AustinStartup

Today’s Q&A Wednesday is with Anthony Castoro, the CEO of Heatwave Interactive. The company has been at SXSW Screenburn showing off Platinum Life, their iSamJackson iPhone app, and Gods & Heroes. Perhaps you were at their party at The Belmont last night?

Have you been at a bar wanting to order a drink but your waitress or waiter was not around?  Odds are that it has happened to you this week.  If you are at SXSWi here in Austin, it has happened to you more than once.  Busy bars make it tough to order drinks – [...]

If you’ve been to SXSW before, you’re well aware of the glut of panels and parties. There is simply too much to do and too many places to be at once. The conference tries to alleviate the hectic nature with some pre-planning, offering the ability to build your own schedule on their website. But the technology is clunky and laborious; I know my eyes started to glaze over pretty quickly. So in the interest of preserving your sight and sanity, I thought I’d share some panels that jumped out at me.

There’s a little piece of chaos at SXSW for everyone; and every year, some folks navigate the flood of people and sensory overload a bit better than others – the difference between a SXSW veteran and noobie is noticeable at first glance. In an effort to reduce apparent nerd-ism, I’ve put together some helpful tips and found some neat tools for first-timers at SXSW.

We’ve got a guest post today from Better Than The Van co-founder Todd Hansen. When I saw their amazingly cool contest for SXSW, I just had to get some backstory from them on their startup, and how they are hoping to make a big splash at SXSW.
I started BTTV about two years ago as something [...]

Normally you’re out pitching the VC’s. Well during SXSW we’ve got a little party for you where the VC’s will be pitching you. Our friend Larry Chiang, who wrote What They Don’t Teach You at Business School (and writes a BusinessWeek column with the same name) is throwing a Reverse VC Pitch party downtown on [...]

Microsoft Bizspark is back again to sponsor the 2010 SXSW Accelerator program. Expanded to 2 days, this is a great showcase for emerging technology companies to get their product or service in front of the world. Accelerator takes place March 15-16th during the SXSW Interactive Festival. Who could forget judges such as Guy Kawasaki, whose [...]

The location-based social networking space continues to heat up, and two horses lately seem to be separating from the pack — Foursquare and Austin-based Gowalla (both launched at this year’s SXSW in March).

It’s time to vote for your favorite panels again! Here’s a sample of some of the panels where I found some local Austinites promoting. [On a side note, will a usability person please help this website design?]

Matt Chasen – Unsexy and Profitable: Making $$ Without Hype
Thom Singer – Networking at a Multi-Day Conference
Nik Daftary – [...]

It’s hard to believe that it’s time to start thinking about SXSW 2010! Make sure to nominate a panel by Friday, July 10th!
http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/