What to Watch For at SXSW Interactive 2013

For me, this year seems to be a transitional year for SXSW Interactive Festival. Last year, I visited and saw that SXSW 2012 had reached a sort of stasis (the four days of rain really didn't help). Still, through the noise, there were a couple of really good SXSW brand activations that turned out to be enhancive to the overall experience.

Rising costs in conference-related expenses, travel, availability of accommodations (I had to book my downtown hotel last October) and its tendency to overwhelm, have caused a lot of people to skip this year in favor of SXSW's new V2V conference, which makes its debut later this year.

But much like every conference, the value of benefit in SXSW is what you make of it and I look at this year as an opportunity for new folks to make an impact – both on stage and off. (First timers – check out a great guide here.)

I'll be heading to the festival for the third time this year, and I'm looking forward to seeing what stands out, both in terms of key speakers and products, but also in brand activations. I will be livetweeting panels from my personal Twitter account and also @aoladvertising for up-to-the-minute highlights, so stay tuned for the latest starting Friday morning. AOL and our brands will also be offering up some great events and speakers to make your SXSW experience that much more fulfilling, and I've included those here as well.

Here's a look at what I recommend (interactive badge required unless otherwise noted).

Pick a date: March 8th | March 9th | March 10th | March 11th

• 2:00pm at Austin Convention Center – Makerbot CEO and Co-Founder Bre Pettis opens the conference with some words about oncoming 3D printing revolution and the value he's gotten out of Interactive in the past
• 3:30pm at Four Seasons Austin – TechCrunch's Alex Williams is joined by representatives from Avaya, Mutual Mobile, SAP for Enterprise Invades the Apps Playground
• 3:30pm at the Omni Downtown – a discussion about the old medium that's found its new niche in social media called The Economy of the GIF
• 5:00pm at the Sheraton Austin – Gawker's Adrian Chen and Slate's Farhad Manjoo are joined by Rebecca Watson of Skepchick to discuss the impact that Reddit has had on the web, and the world at large
• 7:00pm at Midnight Cowboy (313 East 6 Street, map) - Come join AOL and HUGE for a SXSW Kick-off Cocktail (No badge required; RSVP here)

• 9:30am at Austin Convention Center - Jenn Deering Davis, Co-Founder of Union Metrics explains How Twitter Has Changed How We Watch TV
• 9:30am at Four Seasons Austin – Join TechCrunch's Anthony Ha for SRI's Secrets to Successful Innovation, a chat with Norman Winarsky' VP of Ventures at SRI International. SRI is a nonprofit research institute that has been responsible for advancements across any number of fields, from media to medicine, education to economics, ARPANET to modern AI for more than half a century
• 9:30am at Austin Convention Center – Check out Sources in the Social Media Age, featuring Edmund Lee of Bloomberg, Greg Galant of Shorty Awards and Muck Rack, Joe Ciarallo of Salesforce and Peter Kafka of AllThingsD, a look at the way journalists are finding sources via social media, and the impact that's having on the industry
• 11:00am at Cheers Shot Bar (416 East 6 Street, map) – Visit the Starterhouse Hosted by Mapquest - Stop by for product demos, live music, networking and good grub and more, open until 7pm. (No badge required; RSVP here)
• 11:00am at Austin Convention Center – Panera Bread CEO Ron Shaich goes inside their "pay what you can" cafe social experiment in a presentation called Innovating Philanthropy:Panera's Social Experiment
• 12:30pm at Austin Convention Center - Join Eric Carvin and Jean Lee from the AP for Tweets from the DMZ: Social Media in North Korea, a look at how social media has, or hasn't changed one of the most reclusive societies in the world
• 2:00pm at Microsoft SXSW Headquarters (506 Congress Ave, map) – as a part of The SoDA Unconference: BBQ and Big Ideas, AOL's digital prophet, David Shing, moderates a panel on "The Latest Trends and Debates around User Interface & Digital Design Tendencies" (No badge required; RSVP for the conference here)
• 3:30pm at Austin Convention Center - Muppets to Mastery: UX Principles from Jim Henson, with Russ Unger of GE Capital, looks at how Jim Henson used solid web user experience in his work years before they became mainstream
• 5:00pm at Austin Convention Center – TMZ's Executive Producer, Harvey Levin, gives a talk about How TV & the Internet Are Converging on TMZ

• 10:00am at Icenhauer's (83 Rainey Street, map) ALTO Brunch - Start your day off right with a stop at our Bloody Mary bar where you can checkout AOL's latest email product, Alto. (No badge required; RSVP here)
• 11:00am at Cheers Shot Bar (416 East 6 Street, map) – Visit the Starterhouse Hosted by Mapquest - Stop by for product demos, live music, networking and good grub and more, open until 7pm. (No badge required; RSVP here)
• 11:00am at the Hilton Austin - Airbnb's Brian Chesky Talks with Fortune - Airbnb's CEO Brian Chesky talks with Fortune Magazine's Jessi Hempel about the past, present and future of his brand
• 11:00am at Intercontinental Stephen F. Austin – TechCrunch's John Biggs joins folks from Givit, WeVideo and Magisto, as they talk about The Social Video Race
• 11:00am at the Hyatt Regency Austin- Is Women's Media Too Girly? Jezebel's founder Anna Holmes, Deborah Schoeneman, Margaret Johnson and Rebecca Fernandez talk how media (websites, TV, books) created by women is often accused of being too girly
• 3:30pm at the Hyatt Regency Austin - Toddlers & Technology - Huffington Post Executive Lifestyle Editor Lori Leibovich anchors a panel discussing the link between today's toddlers and the technology they have access to
• 3:30pm at the AT&T Conference Center - The Community Manager: Enter the C-Suite - HuffPost Live Community Manager Tim McDonald joins other leading community managers in this workshop designed to help you learn about Community Management today)
• 5:00pm at the Omni Downtown – NASA UX designers share what UX design in space is like with @NASA: The User Experience of a Space Station
• 5:00PM at the Sheraton Austin – Join leaders from Simply Measured and Klout as they discuss Social Media Was Fun. Has Measurement Killed It?
• 5:00pm at Long Center - Style Goes Viral: The Future of Fashion explores the future of fashion and social media and features Anne Fulenwider, Editor in Chief of Marie Claire, Nina Garcia, Creative Director at Marie Claire and Randi Zuckerberg

• 11:00am at Cheers Shot Bar (416 East 6 Street, map) – LAST DAY! Visit the Starterhouse Hosted by Mapquest - Stop by for product demos, live music, networking and good grub and more, open until 7pm. (No badge required; RSVP here)
• 11:00am at Courtyard by Marriott – HuffPost's Lisa Belkin and PBS's Sara DeWitt discuss How to Keep Working Parents In & Innovating
• 2:00pm at Austin Convention Center – HuffPost's Executive Arts and Entertainment Editor Michael Hogan moderates a panel called Humanizing Heroes: Storytelling Beyond Sports, featuring panelists from ESPN and NFL Films
• 5:00 at Courtyard by Marriott – Join AOL's Carla Borsoi as she tries to cut through "Business speak" and help us all communicate better with Wheel of Synergy: A Drill-Down into Business Speak

(This post originally appeared on the AOL Corporate Blog)