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.
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On top of this new focus is the mother ship: the overall SXSW Interactive conference. The event's popularity is fueled by the attendees' raging appetite for compelling and high-profile speakers, parties, and demos. With block- buster talks in recent years by the likes of Chelsea Clinton and inventor Elon Musk, plus satellite appearances from fugitives Edward Snowden, Julian Assange, and Kim Dotcom, there's a lot to live up to. For this year, Forrest anticipates great things from Walter Isaacson, head of the Aspen Institute and author of two of the most important tech-world books of the past five to 10 years: Steve Jobs, the biography of the Apple founder, and The Innovators, a history of the digital revo- lution. He's also looking forward to the return to Austin of the inf luential business author Daniel Pink. And the ven- ture capitalist Bill Gurley, who will appear with author Malcolm Gladwell, should make waves, Forrest says. "He's never spoken at SXSW before. He was one of the people who came out with this proclamation in late sum- mer that the [tech] bubble was really in danger of bursting, and that sent the start-up community into something of a tizzy." It goes without saying that, for Forrest, sending people into another tizzy is exactly what he hopes Gurley will do here. I t's notable that two of the speakers Forrest is most enthusiastic about are authors; he harbors dreams of one day becoming an author himself, he says— "when I grow up." He'll certainly have the material. SXSW, and the Interactive portion in particular, has been on a wild ride, as has Austin in the last 20 years, but Forrest is a man who has learned to roll with the punches and handle chaos with remarkable aplomb. If you've ever seen him walking the halls of the Convention Center during the conference, you'd be for- given for mistaking him for just a local wandering through, not the power-broker mastermind of the whole event. At 6 -feet-5, he has long legs and a relaxed stride. He favors jeans, comfortable shoes, and colorful dress shirts—today it's a pearl-snap Western number with a faint yellow rose pattern and a sprawling, f loppy collar—that make him look like your typical hip Central Austin dad. A n Aust i n nat ive who g rew up i n Ta r r y tow n a nd now l ives i n Hyde Pa rk, For rest is awa re of t he cha nges t he cit y ha s u ndergone a nd of SX SW 's role i n t he transformation. He's deeply attached to many of the loca l i nst it ut ions t hat ma ke t he cit y u n ique, a nd he's equa l ly opt i m ist ic about it s prospect s for rema i n i ng d ist i nct , on ly i n new ways. He offers an example: "From a conference organizer's standpoint, I'm excited about the new JW Marriott ( see " grand central," page 111) and all the new guest and meeting rooms," he says. "And as an Austin native, I'm dis- appointed that Las Manitas, the taquería that used to be there, is gone. That place was the epitome of Austin—you'd see Karl Rove at one table and somebody ultraliberal at the next—and it was paved over to make way for this hotel. That's a parable of what has happened to Austin. Yet I Several programming areas have developed into their own focused tracks as part of SXSW Interactive. • SouthBites: What began as a pop-up food trailer park on Rainey Street has grown into a full line of programming focused on food- industry innovators, including chef David Chang of New York's Momofuku empire ( shown above) and Travel Channel's Andrew Zimmern. The trailers also return March 13 to 21; chef Paul Qui will curate the choices. March 14–16 at The Driskill Hotel, 604 Brazos St. • SXStyle: As trends like wearable technology and three-dimensional printing (not to mention myriad new retail models) have begun to cross over to the mainstream, more fashion insiders have been coming to SXSW, hence the newest addition to the lineup: a packed track focused on design disruptors. Standouts: Jennifer Hyman of Rent the Runway, Deena Varshavskaya of the social- media shopping phenomenon Wanelo, and Intel's Genevieve Bell, a celebrated social scientist who studies consumer behavior as it relates to technology. March 13–17, JW Marriott Hotel, 110 E. Second St. • SXSportS: Now in its second year, SXSports explores the convergence of entertainment, technology, and human performance. Sessions will cover hot-button issues such as traumatic brain injuries in sports, performance-enhancing drugs, and the use of big data on the playing feld. Participants will include Charles Barkley, Bob Bowman of Major League Baseball's Advanced Media group, Victor Cruz of the New York Giants, and Jason Gay of The Wall Street Journal. March 13–15, Four Seasons Hotel, 98 San Jacinto Blvd. SXSW Sub- confer enceS "The sTrengTh of InTeracTIve Is ThaT we have so many dIfferenT ThIngs goIng on; IT's absoluTe sensory overload." —hugh forrest For the sixth year, SXSW will host the Music Gear Expo, which highlights the latest in music equipment and technology, on Level 1 of the Austin Convention Center from 11 am-6 pm March 19-21. It's open to all attendees as well as the general public. AUSTINWAY.com 85