Okay, I know I expressed a bit of concern about whether SXSW would be this big I Heart Twitter! fest or if I would actually learn something new. No worries! I attended three fabulous panels and a keynote address on Day 2. In all honesty, the speakers most certainly did teach/encourage/motivate/challenge me, so if I had to go home today I would feel like I got my money’s worth.

I very much enjoyed hearing from Zappos.com CEO Tony Hsieh, his keynote address was packed out and even spilled into three simulcast rooms. The great news about Tony is that he’s relatively young, extremely successful and absolutely understands that THE BEST way to have productive, customer service-oriented, on-message employees is to create a culture that fosters those things.

If you want your customers to be WOWed, as Hsieh does, then you’ve gotta take great care to hire employees who enjoy WOWing folks. And, “fire quickly” those who do not. Nice the hear that Zappos’s priority is creating and maintaining that culture. “If we hire for the culture fit,” Hsieh said, “the rest just takes care of itself.” He also said that Zappos considers money spent on WOWing customers and training and motivating employees as marketing dollars. It’s billiant, in my opinion.

The panel on Internet privacy was also fabulous. It wasn’t so much that I learned new stuff, you already know how I feel about the importance of knowing your online self. It’s was really just nice to have my obsession validated by really smart folks who are just as freaked out as I am about how little the average person cares about what personal information of theirs is floating around on the Web.

Anyway, there were so many great nuggets of geekdom crowding their way into my head that I thought I might explode a little. You can see my schedule over there…except for that Obama/Dean one. I skipped that to hang with hubby. And that’s okay because the keynote for Day 3 is the same Obama Web-ness, so it’s all good. The topics and converstaions spurred many blog ideas for me, so look for those in the coming days!

In the meantime I’ll leave you with this video of Dave stripping down at the trade show to get a cool t-shirt. We do what we have to do, friends:

New-to-me blog alert! I just stumbled upon Bulletproof Blog and I’m savoring every word.  It’s the well-written and highly relevant product of Dallas Lawrence (and others) of DC-based Levick Strategic Communications. I don’t know much about the firm, but I hear they are a big deal and I sure dig the blog.

Anyway, this post about the death of print journalism is a great (albeit sad) one. Rather than just reminding us that the end is near, Lawrence cites numerous sources as he piles up the stats that make your smarter. Like this:

Today, newspapers are struggling to keep up with the evolving needs of a next-generation audience. According to one estimate gathered online, more than 10,000 newsroom jobs ??? that???s 40 jobs per day ??? have been cut in 2008 alone.

I love stats. Oh, and he gives kudos to the Washington Post for their use of Facebook and calls on others to follow suit, adding:

If its industry is to survive, others must take a page from the Post???s online playbook and engage the next generation whether they???re ready or not.

All that said, print journalism isn’t dead yet. While I’m thrilled that so many PR pros and journalist are learning to embrace their inner geek, I hope we don’t fail to stay engaged in the present state of media relations. Print – daily and weekly – still has a place today, particularly if you live outside of a top five media market.

Successful PR pros must have a balanced skill set and that means you’ve gotta be willing to kick it old school if need be. Tennessee markets aren’t even in the top 30, but they are still very important to our clients. Your best tweet merely complements your ability to craft a well-written op-ed – it does not replace it.

Just say’n.