Along with a cadre of Louisville’s digerati and web pioneers, later this week I will test the outer limits of information overload while attending SXSWi in Austin, TX. I’ll be there with many friends including: Brendan Jackson, Dave Durand, Jason Falls, Kevin Frey, Matt Winn, Rob May, Shawn Morton, Todd Earwood, Chris Claxton, and Michelle Jones, and I plan to network socially with a many more that recently hit my radar (Paul Sizemore, Bill Johnston, Greg Matthews…)  Isn’t it interesting that we have to travel a few hundred miles to get everyone in the same place at the same time?

I also hope to interact with others that are as passionate as I am about entrepreneurship, digital strategy and the future of all things interwebs such as Peter Kim, Scott Monty, Charlie O’Donnell, Bryan Jones, Aaron Strout, Adam Cohen, Len Kendall.

Yes, there will be a lot of continued discussions about web 2.0, social media and the like, but this year I’m really focused on immersing myself in conversations that deal more with the intersection of all these shiny objects with real-world applications in technology (especially mobile, retail POS), marketing (augmenting customer and brand experiences) and business objectives (show me the money).  I like to ‘think outside the browser’ so my goal is to encounter others who do the same when it comes to interactive.

With a stack of new contacts and business ideas, I’ll return refreshed and energized.  Also, I revel in the prospects of sampling some quality BBQ, [breakfast] burritos, and Shiner Bock as well.  I’m looking forward to a memorable long weekend of friends, fun, and frontal lobe fecundity.  Austin, here we come!

I wish I made more time to follow college football (and sports in general). As a new parent and unrepentant workaholic, I don’t invest much of my fleeting attention currency into worthwhile diversions like most of my friends, although it would certainly keep me more balanced. Regardless, I have only two words of insight with respect to the cursory observations noted in my deluge of RSS feeds today coupled with prodding from UK fans on Facebook and Jason Falls’ lamentations on Twitter:

Play. Offs.

Not only is it best for fans and teams, it’s best for business. College football is still one heck of a ‘game’ that could benefit from redefining its ‘preferred outcome’.

When people ask me what I want to do when I grow up, I can never provide an answer other than “it doesn’t exist yet.”  For the entirety of my career, I’ve pondered the answer to that question and usually responded by creating opportunities on my own.  With the exception of my web / business strategy roles at Norton Healthcare and Yum! Brands, I never had a job I didn’t create out of thin air.  To date I have served in a variety of roles in:

• Information Systems
• Marketing
• Software Engineering
• Creative Services
• Business Development
• Communications / Public Relations

As the nature of business, technology and marketing have changed, I too have maintained interests and skills in those spheres.  Like Jeremiah’s Venn diagram of effective web strategy, I try to explain my “job” in terms of having knowledge and skills in all 3 disciplines (and several more esoteric ones), not just one.  This rarely makes sense to the relatives, career counselors and  the “do one thing and do it well” advisors that seem perpetually confused by my aversion to focusing on just one area of expertise.

A few years ago Gartner let me know that not only was this “versatilist” approach ok, it was seen as a key to future career success.  I felt my stubbornness was somewhat validated even though positions like these are rare in Louisville.  My interest in business strategy had taken a back seat to many of the other creative and technical projects I had been a part of, so I enrolled in U of L’s IMBA program in 2002 to underscore the importance and inherently the skills needed to derive business value from ‘the new economy.’

Had I listened to my career counselors or other parental pundits, I’m sure I’d be an architect or engineer (or ‘doctor’ or ‘lawyer’) right now.  But I dashed all hopes for those scholarships and career path when I opted to go way out of my comfort zone by attending a liberal arts school.  When a conversation traverses topics like bluetooth, blue chip stocks and JetBlue’s marketing, I’m excited to delve into the nuances of each ’sphere’ and also have the ability to abstract an idea that might hit the sweet spot for a new business strategy or opportunity.

Among other self-imposed or attributive labels: I’m a geek, I’m a marketer, I’m an entrepreneur.  These characteristics keep me always craving more information and always questioning “what if?” with the understanding that the best way to predict the future is to create it.  So I’ve hereby labeled myself and this resurrected blog the “Creative Versatilist.”  As I continue to write and think abstractly in this medium, I will assuredly struggle to find a singular voice or set of interests.  But that, to me, is what will hopefully keep it interesting.

Until then, anyone that wants to chat about subnets, subliminal influences in colors, and substitution effects – or all 3 at once – will know where to find me.  Any other professional versatilists out there?

My mom still laments the fact she disregarded my stock picks of MSFT, AOL and INTC a few years ago. By a few years ago I mean 1993 when I thought these 3 companies would change the world as we know it. Thanks to Al Gore’s invention of the internet and the proliferation of desktop PCs as a ubiquitous staple of life in homes and businesses, my predictions came to fruition (with the help of many other game-changing companies and socioeconomic shifts) and my family still jokingly regrets not listening to the insights of an inquisitive 14 year old.

Fast forward a few more years to the dawning of the iPod. While most people way cooler than me donned the white headphones as a fashion statement, I vowed not to own one until it became a more robust hub of one’s digital life and it became something more than a walkman with crappy storage features. Thankfully I had disposable income and an IRA account set up by then, so I nibbled on a few bites of the AAPL. Sure it’s been good to investors since 2001 or so, but sometimes I wonder where I’d be if I had invested as much in the stock as I did in my education and several other distractions since then. Yes, I predicted the iPhone too, but that still seems like a no-brainer to me.

Of course my predictions aren’t always right. Back in 2003 I said Google would be Netscaped in light of their impending IPO. Boy was I way wrong there. I didn’t understand the business like I do today, and honestly I’m not convinced they fully did either. Regardless, this is a round-about way of saying I have plenty of other predictions of how things will shake out with respect to the GOOG. Having been exposed to the enormous base of products and services Google offers for the enterprise, education and individuals, I can clearly see the enormity of the opportunity that awaits a company that benefits from learning and predicting what it’s users know, seek, and share. For me, monetizing behaviors through targeted ads was only the first chapter in this long and luscious fairy tale.

I question the current valuation of GOOG just as much as any other sensible business pundit, but I think the value of the assets lies in the treasure trove of data in the behavioral and – more importantly – commercial patterns of the vast and growing user base. It won’t be about search results a few years from now. It’ll be about leveraging highly focused usage patterns and predictive ‘intelligence’ to drive social and commercial interactions.

The Prediction: In a decade or so, my daughter will one day cruise through the mall with her Android-powered communication device and be prompted to join her friends (triangulated by AmazonGPS) at the food court to redeem her stored value credits from her Facebook profile for a delicious McTaco Lite. Oh and BTW download Miley Cyrus’ co-branded comeback single “Back when fries were legal” via bluetooth when you get there. Those pants are finally on sale at Banana, too.

This prediction is, uh, predicated on the assumption that our privacy continues to be extremely unprivate to companies like Google, Facebook and device OEMs. I’m anxious to see how this all pans out, and this is only my take on the flurry of interesting news recently colliding in the realms of social media and emerging technology. Maybe I’m way off, or maybe it’ll be another lottery ticket in the making if I can find the right places to invest or create a niche business.

How will ubiquitous information and omnipotent technology change your world?