It’s SXSW Panel Picker time of year again, and I wanted to take a moment to create a list of panel ideas submitted by Iowans. Silicon Prairie News also has a nice wrap-up of panels from the Midwest that you can check out here.

The voting process is now open, so click through the titles below, give them a read, and vote if you think they’re worthy.

Social Marketing Lessons Learned on the Farm – Nathan T. Wright (That’s me!)

Landing A Music Career in Flyover Country – Hillary Brown and Jill Haverkamp, On Pitch

How Farmers Get Serious Business Done With Mobile – Jeff Caldwell, Meredith Corporation

Real-Time Streams Need Real-Time Feedback – Daniel Shipton, BitMethod

How Can Artists Turn Web Hits Into Dollars? – Cat Rocketship & Scott (Kubie) Rocketship, make\break

The Legalities Behind APIs and Mashups – Brett Trout, Brett J. Trout, P.C.

Screenwriting from Iowa (and Other Unlikely Places) – Scott Smith, River Run Productions

In the Future, Everyone Will Be a Filmmaker – Scott Smith, River Run Productions

Rich Browser-Based Templating Through Open Source Collaboration – Neil Roberts, BitMethod

Content for Multi-Channel Consumers: Earn Affinity, Reap Rewards – Heather Rast, Insights and Ingenuity

Resistance is Futile! Assimilating Local Marketing – Deb Brown, Debworks

Big thanks to Becky McCray and Kelly Rivard who helped me refine my ideas throughout this process.

So, did I miss any brilliant Iowans? Let me know. And if you’ve got a panel that you’re behind, or just want to share one that sounds interesting, please leave a comment below – regardless of where you live.

Good luck to everyone who submitted an idea, and we’ll see you in Austin in March 2011!

Everyone loves local deals! A growing wave of e-coupon-local-deal services are giving merchants a new way to promote their businesses and teaching consumers how to harness their “collective buying power.” Local deal services such as Groupon and LivingSocial leverage the power of their subscriber bases to offer deeply discounted local deals to consumers in a wide range of cities. In most cases, all you have to do to take advantage of the deals is sign up to get their daily email, but the deals themselves are fueled by social media.

While the initial success of these online coupon deal services relies on a large subscriber base, the ultimate driving force behind the deals is social commerce. The concept of group coupon services like Groupon is that the local deal for a product or service in your city can only be claimed if a minimum number of people purchase the discount, so the services provide social media sharing tools to encourage users to tell their friends about the deals – a win-win for everyone. Consumers get the discount and the local businesses get enough customers to make it worth their while.

Groupon and LivingSocial have yet to publish any local deals in Des Moines, but Travelzoo Local Deals recently joined the social media bargain hunting scene, launching Des Moines as a test market. If you’re a Travelzoo subscriber, you’ve already seen the first Local Deals in Des Moines, including $10 — Stam Chocolate & Fine Wine: Tastings for 2 (50% OFF) and $20 — Half Off at Dos Rios w/FREE Cocktails. Travelzoo Local Deals are currently only available in Des Moines and Minneapolis but will quickly expand into 120 markets.

You’re probably wondering why Travelzoo Local Deals launched in Des Moines and Minneapolis despite the success of Groupon and LivingSocial in larger cities like Chicago, New York and L.A. It could have something to do with their existing, large user base of 24k+ subscribers in Des Moines – a user base that Groupon and LivingSocial are currently working to build up, in addition to recruiting businesses to feature special offers. In the meantime, be sure to follow TravelzooDSM and TravelzooMSP on Twitter to keep up with all of the local deals, and sign up to receive local deals here. If you’re a business owner who would like to feature a Travelzoo Local Deal, you can start here.

What kind of local deals do you want to see in Des Moines? Leave a comment below!

The Lava Row FlipCam came out from the depths of our office to make an appearance at last week’s Des Moines Tweetup at el Bait Shop. Apple held an iPhone 4 press conference earlier that day, offering up an apology for the functional issues many users had encountered in getting (and keeping) reception. Naturally, we wondered if our Des Moines tweeps would consider buying an iPhone again. Here’s what they said.

Would you consider buying an iPhone? Did Apple do enough to solve the problems with the iPhone 4? How should they win back the loyalty of their customers? Share your thoughts below.

For the next Lava Row Camp we are teaming up with LinkedIn for a casual conversation about the social network’s history, why it is important to have a presence there, how it allows you to strengthen and extend your existing network of trusted contacts, applications for HR professionals, and a peek at future functionality not yet available to the public.

In traditional Lava Row Camp style, tickets are free and the beers are on us! The discussion starts at 5:30pm but don’t hesitate to show up early and hang out after for a little networking. The hashtag for the evening will be #lavacamp.

Sam Mandolfo from LinkedIn will be co-presenting with me. Please join us at the Des Moines Social Club on Wednesday, April 7th in the Sideshow Lounge and bring your questions! We look forward to seeing you there. You may RSVP via the form below, or just jump directly over to Eventbrite.

On Friday I gave a presentation called Fostering Community with Social Media at the Midwest Newspaper Summit (put on by the fine folks at the Iowa Newspaper Association). The audience was a mix of journalists and editors from regional newspapers as well as college students excited to break into the media industry.

The journalism world (specifically newspapers) is currently in a state of flux, and many are wondering if anything will be left standing five years from now. Yes, media platforms and reading habits have evolved, but the point of my session was that community equals opportunity – advantages go to those who embrace technology shifts and understand how to operationalize social networks for their gain.

While most of the audience was there to learn, I did my fair share of learning from them, as well. The session allowed me to connect with smart people who are working on innovative things, right here in Iowa. Thomas Ritchie (Online Editor at the Sioux City Journal) has put a focus on harnessing the real-time web and live-blogging stories for his newspaper, and he’s achieved quite a bit of success from it. Steve Buttry, who blogs about the future of journalism and media, sat in the front row and asked all sorts of good questions. I was also impressed by many of the college students I met, who are eager to break into the industry and tear it up using their knowledge of self-publishing tools and networks.

I have lots of opinions on where this is all going, but I certainly don’t have all the answers. What are your thoughts on the future of newspapers and news media? Please chime in below.

February is shaping up to be a busy month, speaking-wise. Starting tonight, we’ve got 11 gigs in 28 days – now that’s a lot of talking!

Recently some of you have been asking about what events we’re participating in and where to find us, so we’ve posted a detailed list (ones that allow public registration) below. We’ll go ahead and throw March’s trip to Texas into the mix, as well. If you decide to venture out to any of these, please say hello and ask lots of questions. We’d love to meet you.

Midwest Newspaper Summit
Friday, February 5
Downtown Marriott Hotel, Des Moines, Iowa
Topic: Social Media – Fostering an Online Community Around Your Newspaper

Social Media and Health Care (Iowa Hospital Association)
Tuesday, February 9
Thompson Auditorium, Iowa Methodist Medical Center, Des Moines, Iowa
Topic: An introduction to social media

A Journalist’s Guide to New Media (Drake University SJMC)
Saturday, February 13
Meredith Hall, Room 104, Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa
Topic: Linking w/ potential employers, clients and professionals via social media tools

American Marketing Association, Iowa Chapter
Wednesday, February 17
Hilton Garden Inn, Johnston, Iowa
Topic: How LinkedIn are you?

EntreFest 2010
Friday, February 26
West Des Moines Marriott, West Des Moines, Iowa
Topic: Using Facebook to build your business

South by Southwest Interactive 2010
Tuesday, March 16
Austin Convention Center, Austin, Texas
Topic: The State of Music Blogs in 2010

Photo credit: visual_dichotomy via Flickr

We’re only one week into Foursquare being available here in Des Moines (and every city), and already I’m seeing a large volume of chatter from people who are confused by it, scared of it, dismissive of it and don’t see the value. This is a classic symptom of a “hot” social network.

In fact, many of these conversations are very, very familiar. We had the same ones about Twitter in early 2007 (I was one of those confused voices) until we each had our personal “a-ha” moments, and then we suddenly got it.

Last week I wrote about Foursquare’s potential for local businesses, but let’s step away from the biz angle for a moment and discuss the personal and social reasons behind why I use it. Please note: This is not a command that you must start using it, or that you should use it in a similar way. I’m writing this for the “I don’t get it” folks – those who are confused by the whole thing and want some clarification.

Broadcasting your current location

When you “check in” to a specific location on Foursquare, the application allows you to auto-broadcast your current location out to your social networks. One misconception about Foursquare is that this is all users will ever do, and the fear is that our friends’ Twitter feeds and Facebook updates will become an endless barrage of useless “I’m at Venue XYZ [LINK]“ updates. This is a legitimate concern, and it’s the reason why I turned off the auto-broadcast feature in my settings. I want to check in to locations to rack up points, compete with friends, and move up the Foursquare Leaderboard, but I’m assuming my Twitter followers don’t need to know about it every single time.

There are circumstances where I do want people to know where I’m at and what I’m doing. For instance, during last Friday’s Des Moines Tweetup I used Foursquare to announce that I was there. (This is something I would typically tweet about, anyway.) People were using it at the Central Iowa Bloggers meetup that same morning in a similar way, saying “Hey, I’m at this cool event, and you’re missing out if you’re not here.”

I left auto-broadcast switched on for announcing that I’ve become the Mayor of a venue. This is for bragging rights. I want people to know who I’ve dethroned. It’s part of the competition, part of the gimmick.

Handling friend requests

Right now there’s a lot of conversation surrounding this issue: “Who do I accept as my friend on Foursquare?” Social networks have forced humans to deal with all sorts of new social mores, and to further complicate things, our connection preferences in each network are going to be different. Bryan Person wrote a great post about his own selection filters, plus his readers’ perspectives. Here’s my rule: If I’ve actually met the person in real life, I’ll accept the request. Yes, in a few circumstances I’ve bent this rule both ways. This is similar to my Facebook filter (IRL connections only) but very different than my Twitter filter, where serendipity rules all.

Managing privacy

If you are legitimately concerned about privacy, you do two things: 1.) Avoid Foursquare altogether, or 2.) Use the settings and filters described above to control updates and select who gets into your network. It’s your world.

So, that’s how I’m currently use it, and why. What’s been your personal Foursquare experience thus far? Please chime in below!

Image credit: dpstyles via Flickr