We moved our startup, Fashion Metric to Austin in June of last year and since then I have to say, Austin has impressed me more and more by the day. This will be my first time in Austin for SXSW so I’ve been doing everything I can to maximize my time and the events that we attend. As a startup founder it’s hard for me to go to anything during the day since we pretty much work from morning until late into the evening, luckily there are a lot of weekend events and that’s where I’m putting my focus.
So here it goes, out of the 100+ events taking place in Austin for SXSW Interactive, here are 10 I think you really can’t miss:
Saturday, March 14th
Meet the Techstars’ Managing Directors: 12:00PM – 2:00PM (Sign-up here)
Managing Directors from Techstars programs across the country will all be in the same place for two hours on Saturday. Whether you are interested in applying to Techstars, meeting or investing in past Techstars companies, or just seeing what Techstars is all about, this is the place to be.
Rothenberg Ventures Founder Frenzy: 2:00PM – 5:00PM (Sign-up here)
One of my favorite new VC firms will be holding one heck of a jam session complete with DJ’s spinning great music and a “surprise” from the Rothenberg Ventures team that you’ll have to be there to see. There will be a ton of startup founders packed-into Speakeasy for what will definitely be an event to remember.
Decoded Fashion at SXSW: 9:30AM – 5:00PM (Sign-up here)
Decoded Fashion is at the heart of innovation in the apparel world, from top-notch global events to the biggest hackathon ever held in the fashion world, Decoded is always on the cutting edge. They have a full day of events planned at the brand-new JW Marriott on Saturday.
Digital LA at SXSW: 8:00PM – 11:00PM (Sign-up here)
Digital LA has been at the center of the Los Angeles startup scene since before there was a startup scene in LA. Along with running some of the most innovative startup events in LA like Silicon Beach Fest they also support startups in just about every niche you could imagine. This is a chance to mingle with some awesome LA startup founders and other entrepreneurs from Silicon Beach.
Sunday, March 15th
Amazon AWS Tech Talk with Werner Vogels: 12:00PM – 3:00PM (Sign-up here)
This is one event you really will kick yourself if you miss. Werner Vogels, the CTO of Amazon is giving a talk about Amazon Lambda, if you don’t know what that is you can read more here. It really is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to spend three hours with the CTO of Amazon.
The House Of Bitcoin: 10:00AM – 5:00PM (Max’s Wine Dive)
Bringing together some of the brightest minds in the Bitcoin world, the first day of the House of Bitcoin event kicks-off on Sunday and they are taking-over Max’s Wine Dive for the day. While I’m not big on Bitcoin, it definitely has peaked my interested and I own enough Bitcoin to care about what happens with this controversial cryptocurrency.
Startup Debut at SXSW: 6:00PM – 10:00PM (Max’s Wine Dive)
A good reason to stay at Max’s. Innovative startups and market innovators present their latest-and-greatest. Some of the highlights include one of my personal favorites – .CLUB who have make waves in the domain names space launching one of the most successful new domain extensions on the market.
Monday, March 16th
ATI SXSW Fast Pitch: 9:30AM – 10:30AM (Sign-up here)
One of Austin’s awesome startup accelerators, ATI (Austin Technology Incubator) is hosting a pitch competition for Austin-based startups. Five finalists will pitch to a panel of Venture Capitalists – the winner will get a six-month membership into the ATI portfolio.
Spredfast Social Suite: 9:00AM – 6:00PM (800 Brazos)
Spredfast is without a doubt one of the most successful startups in Austin and if you don’t know what they do, you should. They have a Social Suite which is actually only a block away from the Fashion Metric offices at 800 Brazos where you can see Spredfast in action.
Austin Brand Innovators: 7:00AM – 5:00PM (Lamberts on 2nd)
As a guy who loves branding and because Lamberts just happens to be one of my favorite restaurants in Austin, I’m really looking forward to this event. The focus of the event is “How to be a change agent” and will cover the intersection of startups and Fortune 500 companies highlighting what larger companies can learn from startups.
