Austin Becomes Mecca for the Web’s Brightest
By L.A. Lorek, San Antonio Express-News
Mar. 6–A few years ago, the interactive part of South by Southwest in Austin took a back seat to the more popular music and film segments.
That’s no longer true.
With the buzzword “convergence” actually coming to fruition in gadgets like the iPhone and on social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook, the SXSW Interactive sessions attract people from all over the world.
Susan Price, CEO of Firecat Studio in San Antonio, plans to send three people to the SXSW Interactive conference. She isn’t sending them to attract clients or as a marketing ploy, but to help educate her workers.
“It’s the easiest, cheapest local conference that gives us a very good feed into the Web trends of the industry,” she said. “It’s the fastest way of getting up to speed of industry trends.” SXSW began in 1987 as a music festival but added interactive and film in 1994. Last year, the conference attracted 6,700 attendees, and organizers expect a 40 percent increase this year.
In 2007, SXSW had a $95 million economic impact on the Austin economy, according to AngelouEconomics, which did a study on the conference.
SXSW Interactive has gained a reputation as “Spring Break for geeks,” according to blog postings about the event. It’s become one of the biggest parties of the year and one of the most important technology conferences for the so-called Web 2.0 crowd, or anyone who survived the dot-com implosion. The conference combines bursts of creativity, technology, constant deal making, hype and instant communications.
SXSW Interactive kicks off Friday and runs through Tuesday. It also attracts one of the largest contingents of bloggers, who instantly broadcast panel and keynote discussions on the Internet.
“Everybody goes there to show off and launch new products,” said Dean McCall, chief technology officer of IdeaGin in San Antonio.
Twitter, a micro-blogging site, launched there last year. So did MyToons.com, a San Antonio-based social networking site for cartoonists and animators.
“You have this convergence of amazingly intelligent and very connected people,” said McCall, who has attended for several years. He worked on an advisory group that put together a string of mobile content panels for this year’s conference.
“In the corridors is where everything happens,” he said.
It’s not uncommon to run into movie stars like Owen Wilson, music legends like Lou Reed and bergeeks like serial entrepreneur Guy Kawasaki mixing it up. In the hallways, people network and talk about new ideas and share experiences, McCall said. It also can lead to new companies and deals, he said.
As of Wednesday, nearly 60 people from San Antonio had signed up to attend the conference. They come from big companies such as AT&T Inc., Tesoro Corp. and Rackspace and small companies like Firecat Studio and Blue Clover.
This year, the big highlight of the event is a keynote speech Sunday by Mark Zuckerberg, the 23-year-old billionaire CEO of Facebook.
At a launch party Tuesday, Michael Eisner and his independent new media studio, Vuguru, will premiere its second Internet series, “The All For Nots,” a comedy about an indie rock band. And Mark Cuban, co-founder of HDNet, will head up a panel discussion featuring Eisner on Tuesday afternoon.
This year, the number and magnitude of SXSW Interactive parties (37 on the schedule so far) signals that while the rest of the economy may be slowing down, the Internet industry has heated up again.
Digg has a party scheduled to start at 9 p.m. Sunday until 4 a.m. Monday at the PureVolume Ranch. Facebook is hosting a friends party Monday, and Google has a happy hour party set for Saturday. British Web designers even will host their own “Great British Booze-up” at Shakespeare’s Pub on Monday.
The conference features geniuses and visionaries with body piercings and spiky hair in a variety of colors, said Price of Firecat Studio.
“Whatever they are excited about, it turns out to be the next big thing,” she said.
IF YOU GO
–What: Technology conference featuring speakers like Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and a variety of panel discussions on everything from video games to mobile content development.
–When: Kicks off with first panel at 3:30 p.m. Friday and lasts until Tuesday
–Where: Austin Convention Center
–Cost: $450 walk-up rate
–For more information: Visit www.sxsw.com
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