This is the archived SXSW 2012 schedule. Please see the current schedule here.

Why Happiness Is the New Currency

#sxsw #happy

Moments of joy... moments of happiness... moments of gratitude. These are all moments that describe our lives. It is very easy to mistake these as only moments that happen in real life. One fundamental key part of how the web has evolved has involved emotion. Emotion has become more explicit in our actions online. Companies are faster becoming aware that, as obvious as it may seem, humans are at the receiving end of the UI and design theme that you have just created. We no longer simply engage in actions; we "like". We contribute content and are immediately validated through social interactions. What is obvious is that there's another person we're interacting with. What's even more obvious is what we're supposed to feel. In this digital era, there's a field of science that has been largely underutilized until now: affective science. In our work at Kiip, we have realized just how core the "happiness moment" is to our business model. Just how raw emotion can be directly tied to an achievement in a game - we have designed not only a UI but a "emotive" experience around harnessing the elements of the happiness that surrounds a simple interaction. Do you want to share? Do you want to gift? Do you want to save it? Is it fleeting? How can you control it? How do you have more of it later? In this session we'll hear, for the first time, from companies in the mobile and web space that have harnessed not only emotional power - but pressure - to drive their business models all using the currency of happiness. Not only have some of them accidentally created models that capture this emotion beautifully, but some of them have now learned how to sustain it. Happiness is the missing resource in your company. Learn how to capture it.

Presenters

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Ade Olonoh CEO Formspring

Ade Olonoh is the CEO and Founder of Formspring, a rapidly growing service with over 25 million members that gives people a fun, new way to find out more about each other. Before founding Formspring, Ade founded and managed Formstack, a profitable startup based in Indianapolis. Ade ran two other startups, including Recursive Function, where he created several web-based apps, and Bottled Software, a custom software development consultancy. He has a B.A. in Computer Science & Mathematics from Anderson University.

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Brian Wong Founder KIIP

Brian is the founder of kiip (pronounced "keep"), a stealth startup focused on mobile in-game advertising, backed by True Ventures. Very recently, Techcrunch and the Wall Street Journal called him the "youngest person to ever receive funding by a venture capital firm". Last year, at only 18-years-old, he was an early Bachelors of Commerce graduate from the University of British Columbia, after skipping four grades in elementary and high school.

Brian speaks around the world advocating youth entrepreneurship, while focusing on topics like youth targeted marketing, mobile marketing, and mobile gaming with social game dynamics. He has spent much of his time in Asia and Latin America working closely with young entrepreneurs and high-growth tech startups. He was recently lauded in Mashable as one of "The Top 5 Young Entrepreneurs to Watch", and the Vancouver Sun called him "a budding internet visionary". He was also recently a recipient of the Top 20 Under 20 awards in all of Canada, and the Impact Young Entrepreneur of the Year award. He is also the youngest charter member of the C100, an invitation only Silicon Valley based organization of top Canadian entrepreneurs, executives, and venture capitalists.

Before starting kiip, Brian was responsible for key publisher and tech partnerships at the social news website Digg.com. He also launched the Digg Android mobile app, adding to the company's rising mobile presence. He began his career after University by creating the world's first categorized Twitter discovery tool: Followformation.com. Followformation was touted as one of the best Twitter user discovery tools in Mashable, The Huffington Post, Fast Company, and more.

Dave Morin CEO/Co-Founder Path

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