This is the third (and final) in a series of podcasts we recorded at the Conversation Starters party at SXSW on 3/10/08. If you’re new to the series, you’ll probably want to jump back to the first post to get the back story and listen to the first five (and the next five in the second post). If you’ve just come from there or already listened to the first two sessions, let’s get started with Round Three!

Jake “Community Guy” McKee – @jakemckee on Twitter
Jake’s one of those guys that’s been around the community space for a long time and has the battle scars (and experience) to show for it. He also has a relaxed way about him, probably because he’s seen it all over the years. This was the first time I’d met Jake in person, but I’ve followed and read his work for the last few years. One of my favorite pieces goes back to 2005 when he wrote a post called “What Is Community?” – great stuff. In this podcast, Jake describes community as “success by 1,000 paper cuts” He was the last person we interviewed during the Conversation Starters party (you can hear the staff in the background trying to turn the room for the SXNW party that was slated to start in about 30 minutes). Download this podcast or stream it below.

After we wrapped up with Jake (and finished our beer), we packed up and started to head downstairs. It was at that point we realized it might be a long night of waiting in lines if we left the Iron Cactus (the line for the soon-to-be-starting SXNW party wrapped around the building). So we chatted with the guys hosting the SXNW party and they agreed to let us stay and podcast into the night. The final three interviews were conducted upstairs in our studio (err… table and chairs).

Robert Miggins – VP, Business Development of Peer1 We met Robert soon after the SXNW party got started and were impressed by the dedication they have to their community. With blogs, forums and a social network for customers, friends and partners, Peer1 is intimately aware of the benefits of community. Robert had one of my favorite responses of the night when he answered my question about what companies should think about when just getting into social media… “just get started.” Download this podcast or stream it below.

Dave Olson – Community Evangelist, Raincity Studios
Raincity Studios was another sponsor of the event and Dave (or DaveO as he’s known ) was a great interview. He talked about how he’s reinventing the marketing role to be more social, creating a series of “camps’ to bring people interested in specific concepts or technology together with the Raincity brand. He “spoke from the hip” and we had a truly original (and incredibly authentic) conversation. Download this podcast or stream it below.

Joshua Porter and Mike McDermott – @bokardo and @mikemcd on Twitter What a way to finish the evening! Josh is a social design rockstar and prolific blogger at Bokardo.com. Mike is the CEO of Freshbooks, a company that helps small companies track time and facilitate billing. The party was really getting going when Josh and Mike sat down (you can hear it in Aaron’s intro). We probably could have spent 30+ minutes with these guys, but in the end the crowd started taking over the room so we wrapped for the evening. Josh wrote a SXSW summary post last week that briefly touched on our conversation, including some really interesting replies in the comments. Download this podcast or stream it below.

If you’ve made it this far, congrats and thank you! In some respects, it feels like we captured lightning in a bottle with this series of conversations. It’s rare to have this many social media beekeepers, thought leaders, practioners, writers and visionaries in one place… at one time. It’s another thing to record conversations with them. We had fun and think they had fun… hopefully you had fun listening in on the conversations. we’ll continue to build on this series of conversations in the coming weeks/months/years with the goal of giving you more info about social media in a fun, easy to digest format. Until next time… ;-)

Cross-posted on Mzinga.com