Here are some cool peeps deserving a vote for their SXSW Panels for 2010. They're certainly panels I'd plan on attending. While you're at it, don't forget to vote for mine:
Everything I Didn't Learn About Startups in VC
People always tell me that I'm really lucky to know what VCs want when I go and pitch them, but starting my company has taught me some very valuable lessons I didn't learn in my time at Union Square Ventures. I'll be joined by three other former VC professionals working on startups now as well.
Here are my picks:
Scaling Simplicity: Grow Your Income, Not Your Headache Awesome guy with a really relevent message--because most people *shouldn't* look for the big VC round and the huge exit--they'd be a lot better off first figuring out how to make food and shelter money from doing something they really love.
Coconut Valley - Building a Tech Community on the Beach I love "outside the Valley" stories, and hearing about how the Miami tech community grew should be very informative for people who don't think you need to be in CA to make an impact in tech.
Tweet Your Way to Your Next Job Might be a bit remedial for this crowd, but I'm giving him the vote because of the first question that he listed that this panel will answer--and it should be the question that every panel answers in some way: How to make connections that matter?
The 10% Problem: Fostering Real, Engaged, Quality Conversation Again, same theme... is there any more worthwhile problem to address?
Hacking The Funding Process Jason Schwartz, through his job at Angelsoft, gets to see a lot of the way real angel investors operate from behind the scenes--and it's not always how you might think if all you're doing is reading the blog buzz.
How the Internet is Disrupting the Concert Industry Ian is cool dude and I'd be really curious to hear about how live events are being affected by the web, as opposed to your usual "labels suck, how can we get free music" debate.
In Code We Trust: Open Government Awesomeness I cannot be happier that "No Neck" Noel found an outlet for his passion--breaking open government silos and walled gardens. Only someone with his kind of energy could really tackle that--think Juggernaut from X-men.
Understanding Lies, Deception, and Truthiness in Social Media danah would get my vote for a panel if she was going to discuss pickles, and I don't even know if she knows anything about pickles. If she was talking about it, I'm sure she would research the hell out of it and have real conversations with pickle eaters, makers, etc. and get down to the bottom of what pickles are really about, cutting through the hype.
Media Armageddon: What Happens When the New York Times Dies This sounds like a fascinating thought exercise--or prep session, depending on your view of the future. While we're at it, check out Mark Josephson's talk on new models for news as well--supposedly with "real fucking numbers".
Handheld Awesome Detectors: Sustainable Apps No doubt with Rachel giving this talk that everyone's awesome detectors will be going off the whole session. She may need to make an announcement to shut them off before the panel starts. It's an important topic, too... who hasn't been in a restaurant thinking about what you're supposed to be eating if you care about the planet.
People-Powered Education: Building A Community-Run School This is something I've been thinking about a lot lately as I love teaching, but like many others share that passion, I find that academia isn't really the best place to be if you actually want to teach, particularly if it's something useful.
What Guys are Doing to Get More Girls in Tech! A road I've been down... and I keep trying.
Will Kiva Kill Your Nonprofit? Donations 2.0 Interesting approach given that it's Kiva people talking about whether their approach will implode the space. Honestly, I'm a bit skeptical, because most of the online donations I've made in the past year have been to old school orgs using old school websites just put in front of me by passionate people, so I may go just to poke the bear.
Brands Don't Think Like You Think They Think Answers the question, "Why brands don't want to advertise on your website?" I can name, ooooh... about a cajillion websites that need to know this answer.
Jumpstarting Sales in a Start-up Startup sales? What? You mean... making money? Srsly?