2014 Schedule
Interactive: March 7–11  •  Film: March 7–15  •  Music: March 11–16

4 Caffeinated Strangers Launch a Product, Live

#sxsw #4strangers

Watch this fast-paced experiment where four strangers come together to launch a product in an hour.
One supercoder will launch the back-end for an e-commerce website.
One design guru will bang out stylesheets and logos.
One statistics savant will build a forecast exploring an industry trend.
One moderator will keep the flow moving.
At the end of the hour, the industry forecast template will be available to the world. Seriously.
Join us to watch specialists actually do the work to create a knowledge product and sell it online. Our analyst will build a spreadsheet model to explore an industry trend. His advanced demo will use time-series analysis and Markov chains. The product will be listed on a WordPress powered site with payments through Stripe and a download management system. Our front-end designer will implement a template and give the site a custom feel with CSS tweaks. Then we all cross our fingers and click "launch."

Presenters

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Bill Hogan

Sr Mgr, Central Demand Mgmt

Advanced Micro Devices

Bill Hogan is an experienced analyst in the semiconductor industry. He grew up in the New England area and graduated with high honors from UMass Amherst with a degree in Operations Management. He later received his MBA from The University of Texas at Austin, concentrating in Management Science. He turned down a life in statistics to pursue a career in technology. Bill is an avid cyclist and former professional runner. He and his wily Australian Shepherd live in Austin, Texas.

Jess Morse

Project Mgr

512 Operations Group LLC

Jess Morse is a freelancer and 'Austin-preneur'. He studied MIS and Economics at the University of Texas and worked in operations for tech companies before hanging his own shingle. He enjoys spending time with his young family and exploring Austin.

43086

Pippin Williamson

Founder

Pippin's Plugins

Pippin Williamson founded Pippin's Plugins and freelances in web design and development. He is a frequent contributor to the WordPress community and authored popular plug-ins such as Easy Digital Downloads and Restrict Content Pro. He studied Linguistics and Latin American Studies at University of Kansas.

41342

Shiloh Daniel

Web Developer

Blackbaud

Shiloh Daniel is a web developer at Blackbaud, specializing in peer-to-peer fundraising sites for non-profits. She moved to Austin in 1992 and has a BA in Philosophy from the University of Texas and a Masters of Public Affairs from the LBJ School. It was there in 1998 that she learned a little HTML in a class and has been coding ever since. She has worked for UT-Austin, Active.com, and Convio.

Thanks to our sponsors

Miller Lite Monster Energy Esurance Chevrolet AT&T IFC Subway Austin Chronicle

Music sponsor

Sonic Bids

Interactive sponsors

Deloitte American Express Pennzoil