sxswi

It's hard to describe South by South West interactive. Yes, it is a trade show. Yes, it's a conference. Yes, there's lots of business going on.

The laid-back atmosphere of Austin pervades the event, and despite the frenetic activity, networking and business going on, for the attendees it doesn't feel like a corporate environment.

Hermone Way from Techfluff.tv, took her film crew out and about at the Austin Convention Center, to try and capture what makes SXSW special.

A sleepy Austin, Texas, eased it's way into Sunday. At 2am the clocks switched to Day Light Savings time, cruelly robbing the South by South West attendees of a much needed hour's sleep. I say 'much needed', but there were people crowds up and working their way between the parties and meet ups into the early hours of the morning.

It's a big part of what South By is about: Finding people, meeting people, connecting with people. In the evenings, as well as the day, deals are planned, meetings arranged and contacts made. That's how it works here.

It's Saturday and I'm nestled next to a power socket and Ethernet connection on the Digital Mission stand. South by South West is in full swing around us, with the companies talking, demoing and networking their way though the show. It's hard to describe the buzz in words; the tweets on the #sxsw hash tag rush past at the rate of a couple a second and the streets and hotels of Austin are packed with people from the digital media industry.

Yesterday the Palm Door was the venue for the master class sessions. The Winston & Strawn team talked the companies through the issues around setting up a US entity, both in terms of tax and legal benefits. Thinking about where you establish a US entity can be a complex issue, each of the US states has different laws and regulations. The session also covered how to avoid intellectual property issues when working with contractors, and key employment issues businesses setting up in the US should be aware of.

Top UK Firms Selected for Prestigious US Digital Mission

PRESS RELEASE: London, UK, Thursday 21st January 2010

Forty of the UK's leading digital SMEs have been selected for the second annual Digital Mission to South by South West interactive (SXSWi), one of the world's leading conferences for interactive media taking place in Austin, Texas from 11-17th March 2010. Established in 1994, the conference provides an opportunity for the Digital Mission companies to attend hundreds of conference sessions and networking events.

The successful companies were chosen from over 120 submissions by an advisory board of industry experts drawn from the UK community including: VC's, export specialists, legal experts, journalist and industry pundits, to take part in the Digital Mission to SXSWi.

The companies selected for the Digital Mission to SXSWi '10 are:

• Amberlight
• Audioboo
• Blueleaf Digital
• Brainient
• Codegent
• Codility
• Cube Interactive
• Face Group
• FreshNetworks
• GigLocator
• Howard Baines
• Illumina Digital
• KMP Digitata
• Likecube
• Little World Gifts
• Littleloud
• Mendeley
• Mobilized
• MOFILM
• Moonfruit
• MusicMetric
• Nsyght  
• oneDrum
• Orange Bus
• PageDo
• Pixeco
• Plug-in Media
• Qhub
• Rummble
• Silence Media
• Skimlinks
• Slicethepie
• Smidgn
• SubHub
• TweetJobs
• UberVu
• Vibio
• Videojuicer
• Wolfstar
• WorldTV

Detailed information and contact details for each company is available from the official Digital Mission website: http://www.digital-mission.org/sxsw10-companies

SXSW Interactive festival is the digital conference to attend. Yes, it helps that it's based in sunny Austin, Texas and that the BBQ food is *awesome*, but it's also packed full to bursting with top notch panels from the brightest minds in tech

There are hundreds of networking events hosted by industry leaders and an unbeatable line up of special programs showcasing the best new websites, video games and startup ideas the community has to offer - all happening over 5 days!

Digital Mission to SXSWi is back for it's second year after the success of the mission to Austin in March 2009.

The mission to SXSWi is a great opportunity to take advantage of the publicity and profile from a group of British companies attending SXSWi.

The applications for the mission are open until Fri 4th December. The form is pretty painless and shouldn't take more than 20 mins to complete. There's also lots more info about the application criteria on the Digital Mission website.

It's over. Well, the Digital Mission to South by South West Interactive is at least. The companies rounded out the week with the Great British Breakfast, at the exquisite Old Pecan Street Cafe in Austin. The venue was filled to capacity with British companies and US businesses invited during the week, all looking to connect.

Six months of planning, 100+ applications, 35 companies and heaps of logistics. The merry band of Brits that make up the Digital Mission is heading SXSWard. For live info, follow @digitalmission on Twitter.

So, if you're lucky enough to be in Austin, what's happening? Funny you should ask, here's a quick run-down. Swing by, we'd love to say 'hello' and there's a bunch of interesting people to meet and some ground-breaking products launched...

The first time I went to South by South West interactive, the sheer volume of events was over-whelming. A predictably hurried decision to go left little time for any proper planning and the show whizzed by.

According to Aaron Brazell, second time out, the event should be an endless round of conference sessions, meetings and partying networking. As part of the Digital Mission, featuring 35 of the UK's hottest digital companies, our group will number nearly 100. For more Brit-related shenanigans, keep an eye out for Rebecca Caroe's cunning plan.

PRESS RELEASE: London, UK, Thursday 8th January 2009

It’s official and finally I can talk about it! Chinwag has teamed up with the UKTI to take UK digital SMEs on trade missions to New York and Austin, Texas coinciding with two of the world’s most celebrated web events – the Web 2.0 Expo and SXSW Interactive.

The NYC mission coinciding with the Web 2.0 Expo runs 14-19 September 2008.

On 9th March I swung by the session hosted by the Preloaded guys. Ten Commandments? The sheer (tongue-in) cheek of it intrigued me...