South by Southwest 2011 will take place in Austin, TX in March and each year the conference sessions are submitted by people all over the country to present on topics including web apps, entrepreneurship, social media, and more.

This year I submitted a presentation with Eric Jennings from Loopshot called “Beyond Mashups: Connecting Web Apps in the Cloud” to discuss and demonstrate what is possible when trying to connect multiple web applications so that they can send, receive and share data between one another.

Vote Here! http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/ideas/view/7077

Beyond Mashups: Connecting Web Apps in the Cloud
Have you ever wanted to capture your project management or time entry data from Basecamp within an invoicing application like Freshbooks, or perhaps a customer relationship management tool like Salesforce.com? Maybe you want your WordPress traffic to publish to multiple analytics systems at the same time, update your Google calendar from your online to-do list app or have Craigslist send you a direct message on Twitter the moment the that first edition of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” shows up? In this session, the presenters will give you a crash course on how simple it is to leverage data from web applications and have them do your bidding. There is not a single web application out there that can do everything. In fact, we believe each one should focus on doing what they were intended and performing those functions extremely well. This session will not only discuss technologies including REST and SOAP APIs, webhooks, microformats, data portability, and JSON/XML data, but also demonstrate how you can connect any number of web based applications together and get them talking with one another with real-world examples.

Questions that will be answered

1. What is a mashup?
2. Are cloud app mashups hard?
3. Who’s JSON and why do I need to know him?
4. How exactly do you leverage the multitude of interesting APIs available on the web today?
5. Can I see some quickie real-world examples of just how mind-blowing this is?

Ignite Reno #2 is coming up on the night of Thursday, July 16th at Amendment 21.

Wondering Ignite Reno is all about?
Watch the intro video to find out!

Check out presentations from the last Ignite Reno.

Think Kindness has collected over 2,500 3,800 pairs of shoes and now we need help delivering them to Nyeri, Kenya, where they will be personally placed on the feet of children in need. Many of these children have never owned a pair of shoes.

Join me on June 7th at the Manzanita Bowl at the University of Nevada, Reno for a 1 mile walk without (or with, if you prefer) shoes. Our goal is to have over 1,500 walkers so please spread the word to your friends, family, and coworkers!

Call to Action! What can you do?
1. Register for TAKE THE WALK today!

2. Visit TAKE THE WALK on Facebook

3. Print or email flyers (PDF) for your friends, family, and coworkers

4. Post the flyer (JPG) on your blog or website

Take The Walk from Brian Williams on Vimeo.

The first-ever Ignite Reno was a great hit! You can check out the videos at http://ignitereno.blip.tv.