days of struggling with rounded corners. You can set the radius for each corner and voila!

Web fonts. Yes, you can now specify the font you want to use in CSS3, and the browser will auto-download it if it’s not already installed. No longer are you at the mercy of the fonts your users have installed.

CSS3 also offers transitions for dynamic effects such as changing the size, color or positioning of text by hovering your cursor over it. Move over Flash and JavaScript effects: CSS3 has got these animation-like features covered.

The current version of Opera already supports parts of CSS3, while support in Opera 10 will be even greater. Opera 10 beta should be available in the next few months.

Lie also showed me an e-book designed entirely using CSS3. The CSS took care if all of the intricate printing layout details, like pagination, that would normally be handled by something like Adobe InDesign. Fascinating.

Opera, Mozilla and Safari will all fully support CSS3 in the future; indeed, they have all had partial support for the standard for a while now. The lone party pooper is IE, of course. Lie is hoping web developers will rally together to ignore IE in their development strategies and, “free yourself from the IE prison.” A noble cause, but probably not realistic just yet. Personally, I haven’t used IE for eons (especially as a Mac user). However, many of my clients  are still adamant that IE is their visitors’ most popular browser.

Check out this live video demo of CSS3 by Lie at SXSW:

Håkon Wium Lie from Opera Software Demos CSS3 from WebWorkerDaily on Vimeo.

What are your thoughts on CSS3? And how likely do you think it is that we’ll be able to banish IE from our web design work in the future?

Lie is a fan of Google Docs (yes, another one!), and here’s how he uses it. What is Your Favorite Web App, Håkon Wium Lie? from WebWorkerDaily on Vimeo.

We have a few more video interviews from SXSW about web apps coming up. Find out when by following us  @webworkerdaily on Twitter.

Here he talks about why he uses Paint.net and Plurk.

What’s Your Favorite Web App, Wagner James Au? from WebWorkerDaily on Vimeo.

For updates from WebWorkerDaily, follow us @webworkerdaily on Twitter.

Got Flickr? Amber does and here’s how she uses it.

What’s Your Favorite Web App, Amber? from WebWorkerDaily on Vimeo

Follow @webworkerdaily on Twitter for soundbites, SXSW follow-ups and more.

Stephens explains why she likes Twickie.

What’s Your Favorite Web App, Nichelle Stephens? from WebWorkerDaily on Vimeo

Tune in for links to upcoming video soundbites from SXSW by following us at @webworkerdaily on Twitter.

His favorite web app? BatchBook by BatchBlue. Haven’t heard of it yet? Take a listen. You need to know about it.

What’s Your Favorite Web App, Chris Brogan? from WebWorkerDaily on Vimeo.

Follow @webworkerdaily on Twitter for more videos and posts from SXSW and beyond.