At Frito-Lay, we’re celebrating a big milestone this month. In September 1961, Dallas-based Frito Co., founded by C.E. Doolin, and Atlanta-based H.W. Lay & Co., founded by Herman Lay, merged to form Frito-Lay, Inc. Read more

Most of the panelists at Sunday afternoon’s conversation about “What Companies Can Learn from Startups” on the PepsiCo Stage at SXSW Interactive started their own successful small businesses following careers at big companies. They offered plenty of ideas and perspectives on how the big companies that gave them the skills and experiences that enabled their current success could learn from their smaller counterparts. The discussion featured Henrik Werdelin, previously of Joost and MTV Product Development and now a partner at product innovation studio Prehype; Noah Brier, currently working on “super secret Internet things” and former head of planning and strategy at The Barbarian Group; Josh Abramson, co-founder of CollegeHumor, which is now part of IAC; and Nicholas Thorne, who created online badge company Basno, Inc., after getting his start at Goldman Sachs. While the panelists’ experiences and current endeavors are diverse, several common themes emerged in their advice for... Read more

As subtraction.com blogger and former NYTimes.com design director Khoi Vinh delved into his perspectives on “The Future of Reading Online” with Fast Company’s Alissa Walker on the PepsiCo Stage at South by Southwest Interactive on Saturday, it was easy to worry that the outlook for digital publications is bleak, despite all the recent devices and software intended to accelerate the medium. Vinh said that while the iPad is “a transformative device in many ways,” he cautioned that, “the idea of a construct of a magazine on the iPad is a difficult proposition. I don’t think it’s a home run.” He noted that publishers’ attempts to simply replicate print magazines online is a “fundamental misreading” of what consumers want and of the technology’s potential. He went on express skepticism toward some of the new and redesigned online publications. For instance, he said Gawker’s overhaul – in which all... Read more

The power of digital media to increase our connectedness to help each other transform our communities is becoming clearer than ever. From a Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project study earlier this year that showed Internet users are exceptionally socially engaged to recent examples of social media accelerating the calls for democracy in the Middle East, examples of our connections to the rest of the world are mounting. The idea especially hit home for me Saturday as I joined PepsiCo WIN and Digitini to celebrate some of the most influential women in the digital technology as part of the Women’s Inspiration Awards Celebration at SxSW, What became clear as event co-organizer, and MC, Sloane Berrent shared the honoree’s personal stories and accomplishments was that these women have not only created breakthrough digital media programs, businesses and sites, they’ve also harnessed the potential of technology... Read more