Lots to report, I’m gonna do it Marcoullier-style and keep it as concise as possible:

SXSW

• Net2NO <3 SXSW road trip rocked.  See pics and wrapup. Thanks to all sponsors. Video coming soon.
• Our Outsourcing 2.0 Panel went great.  Not as many fireworks as we expected, but good discussion.  Thanks to Sandeep, Andrea and Matt for all their hard work and to a great audience (200+) for turning out.  Read more on Twitter.
• Loved getting the VC dialogue going with Taylor Davidson.  He ran a great panel that I missed and is a thought leader on where funding is going. I’m paying attention.
• Had a blast getting the post-panel jitters out with Mike Bonifer. It was a game changer for my afternoon.
• Learned a ton about co-working and building earning whuffie. Connected w/ co-working space catalysts in Tony in NY, Chris in Phoenix, & Matt in Houston.
• Loved connecting with the LA & SF tech scenes at the LA BBQ and their panel.  Thanks to Gerard, Sloane (welcome to NOLA), Andrew & Paige.
• The NOLA party @ Lucky Lounge was hot. DJ Othertempo and Austin Knights Brass band killed and Larimer ran a tight show.

IDEACorps

• Idea Village just hosted six teams of MBA students working with local entrepreneurs on spring break.
• I was honored to be invited as a panelist and sat alongside some very invigorating folks.
• Had a great conversation with Robbie Vitrano about the need for a mentorship-driven seed capital fund. More to come.
• Congrats to Feelgoodz, Project 30-90, and Naked Pizza on all they accomplished.

Upcoming – WordCamp NOLA

• John Ramirez has been working night & day to put this conference together. He’s had quite a vision and is pulling it off.
• 11 days left and only 34 seats left to go. Get tickets now!
• We’ve lined up some great presenters and panelists, check out the lineup.
• Ben Huh from FAILblog and LOLcats will be here.  Nuf said.

More Upcoming

• Tritico is getting the steam behind an upcoming BarCamp.  Let’s make this happen.
• We’re going to do a pre- French Quarter Fest bloody mary geek breakfast with Eric Marcoullier when he is in town April 18th.  Stay tuned.
• Tiffany Starnes is getting Social Media Club New Orleans off the ground.  Interested? Hit her up.
• Shameless Plug – Launch Pad will be opening in May.  Sign up now for 50% off first month.

That’s it from Voodoo HQ. Lots brewing. Come back for a fresh cup soon.

Woohoo!  I got some great news on Wednesday that the panel I submitted called Outsourcing 2.0 – Is the World Flat or Not? was approved and will be a session at SXSW Interactive 2009 in Austin.

I’m so excited about this. It will be my first time speaking at SXSW. I’ve been as an attendee the last three years and it is a great conference.  I always learn a ton and have a lot of fun.

Ben Reece, Brian Oberkirch and I had lunch together yesterday and talked about the positive reinforcement and encouragement that our social networks provide us.  Lifting up the community is something we all try to do, and we all have benefited from greatly.  I felt this yesterday firsthand when I tweeted out my excitement and within an hour was flooded by warm emails, plenty of congratulatory tweets and a great blog post.  It is powerful and was personally very touching to have a community that supports each other this way, as Brian said at lunch, “a rising tide lifts all boats” and that is exactly what we are doing with the NOLA tech scene.

So, thank you to all who voted for the panel, the feedback I received from SXSW really considered this highly.  I strongly encourage anyone who is interested to make the trip to SXSW Interactive March 13-18, 2009.  It is a great conference.

I love attending the SXSW Interactive conference every year.  It’s my favorite conference of the year, a chance to learn, catch up with old friends, meet new ones, and of course have a great time.

Last year I pledged to myself that I would try to get further involved and organize a panel for this 2009.  So I put together a panel submission covering a topic that I have a little expertise on and I think people are interested in hearing about.

Let me start by saying, my goal for this post is that you will click on over to the SXSW Panel Picker and vote for our panel and even leave a comment about how much you want to see it. OK, so now that that is out there, let me tell you why you should do that.

Our panel is called: Outsourcing 2.0: Is the World Flat or Not?

The topic of the panel stems from a discussion I had last year with Sandeep Sood of Monsoon Company, a fellow oursourcing firm, about the challenges of outsourcing web development work, whether the pain of working with a team thousands of miles away is worth it, and how to develop personal relationships that bridge cultural and geographical borders.

I am fortunate to have rounded up some great co-panelists for this discussion all of whom bring a different perspective to outsourcing and each of whom run a successful development firm:

• Sandeep Sood – Sandeep runs Monsoon Company in Berkley with teams in India. He authors the Doubsourcing comic (recently featured in WSJ) and sends his apologies to Thomas Friedman that he believes the world is not yet flat in Forbes.
• Qasim Mueen – Qasim is in Pittsburgh with teams in Pakistan. He is the co-founder and CEO of Zigron.
• Andrea Azdril – Andrea is Los Angeles with development in Beijing, China. She is the CEO of StarTech Global and frequently travels back and forth from China.

Some personal thoughts on this panel that I’d like to share:

Submitting a panel topic about outsourcing web development work to a conference full of web developers feels a little like trying to sell ice cubes to eskimos.  It definitely is a topic that may be somewhat taboo, certainly considering these economic times and what you hear in the media about jobs going overseas.

Along the same lines, I sometimes feel challenged talking about our business structure, and our Flatsourcing team with colleagues in New Orleans.  I am friends with talented web developers locally who are looking for work, is it parodoxical to be passionate about supporting the local community while taking my work and having it done in Russia?

I think reconciling these feelings is a lot of why I believe this panel topic to be so important.  There are real tensions and preconceptions about outsourcing, and the controversial nature of the topic is exactly why I believe we need to discuss it.

I fully expect to have the question thrown at me “Why are you hiring guys 3000 miles away instead of guys in this room?” And that will be a tough question to answer.

When I think about that question, it boils down my personal feeling that the world really is getting smaller.  Imagine a world that truly was flat, so a business partner or employee on the other side of the world was as easy to work with as your neighbor across the street.  Collaboration tools, broadband, and common language of software means you can work with whomever you choose.

In 2001, I met three guys over eLance because I needed someone to build a website for me, and I couldn’t do it, and I didn’t know anyone personally who could.  They did a great job, we continued to build our partnership, and a few trips to Russia and eight years later we’re in business together.  And asking me why I’m working with them over someone local simply boils down to the fact that this is the direction I have chosen, it is working, and the value of our relationships is not something that I measure in terms of how far away they are.

This may be the case for you, Chris, but what about if I am evaluating outsourcing now, with no personal history.  I’m working with a clean slate?

Well, this is the discussion I have almost every day with clients.  Outsourcing exists because there is global demand for talent and there is a global marketplace.  Release the bonds of locale, and your hiring pool is global.  Wouldn’t you want to explore the opportunity to hire top talent, anywhere in the world?

That is the reality of what you can do today.

It’s not about low cost, its about value.  And value is driven more by quality than cost.  Web development in particular is a marketplace that is fully globalized. It opens up a world of opportunity to build new “virtual” companies that transcend borders.

So, that is a sneak peak at some of the thoughts I am looking forward to sharing on the panel.  I’d love you hear some of yours in the comments.  Ask me the tough questions, I hope to be able to answer them.

I genuinely hope that we have the opportunity to discuss this at SXSW.  You can help by voting for us here.

Thanks.

This time every year something very strange happens.  As the snow melts up north, the allergies start kicking in down south, and people shake off the winter blahs all over, techies and web folks from all over the country flock to Austin, Texas for the annual rite of spring known as South by Southwest.

Last year was a great one, and I made many new friends and reconnected with old ones.  I made a prediction before SXSW last year that Twitter would be the social communication tool of choice, but who could have known the breakout it saw from SXSW last year.  I wonder what the breakout web app will be this year?

• I was asked just that yesterday in an interview with Austin’s Geek News hosted by Paul Terry Walhus.  Go check out the video interview at AustinCast to see my response.
• My schedule for SXSW is online so we can meet up in the sessions.
• I’m really looking forward to BarCamp Austin on Saturday.  I hope to lead a session and connect with a lot of old friends there.
• Want to hook up for coffee, dinner or a beer?  Hit me up on Twitter or on my cell at 504-931-6099.

See you in Austin!

Monday night, Chris and I went to the Bootstrappers and Beer meetup in Austin hosted by Bootstrap Austin. We were introduced to their impressive organization, and met some amazing people, one of which was Mitchell Cohen. Mitchell is a Junior at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec.

Mitchell impressed me because he walked right up to us, and with a firm hand shake introduced himself. He told us that he reads our blog and that he found our current projects interesting. He’s a college student, but has already started and sold a business of his own. He said that he is currently starting a new venture (maybe related to affiliate marketing) so that he can “transition to [his] own company instead of having to look for work for someone else.” This is my kind of guy.

Mitchell doesn’t have a blog, yet. As soon as he gets something up and lets us know, I’ll link to it. This is a bright guy with a bright future ahead of him. Man, I sound old (I’m only 25). Keep an eye on this guy, he’s sure to make a stir.

We’re looking forward to heading to Austin, Texas next week for the SXSW Interactive Conference or as Brian Oberkirch calls it, Geek Spring Break.

I’m excited about the presentations & panels, in particular:

• Ryan Carson and Mike McDerment Barenakedapp panel with the numbers behind the top web apps.
• Brian Oberkirch on the Developing Apps Outside Internetville
• Kelsey Ruger’s panel Design Workflows at Work

As always, we’re looking forward to networking with a lot of friends next weekend.  If you want to schedule a get together or a demo of siteMighty, please shoot us an email.  See you in Austin!