Niche thyself.  So says Guy Kawasaki, and it’s pretty good advice.  Being the best at something is generally a stronger position than being average at everything.

These images from our recent trip to the States show three retailers that have taken that advice to the extreme.

Example 1:

Take a single animal.  Sell bits of it, not the whole thing.  Always add salt.

Example 2:

Sell one product, but sell every variety you can get your hands on.

Example 3

Potentially a rip off of a Simpsons episode, …

When you make content that is worth sharing, people link to it.  They talk about it, and pass it on.

A few weeks ago we rolled in a number of cool new features to Eventarc, making the service even more powerful for event organisers.  There is only one thing we forgot to do, and that was tell anyone about it!  In our defence, we were somewhat preoccupied with our trip to SXSW in Texas.

Now that we are back down under and fully recovered from the jet lag, here are a few of those features that you have already had access to for the last 3 weeks!

New Dashboard View

We have updated the information available on your Eventarc dashboard to make it cleaner, clearer and more focused on the important information.  You now have immediate access to tickets …

The SXSW Trade Show.  Over 400 vendors all competing for attention, all selling their wares.  Each have spent tens of thousands of dollars on their booth to make them look professional and successful.

The problem is, all 400 look the same.  Everyone has flashy signs, matching furniture, t-shirts to give away, brochures to take and free beer to drink.

You get to the end of the show and you cannot tell one from the other.  They all spend their budgets in order to stand out, but it has the opposite effect.  They blend in….

Eventarc are representing at SXSW this year, and having a blast!  Here are a few images which show the journey so far, but l will try and add some up later of our actual trade stall.  The concept for our stall was developed by the great people at Michi Girl, and has proven so unique that people are literally stopping to take photos of it!

The first, celebratory drink consumed upon departure.

Baggage claim at Austin airport

The streets of Austin…

The awesome SXSW festival kicks off today, and Eventarc and many other Australian companies will be there!  We flew in last night after around about 28 hours spent in either airports or on planes, but it should be worth the effort.

Austin Texas – famous for music, barbeques and Tex Mex apparently!  Over the next five days we will be updating our twitter feed and our blog with images and thoughts from the conference, so please follow along if you are keen!

Adobe held their Refresh Roadshow 2010 in Melbourne yesterday, and it seemed to be pretty well attended by the Melbourne design and development community.  We were fortunate enough to be invited to demonstrate our product and engage in a bit of friendly Q&A during the morning keynote.

Our product is built using Adobe Flex, so it gave us the opportunity to demonstrate some of the awesome features and explain why it was the best product choice for us.  Flex really has given us the ability to develop quicker and with higher quality, given the interface we are trying to produce for our customers.

Thanks …

Did you know that by using Eventarc, your customers can help to promote your event for you? We recently added a social media icon set to the confirmation page of every event, allowing your ticket buyers to promote and talk about your event via their existing networks.

A great example of this in action is the use of Twitter for the 2010 Mother’s Day Classic. Online registration for this event is driven by Eventarc, and users can promote the fact that they have signed up by “tweeting” the event.

Both @AmyLeeBent and @ReneeBelsey are getting into the swing of it!

…

You may have heard already, but Eventarc will be in attendance at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas. We are all very excited at the opportunity, and cannot wait to meet some of our international customers and friends.

Why are we going?

Good question. Actually, we have been selected to attend the festival as part of a Victorian Government Trade Mission. The mission is organised by our friends at Portable, and funding is thanks to the Department of Innovation, Industry and Regional Development.

Only six companies were selected, and we are honoured and excited that Eventarc was one of them.

What is the SXSW Festival?

Well, in their own words:

SXSW Interactive features five days of compelling presentations from the …