A few days into South By Southwest Interactive, I was fortunate to sit down with Katy Zacks, John McHale and Bill Pauls from the national creative services firm SapientNitro. McHale and Pauls are based in Atlanta and run creative and interactive marketing for companies like Coca Cola. Zack is a social media whiz from New York. I wanted to find out what these industry masterminds were looking for in the bright lights of the Austin Convention Center this year, but also what they expect to be the hot topics for next year.

For starters, there was talk of the plethora of plaid shirts at the Convention Center, the wonder of Kombucha after a long night of drinking and the long lost civility of beepers. That was just the first 10 minutes.

Karie Meltzer: What were you hoping to find at SXSW Interactive this year?

Bill Pauls: Last year at SXSW, the iPad didn't even exist [though we all knew it was coming] and now we're already seeing the iPad2. I was hoping to see more panels on how to create for multiple platforms and devices. I've probably downloaded 50-100 apps in the last two days, but in about four months, I'll start ditching them...We live in this attention economy. I probably have half a dozen emails, Twitter feeds, a few phone numbers - you can reach me in 25 different ways, and trying to keep up with that is a burden. We need some sort of aggregation, but I haven't seen that yet.

John McHale: I'm wondering which site is going to accomplish that. We're already seeing it with Facebook. I have no need for a Flickr account now that I can just use Facebook for all my photos, and now Facebook is into location-based. It used to be, if you had a great idea, you tried to sell it to Microsoft. Then Google. Now it's Facebook. But there might be something entirely new.

KM: What about the concept of social in technology. How is SXSWi setting the example for how we act, our manners, as we use new technology?

BP: We saw this panel, Dear Miss Manners, and she talked a lot about how the social rules are changing and different with each community. She gave the example of how, a year ago, she was at a conference and the speaker referenced something she didn't know much about. She popped open her laptop to Google it, and two older people behind her tapped her on the shoulder and said she was being rude. But from her perspective, she was just adding depth and understanding to her experience. I also think it's funny that we used to actually say, "I've gotta go" when we were texting or instant messaging. Now, you might be in the middle of a conversation online and get up to go to a meeting, and it isn't expected that you'll tell the person "bye." Sometimes you just walk away. The rules are constantly changing.

JM: When you're sitting here talking like we are, you can get things like irony. Not with messaging.

BP: I hear they aren't even going to teach cursive in schools much longer!

Katy Zack: No cursive, teach programming!

KM: What were some of the hottest topics this year that weren't on anyone's radar last year?

JM: Last year it was all about location-based. It's been about social for a while now, but this year I was really expecting more about mobile devices. Definitely the concept of the paywall, with the new New York Times model.

BP: The digital wallet is definitely a big topic.

KZ: There are also a lot of health and education topics, which was surprising to some I think.

KM: Another interesting thing that has come up in some panels is the concept of the social media expert. Does it exist?

BP: There are people that blog and tweet. And then there are the people who follow the trends, identify successes, monetize and strategize them. That's where the value is.

KZ: I have 2,000 Twitter followers. Does that mean I'm good at social media? Do I really know why people want to read what I have to say? Not really, but I know that I got a job in PR and social media because I'm active online, so I must be doing something right. Everyone wants to figure out the metrics of this. How can we prove that there is value in social media?

BP: When people post stuff to Twitter that says, "10 Rules of Social Media," I just can't stand it. This thing has only existed for a few years, don't tell me there are rules.

KM: Except maybe don't tag your friends in drunk photos. That's now a universally-accepted rule. Looking ahead to next year, what do you think people will be talking about at Interactive?

BP: The divergence in content. Right now there's all the social media, citizen journalism, microblogging, and that has its own head of steam. But then there's the professional content, which is going behind a paywall - New York Times, Rolling Stone, Wall Street Journal. You've got these two camps, like the difference between YouTube and HBO.

JM: And that means one of two things will happen in the future, and I'm not sure which one. Either people will stop paying attention to the quality content because it isn't free, and we'll all be dumbed down. Or, people will get bored with the free content and they'll be willing to make a transaction to get it. Overall, the focus has to be on unique content. It's hard for news to be unique anymore because everyone is posting the same stories. Who actually broke it? It's interesting to watch some companies assign value to their brand, for example asking you to "like" them on Facebook before you can read something or watch an ad on Hulu before you can watch the video for free.

BP: We heard a great comment here, "99 cents is the new free." Apple said "music has value and we're gonna charge for it." It worked, Napster went away.

JM: Then the trust and validation comes in. What company are you willing to store your credit card with? It's one thing with Apple or the New York Times. But the digital wallet opens up a whole new discussion about trust.

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See what I mean? I think we ended the interview with more questions than answers, which in my book made for a really fascinating hour. I've officially invented the Q&Q! Please comment below if you want to sound off on your SXSWi experience. You can check out what Sapient's up to on Facebook and Twitter.

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Awesome and related stuff you might have missed:

SXSWi - The Winners and The Losers

Blake Mycoskie Talks TOMS at SXSWi

Sketches of SXSW Archetypes