2008 SXSW Interactive Festival Wraps Up Strong Year

AUSTIN, Texas, March 31 /PRNewswire/ -- The 15th annual South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Festival, a leading festival targeting Web technology innovators and digital creatives from across the globe, generated the largest number of attendees in the event's history with more than 9,000 Interactive, Gold and Platinum registrants in attendance. This marks a 30 percent registration growth over the 2007 Interactive Festival.

"SXSW Interactive experienced considerable growth in 2008 but, more importantly, it scaled a lot better this year than in previous years," said SXSW Interactive Director, Hugh Forrest. "We were able to create a number of smaller events within this larger event, thus helping to retain the look and feel and the one-on-one interactions that people traditionally like so much about SXSW."

The five-day festival, which concluded earlier this month, featured over 150 panels, dozens of networking events and parties, a keynote interview with Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and keynote presentations by Frank Warren of the PostSecret Project, renowned video game designer Jane McGonigal and Henry Jenkins, Co-Director of the Comparative Media Studies Program at MIT.

In addition to record-breaking registration numbers and noteworthy keynote speakers, highlights from the SXSW Interactive Festival include the ScreenBurn Arcade, which featured gaming tournaments and an opportunity for consumers to experience up-and-coming game titles first-hand, and the 11th annual Web Awards ceremony hosted by comedian Eugene Mirman. The Web Awards honored the top web developers and designers in 20 categories, including People's Choice and Best in Show, and a complete list of winners is provided below:

    Activism                            Art
    World Without Oil                   Viscosity
    http://worldwithoutoil.org/         http://windowseat.ca/viscosity/

    Amusement                           Blog
    Elf Yourself                        Passive-Aggressive Notes
    http://elfyourself.com/             http://www.passiveaggressivenotes.com

    Business                            Mobile
    Wikinvest                           Mosio
    http://www.wikinvest.com            http://www.mosio.com/

    CSS                                 Motion Graphics
    Ficlets                             HL2
    http://ficlets.com/                 http://www.hl2.com/

    Classic                             Music
    Wired                               Minuit
    http://www.wired.com/               http://www.minuit.co.nz/

    Community                           Personal Portfolio
    Flock                               JLern Design
    http://www.flock.com/               http://www.jlern.com/

    Educational Resource                Student
    The Story of Stuff                  Paper Critters
    http://www.storyofstuff.com/        http://www.papercritters.com/

    Experimental                        Technical Achievement
    MetaNotes                           Twiddla!
    http://www.metanotes.com/           http://www.twiddla.com/

    Film/TV                             People's Choice Award
    Animoto Productions                 Kongregate
    http://animoto.com/                 http://www.kongregate.com/

    Games
    Launchball
    http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/launchpad/launchball/

    Best of Show
    Launchball
    http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/launchpad/launchball/

To check out some of the programming that SXSW Interactive offered during 2008, visit www.sxsw.com/interactive for podcasts and video content of featured panels. The official dates for the 2009 SXSW Interactive Festival are Friday, March 13 - Tuesday, March 17. Registration will open up in late- summer 2008. More details about the 2009 SXSW Interactive Festival will be available in the coming months at www.sxsw.com/interactive.

About SXSW Interactive Festival

Scheduled March 7-11 in Austin, Texas, the 2008 SXSW Interactive Festival provides practical how-to information as well as unparalleled career inspiration, bringing together some of emerging technology's most creative thinkers. The event features five days of keynote speeches, more than 120 panels, the SXSW Web Awards, the iF!

Trade Show & Exhibition, the ScreenBurn Arcade, and dozens of exciting evening events. For more information on SXSW Interactive, see www.sxsw.com/interactive.