Since August 15, you may have run across pleas on Twitter for votes on particular SXSW Panel.  Yes, it is panel picker time where SXSW invites the community to have their 30% say (+30% Staff and 40% Advisory Board) in what panels will be accepted for SXSW Interactive (SXSWi) in March 2012.

I am a BIG SXSWi fan and so I clicked on over there to participate. I was faced with 3278 choices. The most numerous panel choices were for the Marketing (551) and Social Media (456) categories with Emerging Technologies/Mobile (402) third.

Marketing (when you fold Social Media into it) accounts for more than 30% of the panels. To me, that is a lot of potential fluff.  Engineering and design have always been and will continue to be the bedrock of our industry.  Shouldn’t the panels reflect that?  A more appropriate mix would be 35% Emerging Technologies/Mobile to choose from.

In my five years of attending SXSWi, panels have pretty much been the weakest part of the conference with Keynotes and Core Conversations the strongest. And, you can be sure that the more folks on the panel, the more diluted and general (i.e., boring) the panel is apt to be.  It looks like SXSW Interactive has been receiving this kind of feedback and posted this advisory:

“SXSW Interactive is specifically looking for more advanced-level ideas, as well as more sessions that cover technical issues. We are also interested in seeing more solo and dual presentations.”

With that in mind, here are my top 5 panel picks:

1. Networked Public Radio: The NPR API Adds Stations

2. The Mind & Consciousness as an Interface

3. Social Evolution Causing Real World Revolution

4. Driving the Change: Public Media goes Transmedia

5. Tweeting Osama’s death: From Citizen to Journalist

As you can assess from my choices, I’m no techie, but I really tried to concentrate on the emerging and the new with a focus on how technology is affecting all media.

What are your top 5 panels and what was your criteria in voting for them?