SXSW Interactive 2016: What to expect

Bring your umbrellas

That’s the first thing SXSW Interactive Director Hugh Forrest tells me when I ask, as I do every year, what to expect at the upcoming digital and tech-focused portion of the nearly two-week-long South by South West Conference, which kicks off in Austin, Texas, on March 11.

Rain is nothing new at SXSW. After a rare respite from the deluge in 2015, SXSW will return to its role as what Forrest calls “the break in the drought.” It will also, for the first time ever, host a sitting U.S. President. The announcement that Barack Obama would take the SXSWi stage on Friday has, naturally, drawn the spotlight away from virtually all other convention activity and, perhaps rightly so, elevated governance and policy making as a key element of the event. (In total SXSW is actually a 10-day-long extravaganza comprising Interactive, Film (which overlaps with interactive and runs until March 19) Music (which runs from the 15th through March 20). Read more...