Now in its 24th year, the South by Southwest conference, trade show and festival will transform Austin into an entertainment and interactive hotbed for 10 days starting March 12.
With about 700 registered attendees, the event began humbly in 1987. Today, it’s a worldwide phenomenon.
In 2009, the number of official SXSW participants climbed to nearly 172,000 from more than 157,000 the previous year. Traffic at two free-to-the public consumer events pushed total attendance for SXSW 2009 to 209,000.
This year, attendance numbers for SXSW Music are on par with last year, while registrations for SXSW Interactive are up 40 percent compared with 2009 and registrations for SXSW Film are up 25 percent.
“The primary mission of SXSW—and the major part of the organization’s enterprise—is to provide a forum for creative professionals to learn, network and conduct business. Despite these professional leanings, the sheer scale of the music, film, and interactive media conferences provides Austin residents the opportunity to participate in an extraordinary celebration of the creative arts,” according to a South by Southwest economic impact analysis from Greyhill Advisors.
SXSW also provides an economic bounce—to the tune of nearly $99 million last year, according to the Greyhill analysis.
Few other events are as important both economically and culturally to Austin.
The Greyhill analysis says that “SXSW provides a crucial platform to promote Austin to the outside world.”
Given the significance of SXSW to Austin and, really, to the entertainment and interactive world, Examiner.com will be keeping readers up to date March 12-21 about all the SXSW goings-on. Here are some of the Examiners to keep an eye on during SXSW:
SXSW Examiner—Whitney Francis
Austin Social Media Examiner—Kevin Sullivan
Austin Twitter Examiner—Simon Salt
Austin Video Game Design Examiner—Randy Marr
Austin Video Game Industry Examiner—Chris Thorburn
Austin Celebrity Headlines Examiner—Melissa Carlson
Austin Classic Movies Examiner—J.M. Dobies
Austin Concerts Examiner—Greg Ackerman
Austin Cultural Events Examiner—Jessica Schneider
Austin Metal Music Examiner—Jeff Tandy
Austin Movie Examiner—Diane Howard
Austin Rock Music Examiner—Markus Pacal
Austin Live Music Bar Scene Examiner—Dominique Rivera
Austin Celebrity Fashion Examiner—Morgan Cullen
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