The interactive side of SXSW is now drawing to a close and I have had some time this morning to reflect on some of the things I have learned from some of the companies, developers and designers that have been involved at the conference.
One of the most important things I have learned was from a group of freelance developers and also from Gary Vaynerchuk which is really about providing a world class level of customer service. Often when developing you are mainly focused on delivering the end product and the next extension of that product so customer service can often be made a secondary objective.
I have heard this a few times during the conference and actually saw some examples of great products which where not offering much in the way of customer service or support, mainly just a contact e-mail address. From my personal experience with other big companies such as PayPal and Ebay it can be nearly impossible to contact them and a considerable amount of time to get a reply.
If the big companies don’t fix this it does mean that the smaller developers can capitalise on this and set a high standard which hopefully will be replicated throughout the industry.
On another note the SXSWNI guys have all been working hard throughout the trip even if there are no desks or chairs.
David Rice hacking away during SXSW
Lee Munroe has also been giving a series of updates on are trade trip to SXSW which can be found on his blog and also on his Posterous.
We are now on day 5 of our epic adventure in Austin, and have managed to speak to pretty much every company that had a presence on the trade floor.
From my perspective even though I am mainly focused on Mac and iPhone development I was very keen to meet the Microsoft guys to discuss Windows Phone 7 and WebSiteSpark.
I was lucky enough to be interviewed in a commercial for Microsoft discussing the benefits of the WebSiteSpark service and what this would mean for a development studio work flow – this was a great experience and they even gave me a 16GB Zune HD for taking the time to work with them.
I also managed to bump into a few of the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders who where promoting WebSiteSpark this was pretty cool!
This has been a great day and I am looking forward until tomorrow where hopefully I will learn more about the underlying technologies behind Windows Phone 7.
As we enter day 4 of our SXSW trade mission so far the journey has surpassed all expectations.
The presentations are all world class and are happening all throughout the day, the trade hall is full of well established companies such as Microsoft, Veer, LaCie, Sony and many others all displaying state of the art technologies.
From a business perspective many leads have already been uncovered, just by having a quick chat with other companies and explaining what Digital Robot Software offer, I have already had several e-mails looking to follow up on possible projects which at this stage is fantastic.
It is great to be able to network and learn from the other Northern Ireland based companies on the SXSW trip who combined have a wealth of experience which is providing a strong foothold for Digital Robot Software and establishing a presence at the conference.
-
-
Jonathan Cusick
-
-
Marty Neill
-
-
Lee Munroe
-
-
Kieran Graham
-
-
David Rice
-
-
Andy McMillan
I have been working hard over the last few months establishing a small iPhone and Mac development studio called Digital Robot Software.
Digital Robot Software will be going live on March 10th with a website launch which will contain details of current and future projects. I have also been working closely with an extremely talented designer who is doing the branding for the company which should give it a strong presence.
Digital Robot Software will also be at this years SXSW conference with 11 other Northern Ireland based companies who I am sure many of you will be familiar with:
Airpos
David Rice
Filmtrip Ltd
Good on Paper
No More Art
Sonic Academy
The Design Zoo
Lee Munroe
Frank Design & Communications Ltd
This is great news for Digital Robot Software as it will enable a wide exposure of the companies services and will hopefully produce a range of clients and new skills from the available workshops and presentations.
A NISXSW Ning network has been established so all participating companies can easily communicate and so that others can follow us during the conference.
Another site niatsxsw.com has also been established to give complete profiles of the 12 companies including podcasts company backgrounds and will also be updated regularly.
If you are interested in following us on our journey to SXSW you can follow the websites and also the hastag #NISXSW on Twitter.
I have been thinking about some New Year’s resolutions for 2010 so I have composed the following list.
1. Learn to use my Canon 450D properly
2. Finish my iPhone apps and get them in the app store
3. Attend SXSW in March (flights and platinum badge already purchased)
4. Attend WWDC in June
5. Experiment with more software development design patterns
6. Get digitalrobotsoftware.com up and running
7. Produce better quality blog posts
8. Develop a desktop application for OS X
9. Run more often
10. In 2009 I have met a lot of great people so I aim to meet lots more in 2010
As New Year’s resolutions are notorious for not being maintained, I have made this list realistic and by the time we reach 2011 hopefully these goals will have been achieved.
Last week I received the Adobe CS4 Web Premium software which I won at the Build Conference, a massive thanks to Giant Training and Adobe for this.
The following is the complete story:
On November 5th I attended the Build conference in Belfast, during the event Ian Sayers from Giant Training held a prize draw for the chance to win a copy of Adobe CS4 Web Premium or Design Premium worth a whopping £1500. I was extremely lucky when Eric Meyer pulled my name out of the box, I seriously couldn’t believe I had won and opted for CS4 Web Premium.
With CS4 a wide range of new and exciting opportunities have presented themselves. I am currently developing several iPhone applications which will now have their entire interface redesigned in PhotoShop which will give them a much more professional presence.
As an amateur photographer I will now have the ability to add a new dimensions to my photos in addition to designing and developing a new website to showcase them.
These tools will significantly help me on a daily basis with all my personal development and design projects.
Many thanks to Giant Training and Adobe!
Jonathan Cusick
I have had an incredibly lucky streak this year where I managed to win an iPhone 3GS at Refresh Belfast which was provided by Ecliptic Labs and then a CS4 Web Premium applications package at the Build Conference from Ian Sayers at Giant Training.
Jase Bell has now created an iPhone app proposal that I feel if developed should be implemented in competitions across the land!
Although in all seriousness I have been extremely lucky at these two events and I am putting both the iPhone and CS4 suite to very good use. Hopefully there will be a post here in the not to distant future referring to the launch of an iPhone application.
On Thursday November 5th the first Build conference was held in Belfast’s Waterfront Studio.
The atmosphere during Build was fantastic, a really positive vibe was emanating from the audience all day. The speakers did interesting and informative presentations, we even learned how to open a banana thanks to Tim Van Damme, I can’t believe we were doing it wrong all this time.
In case anyone missed the lineup of speakers, they are all top class:
Eric Meyer
Tim Van Damme
Mark Boulton
Wilson Miner
Andy Budd
Ryan Sims
I was also very lucky during the Build conference as I won a copy of Adobe CS4 Web premium (for Mac OS X) from Giant Training, thanks to a prize draw where Eric Meyer picked my out of a box.
The Build after party was also made of the stuff of legends, many beers were had and I met so many great people who I hope to see again next time!
A great job by Andy Good/McMillan on organising Build, it has been the most informative and fun conference I have had the pleasure to attend. Already I am looking forward to the next Build!
Conference pass.
Tim Van Damme getting things started with the first presentation.
On Wednesday evening (November 4th) the Build conference events continued, ‘An evening with Airside‘ was held in the Conor lecture theatre at the University of Ulster, where we were all treated to an insight of the inner workings of one of the UK’s leading design studios.
Until the Build schedule was announced I was unfamiliar with Airside, now after an inspiring lecture I look forward to closely following their work.
The Build conference got off to a great start last night with a screening of the documentary Objectified by Gary Hustwit in the Black Box. Free pizza and beer were served throughout the screening and the evening was rounded off in style at the Malmaison.
