
15.03.2012 / Arts & Culture
Music, films and technology
South By South West is one of the major music festivals in America, hosting hundreds of bands in Austin during the warm Texan Spring ever since 1987. Starting from 1994, the city has also been hosting SXSW Interactive, the festival’s multimedia section.
Thanks to the Web 2.0 hype, the event’s success has been growing faster and faster during the last years: the number of visitors increased from 11,000 in 2009 a 20,000 in 2011 (with as much as 2,600 speakers).
To give you an idea of how influential SXSW is, it was right here that the then-unknown Twitter was launched back in 2007. This year, TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design, the organizer of worldwide celebrated TED Conferences) also planned a couple of events in Austin.
As for the most important names that have been taking part to this year’s edition, here are just a few of them: Joss Whedon, director of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog and upcoming The Avengers, Anthony Bourdain, chef and TV celebrity, DJ Spooky, producer and musician.
Not to mention Indian economist and blogger J.P. Rangaswami, nominated by Wired as one of the world’s most influential “digital powerbrokers”.
Being a major showcase for new and promising start-ups, SXSW is also very highly reputed by the media market.
This year, the start-up that might make the highest impact on American society is the nonprofit organzation Americans Elect, which aims at nominating a presidential ticket that answers directly to voters through an online nomination and voting system.
Finally, advertising agency BBH New York is the mind behind one of the most unusual (and provocative) events animating Austin during the festival , the Homeless Homespot concept: 13 homeless people wearing “I’m a 4G hotspot” T-shirts and working as literally “human hotspots” – i.e. selling access to the net in various locations throughout the city.
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