Internet entrepreneur, author and renowned geek Chris Pirillo was in Des Moines this weekend and we (the #dmtweetup crew) joined him for an impromptu TweetUp. I got a chance to interview Chris about how Twitter has replaced his RSS reading habits, and I asked him what Des Moines (and Iowa) can do to retain and attract creative talent.

More videos and photos of the event can be found on various Flickr photostreams.

Special thanks to Andy at East Village Books for donating the location space, free coffee and Wifi.

In the coming weeks I’ll be talking about social media as a connectivity, communication and research tool a lot. Below is a round-up of upcoming speaking dates. If you’re interested in attending any of them, please contact the organization/club sponsoring the event, or just shoot me an e-mail.

Thursday, April 17th
Ames Area Public Relations & Marketing Group (PRAM)
12:00 pm
Somerset Clubhouse
Ames, Iowa

Monday, April 28th
Wednesday, April 23rd
Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication
3:30 pm
Hamilton Hall, Iowa State University
Ames, Iowa

Friday, April 25th
CIRT (Central Iowans in Radio and Television) luncheon
11:30 am
Holiday Inn Downtown
Des Moines, Iowa

Wednesday, April 30th
YPC of Des Moines (Young Professionals Connection)
12:00 pm
Greater Des Moines Partnership Building
Des Moines, Iowa

Friday, May 9th
Rotary Club of Des Moines
7:00 am
Wakonda Club
Des Moines, Iowa

This is just a glimpse of the patchwork of business cards that I collected during the SXSW Interactive festival. Of course, the festival isn’t about biz cards - it’s about new friends, valuable connections and absorbed insight that will last for years.

After Sunday’s trainwreck/debacle/revolt at the Mark Zuckerberg SXSW keynote, the Facebook founder decided to engage in a “redo” conversation today at Pangaea during a Facebook developer meetup. I learned about this spur-of-the-moment event via Robert Scoble’s Twitter feed and instantly rushed to Pangaea in a cab.

Below is a short video I captured of Zuckerberg taking the stage. Today’s conversation was good for him, especially in light of yesterday’s bizarre keynote interview. He took open Q&A from the crowd and seemed to be more comfortable, in his element, and confident in what he was saying.

(Image by Brian Solis on Flickr)

Today during the Mark Zuckerberg keynote at SXSW, a compelling thing happened. Zuckerberg was interviewed by author Sarah Lacy, who scored zero popularity points with the crowd. While she was frequently interjecting personal antecdotes, plugs for her soon-to-be-released book, twirling her hair and overall conducting a bad interview, all sorts of chatter and criticism was happening among audience members via various back channels such as Twitter.

The silently-brewing revolt finally came to a head when Lacy mentioned the infamous Lesley Stahl interview a second time in response to Zuckerberg answering only with one-word responses, and Zuckerberg finally put her in her place by saying: “You have to ask questions.” A jubilant, overjoyed cheer erupted from us - an audience of thousands of angry monkeys who were jilted out of a decent keynote conversation. Lacy later commented that the crowd couldn’t possibly understand how hard her job was, which resulted in more boisterous jeers. By the end of the interview, her frustration with the revolt was evident.

Lacy: “Could somebody send me a message and tell me how I sucked so badly?”
Audience member, into the mic: “Give me your e-mail address.”

This backlash is just a microcosm of what happens every day within disruptive social mediums, whether it’s a blogger calling out bad customer service at Dell, or a Taco Bell patron posting a video of rats running around the kitchen on YouTube.

The tools are at our disposal, so be prepared for disruption and know how to respond.

UPDATE / 6:44 pm: Jesse from BitStrips sent this comic to me, which I love. It adds a little more context to the whole fiasco so I thought I’d post it.

Unbelievable! Day one of SXSW was packed with fantastic conversations and invaluable new friends. The day started with bacon, biscuits and a social media chat with former colleague Greg Swan (new media guru and founder of Perfect Porridge), Jim Turner of One by One Media and Rick Calvert, co-founder of BlogWorld.

In the middle of sitting in on the “How to rawk SXSW” session, word started to spread via Twitter of an impromptu tweetup happening at Champions sports bar across the street. Greg and I immediately ran to join this, and met all sorts of Tweeps including the legendary @Pistachio, @simedia, @kristanaeher, @newmediajim, @twalk, @hansveld and @waderockett, among others. A quick, grainy video of the tweetup is below.

As if the day couldn’t get any better, Charlie the Unicorn stopped by for a beer before wandering off across the street. YES. We later met Brian Shaler of Crappy Graphs fame, the one-and-only Robert Scoble, and co-creator of Fantasy Congress (Andrew Lee) in the Hilton lobby bar.

Tomorrow I’m blasting off for Austin, Texas, for the 2008 South by Southwest interactive festival, a gathering of like-minded geeks, developers, designers, artists, entrepreneurs and gurus. I’ll be tweeting the entire time (assuming that Twitter doesn’t blow up from the massive increase in user activity). Looking forward to seeing old friends, meeting new ones, frosty beverages and heavy doses of inspiration.

SXSW always sets the tone for my year. If you’ve never attended, I highly recommend you budget for it in 2009!

After launching Des Moines’ first TweetUp back in February, my intent was for future events to be de-centralized and self-organizing. I opened up a wiki to let participants discuss ideas for future locations and dates, and almost overnight, others had taken the reins and organized a second TweetUp, which took place this Monday evening at Court Avenue Brewing Company. Based on our unofficial headcount, 17 people showed up — that’s almost triple attendance from last time!

What I love about these events is the opportunity to connect with other people interested in technology and new media here in Des Moines, who I otherwise may never have met. The insights, shared knowledge and ideas formed over cocktails with new friends are extremely valuable, or, as @webboy put it: “It did more for me in one night than LinkedIn did in one year.”

Well said. If you’re interested in joining us for future TweetUps, please check out / join the Des Moines TweetUp wiki and be sure to track updates using the #dmtweetup hashtag method on Twitter.

Last night I recorded this quick video at the Des Moines TweetUp with my Flip Video cam. Apologies for the lack of lighting. (We were in an underground drinking establishment.) Twitter-ers in attendance were @mikesansone, @abrudtkuhl, @miketempleton, @scottatdrake, @jakekerber and myself. Looking forward to the next one!

On Wednesday, February 6th, I’ll be speaking at an IABC Iowa luncheon about various social media goodies and their applications in business. (Hat tip to Mike Sansone for setting up this opportunity.)

Also, the FIRST EVER Des Moines TweetUp will be taking place this Thursday the 7th at Shorty’s, beginning at 5:30 pm. If you’re a Twitter user and you’re in the DSM area, please come join us.

So, where’s Shorty’s? Glad you asked. It’s in the basement of a closed-down grocery store at 208 Court Avenue, downtown. (Here’s a map!) Shorty’s doesn’t have a front door, so you have to enter through the alley south of the building. It’s the best bar in DSM, hands down. Feel free to spread the word, and I’ll see you there.