SXSW: South By SouthWest

When I moved to Austin, I quickly learned that this city is the Live Music Capital of the world. Every night you can find dozens of live shows. Each year there are two main music festivals. 40 Acres Fest and SXSW, South By SouthWest.

Today marks the beginning of SXSW, and it will turn until the end of next week. Being in Austin, this was something that we had to at least take notice of and we were lucky enough to get a couple press passes to the Interactive part of the week long event.

The video game portion of SXSW Interactive, dubbed ScreenBurn, will run this weekend until Tuesday. There will be an arcade which is free and open to the public. I'm curious to see what will be featured there as there is a long list of sponsors, some of which having nothing to do with video games.

Also a portion of this weekend I'm looking forward to are the panels. One of the best things about going to Conventions/Events are the guest speakers. I've always found these interesting and this week should be no different.

I'm especially excited about the Saturday panel:

Being Indie and Successful in the Video Game Industry featuring...

Jonathan Blow - (Braid)

Ron Carmel - 2D Boy (World of Goo)

Kellee Santiago - President of thatgamecompany (flOw, flower)

Other Panels that I'll probably be attending,

Gaming as a Gateway Drug: Getting Girls Interested in Technology

Girl Gaming Goes Mainstream: Cliches, Reality, and Community

Screenburn: Game Design Competition

It looks to be an interesting weekend and I'm definitely excited.

Here's the website if you're interested: SXSW ScreenBurn

I'll let you know how it goes,

David

Also, is anyone else going?

SXSW: South By SouthWest

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