events

Congratulations to the 31 leading UK digital companies that have been selected for this year's UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) Mission to SXSW Interactive 2011.

This trip will see the companies travel out to Austin, Texas for a five day trip in and around South by South West Interactive, one of the largest conferences focused on digital media and technology.

Each of the companies is listed below, don't hesitate to drop them a line directly to arrange a time to meet up in Austin, or follow their progress via their Twitter accounts below. You can follow the UKTI team's coverage of the mission on Twitter @uktiatsxswi.

UKTI SXSW 2011 Mission Companies

• Acunu Ltd
• Brandwatch
• Casual Films
• Completely Novel
• Cyber-Duck
• DAD Solutions
• Digital Outlook Communications
• East London Productions
• Engage Sciences
• Fortune Cookie
• Fly Post
• Get-ctrl Limited
• Glass Eye Productions
• Lingo24
• Minute Box
• MOFILMS
• MoodShare
• Namaste Entertainment
• Parcel Genie
• Planzai
• Psonar
• Rummble Labs
• Screenreach Interactive
• Shout’em
• Somethin’else
• Teamly
• The Play Mob
• w00t!media
• We are Social
• WhoSampled.com
• Zkatter

In amongst the 100+ events of Social Media Week London, plans are progressing rapidly for this year's trip to the incomparable South by South West Interactive 2011.

If you've not been before, be warned, it's not like any other conference you've been to before. In an attempt to ready yourself, mentally, if nothing else, we're planning to put together some tips for Brits heading out to Austin.

In the meantime, here's a brilliant slideshow from Dave Delaney that has some crucial tips on how to get the best out of South-by (if you want to sound like a local):

There's lots of rather fantastic things happening during Social Media Week in London, and the latest addition is from the lovely folks at Skype.

To celebrate Social Media Week, they're giving away free WiFi through Skype Access, the single-click Internet access feature, in New York, San Francisco, Rome, Paris, Toronto, Sao Paulo, Hong Kong, Istanbul and most importantly London for the duration of the festival.

From 0001 GMT on the 7th February 2011 to to 2359 GMT on the 12th February 2011, Skype Access will be free to use for up to 60 minutes, so you can surf the web, send email and make free Skype-to-Skype voice and video calls at Skype Access-enabled WiFi hotspots in cafés, hotels and airports in New York, San Francisco, London, Rome, Paris, Toronto, São Paulo, Hong Kong and Istanbul.

I'm not sure if there's an awards season per-se for the digital world, but they seem to be cropping up thick and fast at the moment.

And who doesn't like a shiny gong to add to their awards cabinet? Below are details of four sets of awards from the digital, marketing, content and start-up worlds. In their own words, here you go:

So close...just three more sleeps and it's Social Media Week London, there's now almost 100 events listed on the website, which can make it a little tricky to figure out what's on, and more important where tickets are available.

We've put together this handy list of all the events, sessions, gatherings and networking events that still have capacity. This is by no means the whole list, which you can see on the Social Media Week London schedule.

So without further a-do, for your delectation: