Making SXSW Awesomer - 2 Panels at a Time

Well, I've already found 2 panels I won't be missing at this year's SXSW Interactive, assuming you get off your lazy ass and make sure it happens. Okay, well you could also stay on your lazy ass and just go here and here, give SXSW a "yes, please" by submitting a couple five star votes, and that would be just fine, too.

First up, Alan Wolk's (better known as the Tangerine Toad) panel, dubbed Your Brand is Not My Friend, the namesake of this blog post that earned Alan a ton of notoriety.

People generally don’t want to hear from brands on Facebook and MySpace. The whole appeal of social media sites is their independence from corporate advertisers. People like the fact that they can say whatever they want to other people without any interference from anyone or anything that seems "official."

Joining Alan on the panel will be Click Here Experience Planner and Chaos Scenario's Cam Beck, Head of Strategy at the Barbarian Group Noah Brier, and the woman the entire blogosphere knows, marketing specialist Christina Kerley. The panel will be moderated by Adweek's Brian Morrissey.

Next up is panel member from 2008 SXSW's The Future of Corporate Blogging Mack Collier, and his proposed panel for 2009, Co-Created Marketing: Embracing Your Customer Evangelists Online.

What if you found your most passionate customers online, and let them market for you? Would the world implode? Or could embracing your customer evangelists online be the best business decision you make? Together, we'll unmask who customer evangelists are, and show how you can embrace them via social media and other online tools.

Proposed moderator Mack has teamed up with panelist Mario Sundar, Community Evangelist for Linked In (and fellow political junkie), Jackie Huba from Church of the Customer blog and author of the brilliant book Creating Customer Evangelists and finally Virginia Miracle, SVP of Digital Strategy at Ogilvy PR's 360 Digital Influence group and one of the minds behind one of the most successful community building programs, the Fiskateers.

I'd be shocked if either one of these panels didn't make the final cut, but it's your turn to make doubly sure that this is the case.

Vote for Your Brand is Not My Friend

Vote for Co-Created Marketing: Embracing Your Customer Evangelists Online