Life is more fun in real-time. This might seem a tautology, but you’d be surprised how many SXSW hopefuls talks do little more than review recent history, while others speculate on some far-off tech future. A real-time discussion has the advantage of practising what it preaches; you get a talk, an interactive discussion and a demonstration (or in some cases an experiment) all at once. Our tips for this years Panel Picker include live battles between man and computer, interactive demonstrations WITH LASERS, crowdsourcing experiments and collaborative app-building, and even the odd meta-Panel, attempting to tweet and trend it’s way into influence. Give them your vote and you won’t just get to watch, you’ll get to be part of the talk as well.

Disclaimer: Urgent Genius and friends have submitted 10 panels and we think about 4 of them relate to real-time experimentation. We’ve peppered them throughout and we hope that they’ll be as entertaining as the other 10 we’re excited about seeing.

Can SXSW Become An Internet Meme?

Speakers: Matt Golding, Rubber Republic. Jon Burkhart, iris Worldwide’s Urgent Genius HQ
A room full of social media innovators at SXSW, versus a jealous online sphere, Tweeting bitterly about how they’re missing out. Surely there’s a gap here, waiting to be bridged by a bona-fide SXSW meme?! Our Urgent Genius experiment (emphasis on the experiment…) challenges participants to bring the lols after three nights without sleep. Are you up to the task? Give us your vote and find out!

Movie screens with frickin’ laser beams

Speakers: Adam Russell and John Sear of WallFour

Hyperbolic, interactive, innovative entertainment WITH FRICKIN LASERS!!! One hundred of them, to be exact. Aside from giving audience members free reign to let the lasers loose, this talk will address mass participatory viewing and how viable it might be as a more widespread option for cinemas.

Man vs Algorithm: Online Video Curation Face-off

Speakers: Mark Hustvedt, Tubefilter, Hunter Walk, YouTube, and an algorithm.

Are you with the humans, or will you side with the machines? Fortunately we’re not quite at Terminator-style battle stage yet, but online the question remains; who really knows what viewers want? Can an algorhithm be better than a human at curating video content? Are the human curators too slow, or does a machine fail to discern ‘real’ viewer enagement? This man vs machine showdown promises to find out.

SXSW Presentations:The Good, The Bad, The Trending

Speakers: Craig Pladson and Mike Caguin, Colle+McVoy

A panel about panels. Intriguing.. Pitched at the beginning of the festival, this talk will take stock of last year’s success stories and analyze what makes a great panel talk. Then they’ll predict in detail, using real-time data gathered via Twitter, which talks will be the best and worst of 2012. Intimidating, much? We’re inclined to think this talk sets itself up for a fall (according to their criteria, is their talk going to be the best of all?!) but we’re still very interested to know the secret of success!

Real-Time Marketing Is Here

Speakers: Michael Lazerow, Buddy Media, Shiv Singh, PepsiCo

An interview with Shiv Singh, global head of digital for PepsiCo, conducted by Buddy Media CEO Michael Lazerow. If the idea of real-time marketing still leaves you feeling dazed and confused, then this talk is the best place to start. Covering the pitfalls and advantages of real-time (and how to be ‘relevent without being creepy’), it offers a how-to guide to using real-time from one of it’s best-known practitioners.

Live Visual Blogging -> Realtime Social Drawing

Speakers: Fred Lakin, Performing Graphics Company, Rachel Smith, The Grove Consultants, David Sibbet, The Visual Meetings Company, Alan Levine, The CogDog

It’s not ‘video’, it’s realtime text-graphic journalism! We’re as confused as you, but this talk promises real-time enlightenment. Exploring both current use of the medium and it’s prospects for the future, this panel talk aims to find out live video blogging is the key to online authenticity, or an instant passport to chaos.

Do you really know what’s happening at SXSW

Speakers: Justin Graves, Infegy, Jenny Viscarolasaga, Gabriel Marketing

Well, do you? Justin Graves of web-analytics company Infegy does. Shifting through sentiment analytics, geographical breakdown and conversation volume, Graves’ talk will find out exactly how the world feels about SXSW, right this minute. Social media monitoring on hyperdrive; is it actually of any use? He’ll be asking this too. We can’t wait to see this, though we’re not sure we’ll be able to keep up…

Real-time Newsjacking & a Cold-blooded Tweeter

Speakers: Grant Hunter, iris Worldwide’s Urgent Genius HQ, Bronx Zoo Cobra, Matt Ryan, 4thAmendment Wear
Urgent Genius explains itself in style, in a panel discussion with a surreal and scaly twist. Exploring real-time responses that can go from niche to global on the coattails of the news, the panel are also joined by the Bronx Zoo Cobra, a lady snake on the run with a prolific Twitter following, who has the honour of being the conference’s first ever reptile speaker.

The Not So Allied Forces of Social TV Comedy

Speakers: Will Saunders, BBC Comedy. Jon Burkhart, Urgent Genius

British humour goes social in another of our talks in the running, where we ask why the country which invented the Edinburgh Fringe, Monty Python and, um, Graham Norton hasn’t yet discovered social comedy? With vox-pops from UK comedy’s leading lights as our guidance, we’re going to attempt to create a social comedy pilot, exclusively for YOU!*

*said comedy might turn out a disaster. But we promise lots of fun in the process!

Behavior change mash-up: Hacking a health app

Speakers: Liz Mitchell, CloserLook inc, David Ormesher, CloserLook inc, Martha Funnell, MS, RN, CDE, University of Michigan School of Nursing, Richard Black, Ph.D, Kraft Foods Global, Sean Slovensky, HumanaVitality, Jeff Leitner, Insight Labs

We might be a nation of screen-addled, sedentary slackers, but perhaps technology will save us from the obesity epidemic. Or so this panel is hoping. Four health experts hack out the ideal health app, one that can monitor individuals where the doctors have failed. The talk also explores the reality of doctors, investors and devlopers working together, and the present legal barriers inhibiting radical healthcare change.

3-2-1 Publish: Prepping the News Room for D-Day

Speakers: Rachel Petersen, Nectar PR, Joel Abrams, The Boston Globe, Eleanor Hong, ESPN3, Yoni Greenbaum, Philadelphia Media Network, Tim Ruder, Perfect Market

Unlike the other talk’s we’ve featured here, this one questions how far real-time can go. In media, writers are employed to compose obituaries for still-living celebrities. Why shouldn’t the same apply to world events? Can digital staff and social feedback loops prepare for the worst? And if they can, then should they? This panel explores how new data-mining techniques and algorthims can help predict what readers will want to be told, helping media outlets to manage when ‘D-Day’ arrives.

FOMO: You Won’t Want To Miss This

Speakers: Rachel Sklar, Change the Ratio, David Pakman, Venrock, Jocelyn Leavitt,  Nerd Nearby, Aubrey Sabala

Fear Of Missing Out. Are you at risk? Rachel Sklar of Hashable and Change the Ratio leads a discussion on social media’s favourite neurosis. This Very Exclusive Talk also promises champagne, limited seating and the possibility of an appearance by one A. Kutcher. Is it genuine, or is this just one massive real-time experiment in status anxiety? Not your average panel; we advise you to vote and not miss out!

Streamweaver: I believe you can take me, live

Speakers: Evonne Heyning, TechSoup Global, Sarah Austin, POP17

An exercise in organized tech chaos? Or just outright chaos, and web information overload brought to life? We’re not quite sure how this talk is going to work, but the promise of dozens of live-streaming celebrities, audience interaction and ‘vibrant local and global conversation’ across the world leaves us intrigued.

How to Rob a Bank in under 2 minutes

Speaker: Ken Habarta
Times are hard. It’s only a matter of time till we all end up bankrupt and are forced to go all Bonnie and Clyde on the bankers. Should you find yourself short-changed, this SXSW, we advise voting in this solo talk (and, we’re hoping, demo). Author Ken Habarta addresses ‘behavioural economics at it’s most raw’-rich rewards for all attendees!!