I was delighted to see Good Apples' incredible work on display today on the Denver Egotist. They designed the program for TEDxBoulder (which doubled as each attendee's badge) and are having their work featured in the 2011 Communication Arts Design Annual.

As one of the organizers of TEDxBoulder, I'm instantly reminded of how special our inaugural year was. I can't wait to do it again on Sept. 24 at Macky Auditorium. (Tickets on sale now!)

[Image credit: Good Apples]

I contributed to a group interview on the Trada blog about How to Market Your Business on Twitter and ended up mentioning pandas and something I described as programmatic slime:

What I meant was that if you're a little too clinical and precise about your Twitter strategy, you may make folks queasy. It's the same principle as the uncanny valley. Just as humans are better when they be real, so are conversations.

Here's a panda:

One of my favorite parts of any Ignite Boulder is the mandatory rehearsal we hold about two weeks before the event. As I explained in this lovely interview I did for the SlideShare blog on how to organize an Ignite event, rehearsal is critical to ensuring that the speakers are ready to bring maximum heat.

This photo may not look like much, but what it captures is hugely important: a roomful of people, earnestly working to make an idea better.

We're doing our best to make our Sweet 16 extra special. I hope you'll be there. (Tickets here!)

[Photo credit: Andrew Hyde]

My lovely girlfriend and I went on a painting date last weekend. We took a lesson at PoshSplat, a place that lets you paint something pretty while drinking wine or (in my case) Clementine Izze.

I hadn't painted since high school, so I was pretty anxious. Stephanie did marvelously well. Here's how we did, including the instructor's version that we mimicked in real time:

I added a slice of pizza to mine. The implied narrative is this:

A hungry bird plucks a slice of pizza from the tomb of Chef Boyardee and takes to the skies. His nerves get the better of him, though, and he loses his beaky grip on the slice, watching it tumble from his mouth and toward the ground. The sun, ever the observer of the world's mundane events, laughs merrily. A nearby haunted tree opens its mouth in the hope that the bird will fly into it, providing some long-sought sustenance.

Art!

My review of Big Omaha 2011 in a word: focused.

I went into this conference looking for something smaller and more intimate. What I found was a collection of some of the most directed and sharp minds I've ever been around. The conference allowed me to get close to these folks and have genuine conversations with them, since they weren't preoccupied with other events happening just around the block (which is so often the case at SXSWi, for example).

The speakers were excellent and made themselves readily available instead of scampering off to a VIP room immediately after speaking. (Gary Vaynerchuk gets props for calling that practice out.) At one point, I found myself on stage with Gary and asked him about romance and World of Warcraft. I got too excited.

I also did an on-camera interview with Big Omaha's video team Malone & Co., wherein I touched on the best aspects of Big Omaha (people genuinely want to be there), what I learned there and how I want to utilize it (to make Boulder even better) and how absolutely thrilled I was to have snagged a ticket (which were limited to 600 or so).

I describe Big Omaha as "focused" because there isn't a lot of garbage standing between you and a great conversation. It's a single track affair, which I LOVED. (I had expressed reservations about this in my previous post.) By eliminating a lot of the conference clutter, Big Omaha allows you to focus on the content and extracting inspiration from it because your head is freed up to actually think about it, instead of racing around trying to check in everywhere.

I will return. I will bring friends. I just hope there are tickets available. Best problem in the world to have. Nice work, Big Omaha!

I'm disappearing to Nebraska for four days to attend the Big Omaha conference, a notably smaller affair than South by Southwest Interactive. I think it's capped at 500 peeps - something like that. And it's focused less on social media/tech and more to do with innovation and entrepreneurship.

I'm curious to see how much I like a smaller conference, having attended back-to-back large conferences (BlogWorld and SXSWi).

There are the obvious benefits that come with its smallness - greater intimacy, easier connection with attendees and a smaller pricetag. But there will be drawbacks (or at least I assume): fewer session options, less swag and freebies (haha), and fewer people altogether.

Let's hope that I love it. I have a feeling I will.

I went to the opera for the first time, at the behest of my girlfriend. It was awesome. I wore a suit and everything, since it was opening night (and suits are required or whatever).

If you've never been, you should go. And take me along. I travel light. Here's a quote from the Denver Post's review of the Cinderella performance I saw:

Pacing is everything in this meticulously interwoven production, and conductor Timothy Long could hardly handle it more adroitly, with lively, spot-on tempos that kept the action — and the comedy — whizzing along.

It was totally whizzy.

(Photo credit: Cyrus McCrimmon, Denver Post)

I changed my username from @pugofwar to @pug, effectively immediately.

Why?

Because I thought it would be fun.

Is it?

Totes. I have to change a bunch of links, but it's a pretty cool name.

Does this change how you feel about me?

A little. I trust you a little less, but I'm still going to help you move apartments.

Any other big changes on the horizon?

I'm probably going to use more emoticons. :-)

Today is 4/20, a day that the rascals of the world have set aside to commemorate marijuana and counterculture in general. That's terribly noble and junk.

But what the world needs is to celebrate the efforts of this man:

This is Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge. He discovered caffeine in 1819. His birthday is March 25. I propose that we celebrate National Caffeine Day aka 3/25. Consider it the geek's 4/20, since we owe so much to caffeine.

I hope I have your support. Let's get jittery together forever.

Like many of my Boulder friends, I flew out to Austin to attend South by Southwest Interactive. In the spirit of Facebook, here are my Likes and Dislikes:

LIKES

• Tons of restaurants, dwarfing Boulder's selection.
• Excellent weather.
• Plenty of opportunities to meet up with people - even more if you planned via GroupMe or Twitter.

DISLIKES

• Too much focus on VIP status. I hope SXSWi 2012 is much more open.
• The SXSW iPhone app didn't list the names of speakers, which was a huge miss in my opinion. I opted not to use it for that reason.
• My hotel (Four Season Austin) charged for Wifi. This really, really, really needs to go away.