Report by Marc Urselli It’s my 5th year at SXSW and this year marks the 25th anniversary of this amazing conference covering music, film and technology. (See Figure 1.) Then and now Some things haven’t changed: Unmatched networking opportunities; incredible learning potential; an overwhelming number of things to see; no hope to do everything you set out to do; and concertgoers and drunken spring breakers still engulfing the streets of downtown Austin in the same way that Carnaval takes over Rio or Mardi Gras takes over New Orleans. Other things are changing: The battle among popular brands for the most visible sponsoring opportunities is getting fiercer and more in everyone’s face; for the first time the number of interactive registrants (more than 19,000) has surpassed the number of music registrants (16,000); and yet the number of music registrants keeps growing every year, so much so that—due to capacity issues at most venues—it is becoming increasingly harder to see the show you want to see even if you are a badge holder (badge holders get into shows before wristband holders do). Schedule—what schedule? As I did the last couple of years, this year I decided to crowd-source my schedule with recommendations from friends and people I just randomly met and talked to. Although this year SXSW finally had a much more functional and better-looking online scheduling tool (also available as an iPhone app) I stayed loyal to the much sleeker web/iPhone events calendar sched.org for all my scheduling needs... especially since it also lists unofficial parties and concerts that you won’t find on the official SXSW schedule. 1 2 50 RECORDING JUNE 2011 3http://www.sched.org