What's new at SXSW Interactive for 2011

The South by Southwest® (SXSW®) Conferences & Festivals offer the unique convergence of original music, independent films, and emerging technologies. Fostering creative and professional growth alike, SXSW is the premier destination for discovery.

For 2011, SXSW has made some changes to the SXSW Interactive Festival (this is the one about technology). Here is a description from SXSW’s website of what this festival is all about:

SXSW® Interactive Festival challenges you to envision the future of innovative technology. Featuring five days of compelling presentations from the brightest minds in emerging media and scores of exciting networking events hosted by industry leaders, SXSW Interactive offers an unbeatable line up of special programs showcasing the best new websites, digital projects, wireless applications, video games and startup ideas the community has to offer. From hands-on training to big-picture analysis, SXSW Interactive has become the place to preview of what is unfolding in the world of creative technology. Join us March 2011 for the panels, the parties, the 14th Annual Interactive Awards, SXSW ScreenBurn, the SXSW Trade Show, SXSW Accelerator and, of course, the inspirational experience that only SXSW can deliver.

The changes effective in 2011 to the Interactive festival are as follows:

More Daytime Meet-ups
For 2011, will add a significant amount of daytime meet-up networking events to the SXSW Interactive schedule. These daytime meet-ups will take place in “panel-type” rooms and will follow the same timeslot / schedules as daytime programming.

Interactive Awards + Game Awards
For this year, we are looking to make significant changes in two of our mainstay competitions. The Web Awards will change to the SXSW Interactive Awards (and focus on technologies beyond web interfaces). Meanwhile, the Game Design Competition will become the SXSW ScreenBurn Game Awards.

SXSW Interactive awards goes from March 11 – 15. Here are some important dates to remember:

• August 2010 – Registration opens for 2011
• August 11th – PanelPicker voting opens [updated]
• August 27th – PanelPicker voting closes