This is the communal blog of Karin Botta and Uno de Waal, business unit director and senior social strategist at trigger/isobar (www.isobar.co.za), who are both attending South by South West (SxSW) 2012, the annual film, music and interactive festival held in March in Austin, Texas. Follow @triggerisobar and Twitter List @Bizcommunity/sxswsa2012 for the duration of the festival.

About Karen

Born and bred in Johannesburg, Karin holds a degree in psychology and politics from UCT, and an honours in brand strategy from Vega, where she took a particular interest in visual culture and semiotics, and graduated with distinction. While studying, she worked as a trend analyst for Instant Grass, and as a director's assistant at the production company Groundglass.

After returning to Johannesburg, she spent two years as the strategist at the branding agency The Fearless Executive and also published a number of articles on branding and the media industry, as well as working as a freelance researcher and analyst at Submarine. She also spent a year in Seoul in 2006 teaching English, and traveling through Japan, to New York and into South East Asia and, since then, travels at least once a year.

Since joining trigger/isobar as a senior strategist assisting the MD at the time, Gavin Rooke, she has moved into leading digital strategies for clients such as Kellogg's, Estee Lauder Companies, Nike, Woolworths and Disney. She can also cook you a pretty good spaghetti and meatballs if you ask nicely.

About Uno

Uno was been actively involved in social media, identity and marketing since his days at Stellenbosch University. At Maties, he was on the SRC in the media and marketing portfolio and helped launch a campus-wide newsletter, opening up new channels for information distribution.

After a stint in publishing and youth areas at other companies, Uno started Between 10 and 5 (10and5.com), a creative showcase website for South Africa, and research and strategy agency Max Rover (www.maxrover.co.za). This agency went on to manage the niche channels for DStv: Vuzu, kykNET, MK and Channel O, and was instrumental in packaging the digital offerings, revamping the platforms and growing the owned properties. 10and5 is now ranked as one of the top creative resources for South Africans looking for design inspiration.

In 2011, Uno joined trigger/isobar as a senior social strategist, leading strategy on brands he's always wanted to work on: Red Bull, Nike, Cell C and Nokia. When not thinking of digital and the impact on our identity, Uno is an avid whitewater kayaker and has narrowly missed drowning on rivers such as the White Nile, Zambesi and Wit.

Contact Karen and Uno via email ( and ), skype (karinchiarabotta or unodewaal) and follow @karinchiarabotta and @unodewaal on Twitter.