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Time to sum up a great year of new opportunities and challenges. I want to thank all my clients, followers and fans for your support and trust in Awoque. I learn from you daily and constantly meet new people who inspire my future adventures with the power of social media.  A few hightlights:

- A journey to Texas in March: We are all Rockstars of the Future>> and Proud Alumna to ACU>> 

- Socializing Restaurant Pinchos to a successful launch in April

- Participating in many great events: The Event, Folkmästerskapen i Omelett, Venture Cup, Avalon Outside

- A big applaude to “Sommarlovsentreprenörerna” in Kungsbacka, and my team members this spring Johanna Olsson, Olivia Widén and Bill Selander. Thanks also to my former chairwoman Deborah Lygonis. You guys rock!

After a well-needed energy boost at midsummer with my family, I will be off hiking in a non-cellular, non-wifi zone in a few days. I might tweet every once in a while so keep up at @victoriaahlen. This blog rests.

When Awoque restarts in August, I will introduce news and new beginnings. Stay tuned for that. Have a #high5 summer and wear out that sun chair.

I ran into Anni Lyngskaer founder of This is my Story during one of many sessions at South by Southwest a few weeks ago. Look at her project as a great example of positive social change for the world. The project engages women in a participatory video workshop teaching the participants to express themselves and engage in their community. I asked her to tell me more and here are her answers:

The next one is Anni and Mariatu and editing her film

Why do you do what you do?
Well, this is always such a hard question. But I guess I’m working within the nonprofit industry because I believe that all humans are equal and have the same rights. Unfortunately, the world today is so unjust, but I believe it is possible to create chance. It makes me happy when I’m working with This is my Story because I can see it works. I can see that the participants learn and actually gain self-esteem. One of the female participants in Sierra Leone said “I’ve learnt that a woman is also valuable in a community.” – and that quote really says it all, that is why I’m doing what I do.

This is Fanta, one of the participants. They all have so many stories to share, and I feel so happy and blessed that they are willing to share them with me and the rest of the world

What is the key to your success?
I get a lot of ideas, some of them are kind of crazy, but I’m not afraid to fulfill them and follow my dreams. And then I’m curious and always trying to learn new things and skills.

You can aid them by voting for their video “I got rhytm” here>>

Any ideas on where their workshop might be needed, get in touch!

I came into Austin without appointments and booked sessions. Back in October, I had this strong notion that I had to go. 14 years ago, I lived in Abilene a few hours north of Austin so revisiting would mean many meetings with people I love and places I knew from my youth.

Still, when walking into the Austin Convention Center to pick up  my badge for the (South by Southwest) SXSW Interactive late Thursday evening, my legs shook and at the same time I wanted to scream of joy. I challenged myself to get here. I wanted to face the knowledge in my industry and by the unknown. I desperately needed to recharge batteries. I came because the time had come to chase new dreams and to find new horizons.

A week since SXSW Interactive conference ended and I am still digesting.

What a wonderful beautiful world of possibilities I took part in.
What a creative melting pot of creativity and welcoming spirits.
What a mix of great people off all ages, nations, gender and backgrounds getting together to share ideas for social change, for new horizons in business and simply connecting with each other in easy conversations.

You can join the SXSW spirit. Together we can make this world a better place. Tell and communicate your stories offline and in social media. Dream the dream. Be proud of who you are. Go get it. You just connected with the future.

Be inspired as I was by this Keynote by Baratunde Thurston – How to read the word

Åland’s Social Media Guru Mats Adamczak writes about SXSW here (in Swedish)

A blog post in Moosylvania.com -What Austin Taught Us: Key Takeaways from SXSW

The Chamber of Commerce in Göteborg writes on their blog (in Swedish)

Baratunde Thurston SXSW 2012

Downtown Austin by Mats Adamczak

I saw all the new technology in the trade show today at SXSW but this panel beats all that. Here are some great examples of innovations around Africa that will inspire you to just do it. Sharing your ideas in a open innovation manner rather than capitalizing to make this world better.

Hans de Zwart summarized the session well in his blog post from #sxmakeafrica.

Here is the broadcast:

Steve Daniels:

Juliana Rotich:

This is the day, I send my biggest #High5 to all the women around the world. You rock. Especially my mentor Ulla-Lisa Thordén, an EU ambassadeur for female entrepreurship as well as for the Hunger Project. Today I join in with her and many around the world to raise awareness for this fantastic social good cause. Follow them on Twitter @hungerproject

“The Hunger Project firmly believes that it is absolutely essential to cause a society-wide change towards gender equality in order to end hunger and poverty.”

I will go looking for talented women, inspiration for social good causes and great new initiatives here in Austin, Texas and the South by Southwest. Follow me on Twitter @awoque @victoriaahlen. The delegation for the Chamber of Commerce in Göteborg tweet as well under the #westswesxsw. I will also do live broadcasts on Bambuser. Stay tuned

Hello Abilene/ACU and Austin/SXSW, looking forward to meeting you on March 4-19. What sessions do you think I should attend? What question would you like answered? I promise to share my journey here on the blog and of course on the Awoque Facebook

On Sunday my US adventures begins. I will start by visiting ACU to meet students, PR professionals, faculty, lecture and go looking for social media creativity. The award winning ACU Connected awakens my curiosity. I will share my findings with you.

On March 9, the conference South by Southwest starts and a delegation from the West Chamber of Commerce will go looking for answers to:
- How can to Göteborg / western Sweden become Europe’s number one meeting place for creative and cultural industries? Here is a short interview with the project leader Sandra Norberg (and Erik Nissen) from October at Handelskammardagarna: