Charlie Frauscher, CEO of PIXXERS, a German based photo network company, takes a picture of the wolf mascot, Caleb Daniels, of Austin, posing in front of the “Happy Pi Day” celebration display during the Pi Day of the Century count down held in Austin, Texas on Saturday, March 14, 2015. Credit: Rodolfo Gonzalez / AMERICAN-STATESMAN
We are closing in on almost a month till South by Southwest Interactive stars and, as you’d expect, activity is ramping up like an angular… ramp… of sorts?
Yes! Here’s a roundup of some of those updates:
- On Tuesday, the fest announced the finalists for its ReleaseIt Pitch competition, to be held on March 11. no Austin-based companies were on the list, but BoomCloud360, which has offices in Austin, is an alternate.
- Finalists were also announced for the 2016 Innovation Awards. Two Austin companies, Building 10 Technology, Inc. with the product Peeple and Kasita LLC were finalists in the categories of security and smart cities, respectively.
- Meetups, meetups, meetups, meetups! Yes, four of them. In the coming weeks, the fest is doing four meetup events and giving away an Interactive badge at each of them. There's a general Community Meetup on Feb. 11, a GLBT in Tech meetup on Feb. 17, a Latinos in Tech meetup on Feb. 24, and a Blacks in Tech meetup on Feb. 25. Each of those links takes you the Eventbrite page to RSVP.
- Voting is currently open through Feb. 12 for the SXSW Gaming Awards. The voting page itself is being hosted by IGN. The awards take place during SXSW Gaming weekend, March 19.
- In case you missed it, the Statesman editorial board asks if SXSW is getting too big and should maybe take a cue from the Sundance Film Fest.
More updates as they come!
