Some quick stats from the SXSW Interactive Festival, to give you some idea what it was like:

• Verbal NDA’s given, between Lance and myself: 6
• Movie stars seen: at least 5 that we know of
• Tradeshow schwag items gathered, each: about 500,000
• Tradeshow schwag items that were actually cool: 3
• Best - but least effective - tradeshow schwag item: magnetic buzzing balls handed out by a company whose name I can’t remember
• Internet-related company founders, coders, financers, and top executives seen: hundreds
• Best sessions: Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com, talking openly about how the company reached the success it has; Jared Spool, illustrating with magic tricks the importance of illusion and magic in meeting users’ needs; Guy Kawasaki, moderating a panel discussion on social media.
• Lance’s top memories: meeting Guy Kawasaki; dinner at Vespaio; screening “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”.
• My top memories: Seeing Helen Hunt speak; watching the Zappos.com team appear out of nowhere to hand out hundreds of rain ponchos when the weather turned bad
• Minutes of boredom: 0

(Read the full article…)

Last week my co-author Lance and I attended the Voices That Matter - Web Design conference, a new conference created by Pearson Education (parent company of Peachpit and New Riders Press). As new authors speaking at a brand-new conference, we were doubly unsure what to expect. So what did we find?

A GREAT time, that’s what.

High Points:

1) The cool authors. There were many opportunities to meet and talk with fellow authors, from the first evening’s author get-together, to hallway conversations and presentations, to evening events like the Adobe-sponsored dinner. We met Steve Krug, Kelly Goto, June Cohen, Robert Hoekman, Eric Meyer, Dan Brown, Steve Mulder, Nathan Shedroff, PPK, Charles Wyke-Smith and so many others who’ve influenced us over the years - great fun.

2) I had dinner with Steve Krug! Through a fluke of timing, I ended up going out with a group that included Peachpit Publisher Nancy Ruenzel, Peachpit Senior Acquisitions Editor Michael Nolan, Hannah, a Peachpit Senior Editor, Steve Krug (one of my all-time heroes), and myself. Talk about an unexpected boon! These folks are seriously smart and interesting, so the dinner flew by. Being who I am, I couldn’t resist pitching a new book idea to Michael and Nancy (more on that later, maybe).

3) The great attendees. A great mix of Web design and development professionals, from enterprise-level companies to small companies. I especially remember Jack, who’s working on helping kids with AIDS in Africa (see his site at AfricaJack.org - and please donate if you can). Interesting questions and conversations throughout the event.

4) Our book, on sale for the first time! Yes, this was the first time Lance and I saw our book officially for sale in a physical location. And we even had a few people buy it right there and bring it over to us for autographs, even though it was selling for cheaper on Amazon. Totally cool.

Congrats to the Pearson team for putting together a great conference!

Friday night, the 19th of October, marked the debut party for our new authors’ book, Web Design for ROI: Turning Browsers into Buyers and Prospects into Leads. Surrounded by family, friends and colleagues, Lance and Sandra presented all of us with a copy of the book. We celebrated with a decadent meal, delicious wine and titillating conversation. At last! I finally have my very own copy of the highly anticipated new book.

The evening started with champagne and savory appetizers (bacon-wrapped dates, anyone? Really, they’re awesome). We then made our way to Carpe Vino’s “Cave” where we were treated to a fabulous meal including a double magnum of 1982 Chateau Pontet-Canet Bordeaux (which Sandra loved).

The authors then presented each of the guests with a copy of the book amidst other gift exchanges (including the shirt we hope Lance will wear at the Voices That Matter conference this week.)

Once we were able to stop thumbing through our books, we continued with our conversations and dessert.

A good time was had by all. What a wonderful way to introduce the exciting release of their new book.

Thank you, Lance and Sandra – and congratulations!

From the Team at CLM

View related topics: lance loveday, sandra niehaus, voices that matter, web design for ROI

If you aren’t already anticipating the Voices That Matter conference taking place in San Francisco next week, you will be once you see the lineup of speakers.

Among the 25 presenters are Closed Loop Marketing’s Lance Loveday and Sandra Niehaus as well as other Web leaders like Steve Krug and Kelly Goto.

Sandra’s Wednesday morning session, Web Design for ROI: Turning Browsers into Buyers and Prospects into Leads (which is also the title of Lance and Sandra’s new book), will use case studies to focus on the most important concepts and elements for creating effective landing pages, home pages, detail pages, and the checkout process. Attendees of this session will learn how to prioritize web design efforts by aligning them with business goals and walk away with practical design guidelines for improving ROI.

Lance’s Wednesday afternoon session, You Can Have It All: Designing to Please Users and Search Engines Alike, will demonstrate why showing up in search results (through search engine optimization) is important. In addition, he’ll also go under the hood of sites that have achieved beauty and usability while attaining top rankings in the major search engines. Attendees of this session will leave with practical tips on how to structure, design, and code sites in ways that please both users and search engines.

This conference also marks the debut of Lance and Sandra’s highly anticipated book: Web Design for ROI: Turning Browsers into Buyers and Prospects into Leads, which will be available for purchase at the conference venue (the Grand Hyatt San Francisco) or through the official book site.

For more information about Voices That Matter, check out Lance’s initial announcement in July or visit the official conference website.