Talking with Pete Cashmore about PepsiCo

Peter Cashmore CEO of Mashable.com

We wanted to go to the Mashable party on Sunday night, not because there was an open bar but because we wanted to meet Peter Cashmore CEO of Mashable.com.  Apparently everyone else attending SXSWi wanted to go to the same party evident from the line wrapped around the building.  The party was held at Buffalo Billiard’s (same venue as the Kick Ass premiere party) on 6^th street and was packed to say the least.  After conquering the rowdy lines in front of Buffalo Billiard’s, we finally made it in.  We looked around for Peter Cashmore who was nowhere in sight.  About an hour later, we were about to leave the party thinking that Peter Cashmore was not going to show up, when we spotted a circle of spectators with cameras around someone.  It was the Scottish geek/heart throb Peter Cashmore himself!  He was taking the time introduce himself and talk to everyone who went up to him.  People were handing him business cards and telling him about their next big idea trying to get either his support or coverage on Mashable.com.  We told him that we read his site regularly and that we worked for PepsiCo.  He said, “PepsiCo . . . you guys are doing great things” then asked for a business card.   Wow, we couldn’t believe that the King of Digital Media himself gave PepsiCo props for what we have been doing lately in this space!  It’s official, PepsiCo is definitely getting noticed by the superstars of the interactive industry, way to go!

GTO parked at the Hilton Hotel for SXSW

Car parked out front of Gueros

Classic car parked at Hilton for SXSW

For one week every year during SXSW, Austin, Texas is the mecca of Film, Interactive and Music industries.  Originally, South by Southwest (SXSW) started out as a gathering place for the music industry between a few states.   As you probably know, this gathering has grown exponentially over the years and the founders added Film to the conference 10 years ago and Interactive just 5 years ago.

While in Austin during this time of year, it is neat to see license plates from all over the US and North America.  People drive to Austin from as far away as California, Iowa, Philadelphia, New York, and Georgia.  I even saw a license plate all the way from Ontario Canada on a mini-van with a homemade gear box made out of wood on top of it (must be musicians).  It’s not feasible for everyone to fly into Austin, especially if you are a musician and have a lot of gear to bring with you.  I’ve been taking pictures of some cool cars that we’ve seen while down here for SXSW in Austin, Texas.  SXSW 2010 or bust!!!

Mog car playing music at SXSW 2010

Limo cruising by Austin Convention Center

Inside Circus Mashimus there where API demos at the Geek Sideshow where I met Michael Scherotter, Media Experience Evangelist and Twitter Synergist at Microsoft.  Michael showed me a desktop app he built based on Microsoft Silverlight and APIs to show Billboard chart info, New York Times articles, and Best Buy CD info when looking for info on a band.  CaféPress, who is in the business of print-on-demand T-shirt, gifts, and merchandise, built APIs to enable developers to access their print-on-demand merchandising platform (a huge manufacturing facility) via their apps through their XML web services.  Very cool!

Best Buy was really pushing their APIs inside the Interactive Trade Show.  They want developers to be creative and build mobile apps, web apps, gaming console apps, etc. utilizing their APIs for movie, music and store data.  Pretty innovative move for a consumer electronics retailer!  Maybe PepsiCo should consider developing a set of APIs for developers to utilize.  I’ve learned from other developers here at SXSW that there would definitely be an interest in using APIs for the Pepsi Refresh project.  Mashups and APIs are going to take over the internet . . . Onward and forward with the next exciting chapter in internet development!

My favorite director Robert Rodriguez!

Wow, another great day at SXSW 2010.  It is day 2 of the Film conference and this is the big day for the much anticipated panel on Directing the Dead: Genre Directors Spill their Guts with directors Robert Rodriguez (Dusk til Dawn, The Faculty, Desperado), Neil Marshall (The Decent), Ti West (The House of the Devil), Matt Reeves (Cloverfield), and Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland).  Quentin Tarantino was also supposed to be on the panel but bailed out last minute.  The rest of the panel more than made up for Tarantino’s absence with their in depth discussion about what places are best for screening your horror movie, where it is best to film, and how horror directors network.

Most of the directors agreed that SXSW and Austin, Texas in general is a fabulous place to screen or premier your horror movie (never mind the fact that Robert Rodriguez lives here).  Probably due to a diverse and eclectic population, everyone on the panel agreed that Austinites are very receptive to horror and great fans.  Another place Marshall mentioned that had a receptive and vocal horror audience was London especially during Fright Fest UK.

The directors seemed to have different favorite states when it came to where it was best to film.  In Zombieland, they specifically mentioned Garland, Texas in the movie, but according to Fleischer the movie was actually filmed in Georgia.  Ti West said he likes to film in Connecticut where they give 30% of the cost of the film back to the directors.  Being a native of El Paso, Robert Rodriguez said Texas is a great place to film.

Horror directors are few and far between so networking is essential for this niche genre.  Robert Rodriguez specifically mentioned a group of Horror directors who get together for dinner regularly in Austin, Texas.  Dubbed the “Masters of Horror,” guests have included a number of big names and even Stephen King has been known to make an appearance from time to time.

All in all it was a very informative panel to watch if you are an aspiring horror genre director.

To be perfectly honest, I didn’t really know what to expect at SXSW 2010.  I had heard stories of how great it was from others who had gone before, but I never expected it to be like this!  As soon as I got to Austin, I went to the conference held at the Austin Convention Center in downtown, said hi to the PepsiCo folks at the refresh everything lounge, and then listened to a discussion on Google Wave: Communication Revolution being led by a panel including one representative from Google and one from Yahoo!

After that we headed over to Paramount theater for the premier of the new movie Kick Ass which is coming out this summer.  We got front row seats . . . yeah! The film was directed by Matthew Vaughn who was there as well as the main actor Aaron Johnson and geek/villain Chris Mintz-Plasse (also in Superbad).  Wow, the film was funny, gory at times, and all around a great hit according to the crowd of 1200 that were laughing hysterically.  This was a perfect film to premier for the SXSW crowd, and they were saying after that this was the “best premier they’ve ever had at SXSW.” In the movie they were drinking Mountain Dew and actually had a line where they mentioned Pepsi.  Way to go marketing!  After the screening, the director and actors were there to answer any questions from the crowd.

Right after the premier, we went to the party for the movie held at Buffalo Billiard’s on 6^thstreet.  It was catered and we took note of the Frito-Lay chips spread out on a table.   We ended up meeting Chris Mintz-Plasse and getting pics with him.  He’s a very nice and down to earthguy who stopped what he was doing to talk with us.  We told him how much we loved his comedies and to keep up the good work.

Let me sum it up like this:  It has been non-stop so far and I’m not expecting it to let up anytime soon.  And this is just the beginning of South by Southwest 2010.