Austin Way Magazine - GreenGale Publishing - There is a place beyond the crowds, beyond the ropes, where dreams are realized and success is celebrated. You are invited.
Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/461140
A piece of paper taped to the window of Hugh Forrest's office reads, in large type, 15 WEEKS. It is the official countdown clock to South by Southwest 2015. Inside the office, Forrest, the 52-year-old director of SXSW Interactive since its incep- tion in 1994, absent-mindedly turns a bottle of 5-Hour Energy over and over in his hands. "I'm a reformed user," he says. "It's like in The Fault in Our Stars, where he has the cigarette he never smokes." He pauses to look at the little bottle for a moment. "There will probably be a point between now and March when I get back on the stuff." It's a brisk December morning, and Forrest is at his desk at 8 AM, before anyone else has arrived at the conference's down- town headquarters on Bowie and Fifth Streets. Most days, Forrest rises between 3:30 and 5 AM, works for a couple of hours at home and then gets his 4-year-old son ready for the THE SXSW INTERACTIVE CONFERENCE HAS RISEN FROM SMALL SPIN-OFF TO ONE OF THE WORLD'S MOST TALKED-ABOUT EVENTS, AND LIFELONG AUSTINITE HUGH FORREST HAS BEEN AT THE HELM ALL ALONG. HERE, HE SHARES WHAT'S NEXT. BY TOM FOSTER WHY INTER ACTIVE IS HOTTER THAN EVER AUSTINWAY.COM 83