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January 24, 2011

how rackspace needs to talk to people at sxsw

6 Comments

[Down­load the prin­ta­ble ver­sion here etc.]

““South-By” is almost upon us, and so here I am thin­king up new SXSW Inte­rac­tive ideas for my client, Racks­pace, who will have a pre­sence there.

We have a basic idea what we’ll be doing– I know Sco­ble is invol­ved– but that’s all still under wraps.

Nonethe­less, I drew the car­toon above.

As with my usual approach, the mes­sage is less about, “This is what we do and this is how much it costs”, and more about, “We hold these truths to be self-evident”.

Think about it: Racks­pace is a fast-growing com­pany. It needs to hire really good peo­ple. Lots of them.

And to do that, it has to con­vince a lot these really good peo­ple to relo­cate to their main cam­pus in San Anto­nio, Texas.

Have you ever been to San Anto­nio? Exactly.

Now, don’t get me wrong, San Anto­nio is a per­fectly lovely Texas town, hugely unde­rra­ted com­pa­red to say, Aus­tin, 80 miles to the North.

But still, it isn’t one of those towns where “Every­body” goes to, like New York, Chi­cago, Aus­tin or San Fran­cisco. It’s not a capital.

So in order to get some of the best brains in the country to move there, you have to offer them something else. Affor­da­ble hou­sing, good schools, high qua­lity of life, high stan­dard of living etc. etc.

But you also have to offer them, as Racks­pace Chair­man, Graham Wes­ton said in 2010, the chance to be on “on a win­ning team, on an ins­pi­ring mission.”

Peo­ple don’t go to South-By in order to buy stuff, to buy Racks­pace hos­ting. They go there to see their friends, to com­mune with their tribe, and yes, to look for oppor­tu­ni­ties that allow them to play on the afo­re­men­tio­ned win­ning team.

THAT is how Racks­pace needs to talk to peo­ple at South-By.

Doing something that mat­ters. On a win­ning team. That’s why I wrote the car­toon the way I did.

Life is short. Make it amazing.

And so there y’are…

Tags: Graham Weston, Rackspace, Rackspace Cartoons, rackspace.gapingvoid.com, Robert Scoble, SXSW, SXSW Interactive

6 Responses to “how rackspace needs to talk to people at sxsw”

1. Huey Ly says:

   January 25, 2011 at 8:29 AM

   Well said .

   I’m a long time emplo­yee and was recently trans­fe­rred to Texas from Vir­gi­nia. Had a choice bet­ween San Anto­nio and Aus­tin and I chose Aus­tin right off the bat. But some times I wish I had pic­ked San Anto­nio because all the pas­sion, energy, and action are there. It’s a trade off bet­ween the two loca­tions. I love living in Aus­tin tho!

   Reply
   • Hugh MacLeod says:

     January 25, 2011 at 9:42 AM

     Hey Luey,

     I lived in Aus­tin 4 years, as a UT under­grad. I can cer­tainly see the trade-off…

     Reply
2. Danielle Kieschnick says:

   January 25, 2011 at 10:34 AM

   .…same with College or Busi­ness Schools. You don’t pick the school you go to based on loca­tion. You choose the school that is the best you can get into, has an ama­zing reputation…where you can make an impact and get uni­que expe­rience to cata­pult your career.
   You don’t come to RAX for San Anto­nio (although the cost of living, no state taxes, & cul­ture are fab!)

   Reply
3. Tweets that mention how rackspace need to talk to people at sxsw | gapingvoid -- Topsy.com says:

   January 25, 2011 at 12:12 PM

   […] This post was men­tio­ned on Twit­ter by Hugh Mac­Leod, Hugh Mac­Leod, Hugh Mac­Leod, Hugh Mac­Leod, Hugh Mac­Leod and others. Hugh Mac­Leod said: new blog post: “how @rackspace need to talk to peo­ple at #sxsw” http://bit.ly/enVFuY cc: @kr8tr […]

   Reply
4. Sonia Simone says:

   January 25, 2011 at 2:29 PM

   Yeah, spot on.

   Reply
5. Paul Henley says:

   February 3, 2011 at 5:50 PM

   I hope you show up for SXSW. If not this year, some year.

   pth

   Reply