Overview
South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual spring festival and conference event held in Austin, Texas with separate film, interactive and music portions.
Background
In March 1987, The Austin Chronicle staffers Roland Swenson, Louis Black and Nick Barbaro and booking agent Louis Meyers organized a regional music festival in Austin, Texas named “South by Southwest,” which was named by Black after the 1959 spy thriller film North by Northwest. Throughout the 1990s the festival continued to expand, adding a portion for film and multimedia in 1994. In 1999, the multimedia part of the event was renamed “SXSW Interactive.”