Celeste Dawn Mitchell

SXSWi 2008 Podcasts

Here are podcasts from a few sessions I really enjoyed at South by Southwest Interactive 2008.

1. LOLWUT? Why Do I Keep Coming Back to This Website?

Eric Nakagawa and Ben Huh (donning a cheezburger hat) discuss LOLcats a.k.a I Can Has Cheezburger. Nakagawa covers the site's origin and rabid fan base, and Huh covers the metrics (over 1.5 million page views a day!), user behavior and best practices. You had to be there to get the full effect, but Rocketboom's funny video recap captures some of the flavor.

2. The Art of Speed: Conversations with Monster Makers

Tips on staffing, product launches, scalability and more from entrepreneurs who achieved quick success. Moderated by Tim Ferriss (The 4-Hour Workweek), and featuring Mike Cassidy (successful startup CEO and co-founder), Evan Williams (Twitter/Obvious), and Cali Lewis (GeekBriefTV).

3. The popular Frank Warren PostSecret Keynote (video and liveblog link).

This session had nothing to do with technology and EVERYTHING to do with human connection. There wasn't a dry eye in the house.

What's an Interactive Producer?

Many people I met at SXSWi were unsure of exactly what an Interactive Producer does. (Most of the conference attendees were either bloggers, developers, designers or start-up people. We corporate content folks were definitely in the minority.)

What we do, of course, varies from organization to organization, but here's a synopsis of how I see my job.

My title: Interactive Producer, also known as Web Producer, Online Producer, Content Producer, Content Editor or Content Manager

What I do: Conceptualize, write, build and manage online content to extend Discovery Communications’ brands and support network initiatives; Work with internal New Media group as well as third-party vendors in the development of high-profile sites; Identify profitable online sponsorship opportunities and build and package features to fulfill sponsorships; Create project plans and work with show producers and talent to acquire online content; Maintain home page and broadband player content.

Austin, here I come

Trading Spaces

Another late post. Here's the new Trading Spaces site, which launched in January.

 

My role in developing this site

• Assist in developing content plan
• Decide on questions to ask talent on camera for video elements
• Request and gather online assets from show runner, production staff and TLC Communications
• Provide design direction to third-party vendor
• Build pages in TeamSite (CMS)
• Manage skinning of forums and video player
• Screen video clips and provide editorial direction
• Request images and video
• QA site
• Make site updates as needed

Miss America Live

The Miss America site went up in January, but I've been quite the busy bee since then, so I'm way late getting this in the blog. We reworked the Miss America: Reality Check site for the live pageant on Jan. 26.

My role in developing this site

• Request and gather online assets from show runner and production staff
• Work with third-party vendor to launch and update site (weekly for Miss America: Reality Check, and for live pageant)   
• Build pages in TeamSite (our CMS)
• Manage skinning of forums and video player
• Screen confessional footage to create online clips,
• Manage video editing
  
• QA site

Here are some screen caps (from the re-air).

Contestants Page: Viewers were able to vote a contestant into the finals through the site.

About Celeste Dawn Mitchell

Celeste is an Interactive Producer for Discovery Communications, the number-one nonfiction media company. She currently produces web content for...

     

View her LinkedIn profile here.

Miss America: Reality Check

As you may or may not have heard, TLC acquired the rights to the Miss America pageant. Not only is the network revamping the pageant's image, but TLC is also putting the contestants on a reality show, hosted by Ugly Betty star Michael Urie. I put up the placeholder page for the show last week.

I present, Miss America: Reality Check.

Stay tuned.

Fashionably Late with Stacy London

Here a microsite we launched for Stacy London's new late-night talk show, Fashionably Late with Stacy London. I had a lot of restless nights over this one -- I don't really like to talk about it. Glad it's up. :)

This marked the first time we skinned the forums and video player to match the site's color scheme. You'll be seeing another TLC microsite with skinned components in the next few weeks.

Oh yeah. The show airs Fridays at 10/9c on TLC.

My role in developing this site

 

• Assist in developing content plans
• Make online requests to show producers
• Gather assets from show producers and TLC Communications
• Work with third-party vendors to provide design direction
• Get design sign-offs from management
• Build pages in TeamSite (our CMS)
• Manage skinning of forums and video player
• Screen video clips and provide editorial direction
• QA site
• Make site updates as needed

 

TLC Cooking & Entertaining Guide

Here's a Ziploc-sponsored site I launched earlier this month. It's TLC's Cooking & Entertaining Guide.

tlc.com/cooking

   

It includes a wine guide, entertaining tips, a recipe search, and new video recipes that I roll out each week. TLC was the guinea pig (as we often are) for the new database that backs the recipe search. This was also our first time incorporating a widget (for the related recipe on the right).

TLC Fashion Guide

Here's the TLC Fashion Guide, which I refreshed for the fall season. My main tasks were to work with an in-house designer on a new look and pick new features for the page. Guides like these have provided our site with great sponsorship opportunities.

Enjoy.