I love learning, and I feel so lucky to be able to immerse myself in it for 5 days at SXSW Interactive. Overall, I left with my brain buzzing and awake, which is exactly what I was hoping to accomplish. Yes, the tech part is just as full of people hoping to land a big gig as the music part, but being around 30,000 having ideas and DOING STUFF cannot help but rub off on me. Here are some good quotes I wrote down through my week at SXSW Interactive. (Most of these were scrawled during panels and I don’t always attribute when I’m scrawling, so…no attribution sometimes).

“Stop trying to be amazing.” – Oracle panelist quoting Jay Baer on content. Amazing is not scalable and repeatable. Useful is.

“The most important context is the context you don’t have.” – what is keeping your potential clients from finding you? Figure that out.

“Ambivalence and ambiguity can sharpen communication.” – Paola Antonelli keynote

“I stop shooting when I am no longer getting deeper, I am just getting more.” Filmmaker Jay Oppenheimer

“Taste is globalizing and homogenizing.” – Todd Yellin from Netflix. There’s no predicting what people will watch as a generalization. We’re all snowflakes!

“Emotional connection is the new definition of quality.” – Cubby Graham from Charity Water. If a 2 minute Youtube video hits you harder than a 2 hour movie, well…welcome to 2015.

“The future of marketing is philanthropy.”

“Work on the women first, then the business.” – Princess Reema on bringing women into the workforce in the Middle East.

“Mastery is not about the arriving, it’s about the reach.” – Sarah Lewis

“63% of consumers trust user generated content over brand generated content.” – Let your customer base evangelize.

“The internet is written in pen, not pencil.” – Lizzie Velasquez

“We on one hand like to be autonomous but we also like to be connected.” – Martine Rothblatt

“GIFs are the headlines of video.” Short form content rules.

“Tech advancement does not decrease the number of jobs, it dislocates them.” – U.S. Chief Technology Officer Megan Smith

“To say women should have equal pay shouldn’t make you a feminist, it should make you normal.” – Gina Prince-Bythewood (director)

“I love playing the worst idiot I can think of.” – Amy Schumer

“We are living in a content blizzard.” – Hugh Mcleod

“Tell your story more succinctly, and tell it native to each platform.” – Pete Cashmore, Mashable