Fast as a New York Week...

Just a couple weeks ago a group of students representing the UO Ad program packed their bags to terrorize New York, the city. On last year's trip I was extremely busy working on a client pitch for the student competition and a detailed presentation to BBH. This year, I decided to get the dirty work out of the way first (one presentation to BBH about SXSWi takeaways) and otherwise hit the city and see what it would come back at me with. Upcoming UO Ad generations [take heed], magnanimous readers and my one follower [ I salute you], here's my take on one New York week:

a—Top three pieces of advice
You’ll be defined by your last greatest feat, make sure it’s something you’re proud of.

Play in analog. It will make you stand out.

When you move to NYC, it never stops. It’s like the responsible Vegas.

b—Top three experiences
Jazz, baby. This time around, I made sure to save some time for the things I am passionate about, like live jazz. There’s a fine line between shirking your responsibilities and striking out on your own: toe it. Don’t be afraid to abandon the safety of the group for something that’s really important to you.

Making friends outside of my immediate group. I know it sounds cheesy, but really! It feels good to know that you’ve got different people you get along with and you’re not stuck anywhere. The trip is a great chance to make connections with other students as well as professionals.

Gleaning a few twitter nods from established professionals by tweeting about connections I saw during the UnConference. You just have to think, and put it out there. If you’re on to something, people will notice.

c—What do you know about agencies now that you didn't know before
Agency leadership goes to a lot of conferences, adult learning summer camps.

A lot of places want to know if they are a good fit for you. The more personal the recruiting process gets, the more agencies start to care about you as a person. One of the first things recruiters or job leads would always ask me was, “where do you want to work?” I couldn’t tell them “anywhere” because that would sound lazy, and since they were taking the time to get to know me, I should make it worth their while. So give it some thought before you’re ready to approach people.

Sometimes it's a bother for students to show up at their office with presentations that are irrelevant to their immediate jobs. This is something you could guess, and I’m not saying it’s everybody, and big-thinkers are always open to new ideas, but I heard it while walking through a revolving door into the building.

d—A couple of beautiful moments
Riding on Gabe’s shoulders.

Reconnecting with a Swede who beat me out last year. Great guy, Rassmus. He insisted I email him this time.

Presenting at BBH. Admittedly, we didn’t bring it like last year but sharing your original perspective and getting feedback is what being a student is all about. I wouldn’t have felt comfortable going off and pursuing jazz shows until I knew that I had contributed to the task at hand.

It All Makes Sense Now: A Week at SXSWi

It's one day after SXSWi. I've stopped thinking of everything in # tags. I've had time to take a breather and enjoy the sunshine in my own state. After a good night's sleep, I woke up refreshed and inspired.

Suddenly, the magnitude of the festival sunk into my brain. Like any other festival, you go for the whole experience. That's why you spend a week eating, drinking, excreting digital instead of listening to podcasts. The real value of SXSW is total immersion. It's like a meditation retreat, except the opposite. Instead of surrounding yourself with nothing, you're surrounded by everything. And although I had I considered myself an informed student, I came back speaking a new language. I have a new take on communication and social trends.

• Yes, you need to make a mobile app; put a concept and strategy in your portfolio.
• Yes, brands need to expand in relevant ways; not just expand.
• Yes, social mobile is here to stay; and it's having a baby with the "real" world. Get used to it.

The experience reinforced some things I already knew: people are still people, with idiosyncrasies, even if they're an engineer for Google mobile. "Audiences" are participants and it's time to start treating them like friends, not targets. But I also learned some new themes: Screen size really does dictate expected depth of interaction. The digital disparity between have's and have not's is wide—there is a lot of opportunity in less recognized niches. "Open" is a door, while "transparent" is a window.

Now, after the festival, I can think in both channels of media development and themes of humanity. It was like learning Mandarin in school, but never really understanding how to use it until you live in Beijing. At SXSW, doing everything media connected [Twitter, Facebook, FourSquare, Gowalla, Apps, QR codes] was the norm and, frankly, overwhelming. But now that I'm back in the leisurely pace of normal life, I can refine my value of all the new media options. I can translate between Mandarin and English, I can see the beauty in the venn diagram space between high-tech and daily motion.

While waiting for a nice cold coffee at Vero in Eugene, I downloaded Gowalla [it did beat FourSquare, after all] on my iPod. And a rush of understanding swept over me. SXSW changed me in the biggest way possible— ideologically. I came back a believer in the power of digital, especially mobile; equipped and ready to enter the rapidly evolving scene of digital communication.

(From our University of Oregon SXSW blog. Check it out for more reads from Evan Schultz, Isaac Viel, Nicole Schultz, Marq Blaine and myself.)