Social TV Panel Packed to Capacity at SXSW - Overflow Creates Impromptu Session Next Door

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Published on Tuesday, 15 March 2011 11:40

The social TV panel was so popular at SXSW 2011 in Austin Texas this year, that some 40 who were slightly late, ended up forming an impromptu second 'unconference' style meeting next door - headed by New York Times writer Jennifer Preston who dubbed it #rebelTV, according to From Cory Bergman over at Lost Remote. This is great news for all of us Social TV aficionados who have been waiting for it to enter the Zeitgeist!

And again - just one day later, the same group  from the original social TV panel tried to satiate demand and held the panel and again, the venue was packed to capacity.

More from Bergman over at Lost Remote:

This is just one indication of the growing popularity of social TV, from second screens to check-ins. At the session, Sladden declared that linear TV is far from dead, but is making a resurgence. “Every tweet is a perfect little marketing message for your show,” she said. “Twitter and television have a unique relationship.” Mentioning Jersey Shore and Real Housewives as examples (see our earlier story), Sladden said that real-time conversations can help draw people out of DVRs into live TV again.

...One of the most interesting part of the panel was the suggestion that TV shows need to hire “community managers” or “second screen VJs” in new programming/marketing roles. And everyone recognized the challenge of synchronizing social media with three different time zones (no easy answers here.)

From CNN:

Day 2 at SXSWi. A long line of folks who were unable to get into this morning's social TV panel found an empty room next door and started an impromptu #rebeltv panel. Everyone went around the room and introduced themselves, and participants included people from NYT, BBC, CNN, public radio, and companies like Miso, among many others. It turned out to be a fantastic discussion. That's what the spirit of SXSWi is all about!

The Social Media Leviathans at Mashable also covered the event:

Panelists, which ranged from the likes of Chloe Sladden of Twitter to Gavin Purcell from Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, discussed ways in which they incorporate social media into popular television shows such as "No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain" and "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon."

Fred Graver, the senior VP of Travel Channel, spoke to the audience about his initial skepticism regarding the integration of Twitter into "No Reservations." "It wasn't a no brainer for us." said Graver. "The whole thing here is if you have 36-48 hours before the show premiers, do you want to spend your time talking about Tony (Bourdain) live-tweeting? And that was a big discussion but we decided, yes lets do it."

Doing it proved to be successful for Graver and the Travel Channel, with "No Reservations" currently at more than 1 million "likes" on Facebook and an increasingly active Twitter following.