With over 30,000 geeks descending onto SXSW, somewhere between 10 and 20 parties on any given night to choose from, and an entire city filled with fantastic BBQ joints, bars and entertainment, it's sometimes hard to keep track of what your friends are up to. Even with FourSquare.

Since text messages are the most efficient form of communication, group texts are the easiest way to reach everyone in your group. And a tool called Group.me made this easier than ever for everyone at SXSW.

If there was one breakout tool for our group at this year's conference, it was Group.me. This tool lets you build multiple groups, and then send messages to everyone in the group. You can add, edit or delete anyone in any group at any time.

We created two groups while at the conference: one for our Humongo crew, so that we could stay in touch with our schedules and priorities for the day, and the other one for our "awesome friends at SXSW." We simply added friends that we wanted to hang with to this group, and then everyone was instantly in touch.

The end result to our "awesome friends at SXSW" group was a more connected, more fun and more networked conference. In the past, we'd troll from party to party catching one or two friends, associates and clients at any given event. With Group.me, everyone in the group knew exactly where everyone else was, and could comment, add information, or add members to the group at any given moment. When we met someone new that we really liked, we added them to the group, and they were instantly connected with a bunch of new friends.

We had the best party ever at SXSW simply by pulling together all of our Group.me contacts - and introduced a bunch of friends from around the world to each other.

Group.me is definitely a tool that we'll use outside of SXSW, and a fantastic way to rally together groups, big and small.

We had one of our most inspiring moments at SXSW over Tacos at Gueros. That's where we met Truman Matheny, film producer/director. He's ten years old, and a perfect picture of what's in store for the future of film, media and content production.

He's already produced his first short film, and had no problem talking it up to the Humongo crew. He's a bright creative who's not only producing, but also learning how to work his film, network with SXSW attendees, and get the word out. He even gets search. When his mom told us to "search YouTube for Stupid Hero Austin", he was quick to correct her "mom, you can even find it by just searching Stupid Hero." (He's right.)

Whoever said that kids today spend too much time on the internet never met Truman. Whoever said that the internet is creating a generation of people without social skills never met Truman. Truman is the perfect picture of the latest generation of kids who have known of the Internet since the day they were born, and have tools at their fingertips that are more robust than Hollywood producers a generation ago had. If Truman has already producing a film and shopping himself around at SXSW at the age of ten, can you imagine where he'll be when he's 25?

Hollywood: make way. Truman is coming.

The other day I wrote about our good and bad brand experiences here at SXSW and what I believe makes for a good experience. Well, I'm happy to say that yesterday we had another positive experience thanks to Chevrolet.  

Throughout the week we'd seen several Chevy Cruze cars with special SXSW messaging on them, but, truthfully, paid little attention to them. Then, when we were just about to give up on waiting for 20 minutes outside the Hyatt for a cab to SoCo so I could buy some hot, red cowboy boots, we see one pull up. The bellman then tells us that she can take us where ever we want to go in the area for free because Chevy's promoting their new car. SWEET a free ride! 

We hop on in and immediately start having a nice, non Chevy related, conversation with our friendly driver, Leslie from Dallas. We learned that Leslie can speak what she refers to as "only" three languages and she travels all around the world. After getting to know each other for a bit, Leslie tells us about what Chevy's doing and about the Cruze, but in a very conversational, non sales-y kind of way. She informed us that we could hop in any Cruze until 10:30PM for a free ride throughout the entire festival. And, there was also a QR code on the back of the seat if we chose to engage more with the brand, on our own terms. 

I'd love to say there's more to the story, but that's really it... and that's a good thing. Just a brand providing SXSW'ers with something they need at no cost or obligation.  Just a brand letting people experience their product for themselves. Just a brand not shoving product facts and features down your throat. Just a brand that knows providing people with a positive experience will leave them with a positive opinion of their brand. Just a brand that truly gets it. 

If the answer is no, then maybe it's time to hire a design firm to help you create awesomeness. Because sometimes awesomeness requires someone outside of the brand team.

The Luster Pearl bar exists in an abandoned home in Austin. They've taken a property that might have otherwise been condemned, and turned it into a gem of activity. And it didn't require a massive restoration or overhaul, either. They removed all of the doors to the home, left the cracked plaster and beat up floors, and added a little lighting. They added tables to the backyard.

The result is a space that feels like a house party in an otherwise abandoned home. The benefits go well beyond the beer drinkers on Saturday night:

- Lustre Pearl built a venue that's unique and filled with personality, on a budget that's likely a dime on the dollar compared to their competition.
- The neighborhood has been brought to life in a new way. Other homes have been renovated on the street, and the area is alive with activity.
- The renovation is likely a greener approach than would ever be possible with new construction or a more typical remodel. The Lustre Pearl venue should serve as an inspiration to any of us, that great things can be built from nothing.

What's lurking in your neighborhood, your office or your industry that could be brought to life in a new way?

If I had to give only one piece of advice to brands/companies looking to have a presence at SXSW, it would be keep it real. The value of keeping it real can't be underestimated. In just one full day in downtown Austin yesterday we ran into brand experiences from Chevrolet, Lincoln, Pepsi, Foursquare, Fast Company, and Sony to name a few. And we saw both end of the spectrums of positive and negative experiences.

On the positive side was Foursquare. No fancy or elaborate brand immersions, no sales-y brand advocates in your face, no forced interactions. Just a table, t-shirts, and an old school foursquare court where SXSW'ers could come play a game against founder, Dennis Crowley and team (in the above pict).  Yep, anyone that came up to the area could just hang with Dennis. No publicist blocking and tackling, no pedestal for him to stand up on looking down on you, just him in a t-shirt kicking a ball around. The epitome of keeping it real. This made us love Foursquare more than we already do. 

On the negative side was Lincoln, who partnered with SCVNGR, inviting SXSW'ers into their tent for a "fun" scavenger hunt for a free branded USB pen and a chance to win an iPad2. After an unnecessarily long registration process on ipads (hey, at least it wasn't pen and paper), we then were lead into the tent to face a barrage of brand advocates. Next, we had to download the SCVNGR app to our phones while they try to sell us on why Lincoln cars are cool and hip (and not old man cars, riiiiight). Then, they walk us through what we have to do: complete 10 scavenger hunt challenges in their tent. The first challenge was, surprise, give them our email addresses so they can SPAM us. YES! Then all of the other challenges required us to learn about Lincoln's brand attributes, positioning, specific car features and even take a test drive. All which required us to engage in a long conversation with more brand advocates. Needless to say, one question in and we bailed. There was no value there for us, no real experiences for us to enjoy, just an incredibly forced brand experience that left us with a negative opinion of the brand. 

So save all that cash you throw down on brand advocates, save the hours of brainstorm sessions on how you can force brand attributes down peoples throats and just be real. People will respect you for it, become fans, and then seek out more information on your brand afterwards, when they're genuinely interested... which is far more valuable! 

So, you sign up for SXSW in November and think, I have plenty of time to plan out the panels I want to go to, parties I want to hit up, people I want to meet, and how the heck I'm going to make business connections that result in some sort of revenue so my company will foot the bill for me again next year. Then the end of January comes, and you think, I'll just do it in February. Then March comes and all of a sudden you're freaking out because SXSW is next week and you've done nothing. 

So, now you're faced with two decisions: Frantically scroll through thousands of panel titles, attempting to make flash decisions on whether they're worthwhile based on the title (because clicking on it to actually READ it is just ridiculous at this point) to then ultimately put together a schedule of continuous panels with four backups for each time slot in case you miss your first three choices. OR, just fly out to Austin and wing it, 'cuz you're just crazy like that. 

Well, we sort of fell somewhere in between and I can confidently say that planning for SXSW is about as effective as trying to predict the weather.  You can try, and you get some of it right, but you'll never REALLY get it completely right. And that's ok. 

Just prior to leaving for SXSW we sat in a meeting to discuss our strategy, and ultimately, we decided the best strategy was to talk to as many people as possible. Period. Doesn't matter where or when: in a panel, in line for BBQ, in a bar, or in a lame brand tent. Doesn't matter about what: music, food, marketing, movies, branding, Austin, the weather. Whatever... just talk to people.  Everything else like the panels, who we meet, what we see, we decided to make a mini hit-list and see what happens.

So this morning we went through the trusty book of panels and speakers and added to that hit list. And while it felt good to have a plan, we ended up sticking to only half of it. And actually, the best parts of today so far have happened because of things we didn't plan. Random tweets, running into people in the convention center, text messages, and just walking the streets. 

So I say go to SXSW with an idea of what you want to get out of it, then throw the rest of your plans in the trash and get out there and be social... that is the point of interactive these days anyway, right? 

In the 12 hours that we've been at SXSW, I've seen Kristien's hair spark at least a dozen introductions and conversations (including a potential client).

Last night, Kristien's hair got us a table at one of the most crowded restaurants in Austin. We had just arrived, were starving, in Austin on a Friday night. Not a good situation for getting seated quickly, in a town filled with 30,000 internet geeks.

Someone from our party inquired about a table. "At least an hour wait. I'll put your name on the list." And then Kristien approaches...

Hostess: OMG, I love your hair!!!
Kristien: Thanks! We're so hoping to get a table for dinner
Hostess: Oh, honey...don't worry. There's an hour wait now, but I'll put you at the top of the list. Won't be more than a few minutes.

A few minutes later, we were enjoying margaritas and enchiladas at one of the most crowded places in Austin.

I've had employees tell me about life at other agencies, where they're expected to dress as if they work at a financial services firm. Not at Humongo. We understand the power of letting creative people be themselves, and express themselves, as it relates to employee morale and overall productivity. But we also know that clients enjoy their time with their agencies, and many even live vicariously through the creative people at the agency - because they can't enjoy this creative flexibility. Even financial services people.

So the next time you're thinking about dress codes, corporate conduct or overall personal dress image for your employees...don't forget that bright red hair can engage a client, spark a conversation, and even get you a table at the Iron Cactus on the busiest Friday night of the year. Drink up.