SXSW updates: Al Roker, candid Swenson, hardware and double Robert Kirkman

It’s been a relatively quiet week for SXSW Interactive news, but you don’t fool me, festival! I know it’s going to get crazy busy in very short order, probably around March 1.

Here are some of this week’s updates:

Al Roker, "Today" weatherman, in a 2009 photo. Credit: Richard Drew / Associated Press

Al Roker, “Today” weatherman, in a 2009 photo. Credit: Richard Drew / Associated Press

• SXSW founder Roland Swenson is very candid in this Texas Monthly interview with Jeff Salamon. He reveals, among other things, that SXSW would more likely shut down before it moved to another city and that Interactive is the most profitable part of the fest.
• Famous weatherman Al Roker will be at SXSW; not officially, but at a March 12 "Pre-conference summit"  put on by San Francisco-based company W20 Group at Austin Music Hall.
• Jumping ahead in time, the fest has already announced the first round of programming for its July SXSW V2V event in Las Vegas.
• Hardware House, an official evening event focused on hardware, happens March 13 at WeWork on Congress Ave.
• JVC TV will provide Ultra HDTVs for this year's exhibit of the Videogame History Museum exhibit/lounge at SXSW Gaming March 13-15 at Palmer Events Center. Like all of SXSW Gaming, the event is free and open to the public.
• Robert Kirkman, the very popular creator of "The Walking Dead," will be speaking at SXSW Interactive in a featured session at the Austin Convention Center on March 14, but he'll also be doing a free panel at SXSW Gaming for his company Skybound Entertainment. That free panel happens later that day, 1:30 p.m. at Palmer.
• Samsung, Chevrolet, Doritos, tapings of Bravo TV's "Watch What Happens Live" with Andy Cohen, "Late Night with Seth Meyers" tapings, Nintendo and Pennzoil's live "Mario Kart" racing, and Subway's unappealing "Flatizza" pizza product.
• Making up for those losses: McDonald's and Mazda have jumped in as sponsors. I'm hearing "Back to the Future"-style DeLoreans will return as rentals and possibly for free rides around the fest. Jimmy Kimmel will return with tapings of his show. Many companies working outside the official fest don't announce their intentions until closer to the fest. I'm sure there'll be more surprises.
• Last week, I mentioned Skoop, a micro social network taking signups for the fest. Now another startup, Vuevent, is promising proximity-based event listings during the fest. You can learn more about what Skoop has planned in this KUT story.
• IEEE is hosting a (two hour) Women in Tech Summit.
• Beers and Barks Yappy Hour.
• MacArthur Foundation is hosting a happy hour after a panel on storytelling superheroes on March 13.

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