We've pulled together a short summary of what the team at Google Creative Lab are involved with at SXSW in March 2012.

Rather than begging (there's plenty of time for that, trust me), and borrowing openly from the way our friends at BBH Labs have outlined what they're up to in March, we've simply outlined what we're talking about and suggested why it might be worth you spending 15 seconds voting for us. Please have a read.

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1. Collaboration Welcome, No A$$holes Allowed

A panel about the importance of company culture in evolving new models of collaboration between clients and agencies, with a particularly emphasis on practical lessons from real experience. With panellists from Big Spaceship, CO, Vanity Fair & Hyper Island. Ben Malbon from Creative Lab will be on this panel.

More details and voting here.

As the modern browser evolves and accelerates, WebGL is bringing a whole new range of creative opportunities to artists, innovators and brands. This panel explores what's possible today and what should be possible tomorrow. Panellists include Ken Russell & Greg Tavares from Google and Shanna Tellerman from Autodesk. Aaron Koblin, the head of Creative Lab's Data Arts team, will also be on this panel.

3. Four Chief Innovation Officers Defend Their Titles

This builds on a debate that fired up earlier this year (captured, kind of, on this blog, right here) about the need for and responsibilities of so-called 'Chief Innovation Officers' in creative agencies. This is a panel that includes Edward Boches (Chief Innovation Officer, Mullen), David Armano (EVP, Global Innovation & Integration, Edelman), Saneel Radia (Director of Innovation at BBH New York / BBH Labs NYC), Anders Sjostedt (MD, Hyper Island, North America), David Erixon (co-Founder, Hyper Island). Ben Malbon (ex Executive Director of Innovation at BBH & co-Founder of BBH Labs is also on this panel (though has long since given up his impressive title).

More details and voting here.

More details and voting here.

5. Skynet vs Mad Max: Battle for the Future

6. Help Wanted:  Hunting High & Low for Talent

Lastly - but perhaps most importantly - a panel on talent. Digital strategists, designers and writers are in higher demand than ever. And to properly thrive once hired they need to be both T-Shaped, and land in an environment that knows how to get the best out of T-Shaped people. In this panel, recruiters from a range of creative companies discuss how they look for, find and then successfully hire awesome digital talent. Panellists include Ben Fished (Adopt A Hacker), Jami Hoffman (Playdom) and AKQA's Lionel Carreon. Greg Christman, Creative Lab's Head of Recruitment, is on this panel.

This year is my third time at SXSW. I've enjoyed both previous trips, but the big difference between year 1 and 2 was in the nature of panels and keynotes I chose to attend.

In 2009 I gravitated towards the familiar, topics I was already deeply into, or thought I should be better equipped around. I kept meeting the same (great) people I already knew, hearing the same (sometimes great) case studies I'd already heard. Made me feel like I knew what I was talking about, but left me feeling uninspired - I somehow came back knowing less than I went with.

In 2010 I decided to deliberately seek out topics, panels and people that were completely off-radar for me. Talks about robotics, best practice workshops on UX, discussions around the publishing industry and its future, panels on game design, case studies of how mobile's exploding in Africa. I came back feeling energized, excited, and a little humble (and I still saw all the same people I would have seen at the more usual panels at the crazy parties in the evening . . . they were usually whinging about how vanilla their day had been).

So my one piece of advice for SXSW first-timers is simple.

Seek not what you know, but what you don't know.

Provoke serendipity through running into your discomfort zone.

Remember innovation happens at the intersection of disciplines, not within them.

Chance encounters with random new people can lead to the unimaginable (including, but not only, wonderful late-night burrito trucks).

See you at Town Holler on Sunday. I'll be the one looking confused but happy.

"It is hardly possible to overrate the value . . . of placing human beings in contact with persons dissimilar to themselves, and with modes of thought and action unlike those with which they are familiar. Such communication has always been, and is peculiarly in the present age, one of the primary sources of progress." (John Stuart Mill)