UPDATED 09:48 EDT / MARCH 03 2014

Quick guide to SXSW 2014

sxsw austinAre you ready, Texas???

For what?  For this year’s South by SouthWest festival, of course!  SXSW is all set for March 7-16, 2014 at the Austin Convention Center but if you’ve ever been to the event, you’ll know that comfy shoes are necessary to trek to the many event locations to fully experience what the annual festival has to offer.

If walking is not your thing, or you need to quickly get from one place to another, there’s an app for that.  Well, the app won’t literally get you there, but it will help you flag a cab and get there fast.  Austin Yellow Cab recently updated its Hail A Cab app with the ability to see all available cabs near you via GPS, and wait time. The refreshed app can also take credit card payments, and will even ask you to rate your trip.  Download the Hail A Cab app on the App Store and Google Play for free.

Keeping up with SXSW

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As always, SXSW has three sub-events, Music, Film and Interactive. So its a one stop shop for creative minds in the entertainment and tech industries.

There’s so much you can explore at SXSW from tradeshows, sessions and expos to name a few, so you might want to download SXSW Go, the official app available for both iOS and Android, to help you get around the grounds and fix your schedule.

Last year we saw quite a bit of buzz around ambient apps and other startups at SXSW, as well as other tech gadgets such as Google’s Talking Shoe.  So it’s quite exciting to see what tech companies and startups will be debuting at this year’s event.

For music lovers, Spotify’s got you covered as it’s painting Austin green with The Spotify House at SXSW.  From March 10-14, Spotify will host 30+ acts, including emerging stars G-Eazy and MØ, along with Glass Animals, Tove Lo, Jungle and Betty Who, to electro rockers Phantogram, St. Paul and The Broken Bones and many more.

In the past, Spotify hosted a number of break-out acts at SXSW such as Kimbra, Haim, Kendrick Lamar, Tom Odell and St. Lucia.

Fans of  The Vampire Diaries, Arrow, Supernatural, and The 100 will also be psyched, as stars from these shows will be dropping by to hang with attendees and the performers as Spotify has partnered with The CW Network.

Follow Spotify on Twitter @sxspotify, Vine, and Instagram for the latest info, and if you’re attending, you can RSVP here.

Smart world

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Considering some of the popular gadgets and apps that made waves at SXSW last year, we anticipate more data-driven solutions for the consumer market in Austin for 2014.

If you’re attending the conference, there’s two worthy panels to check out for our Smart World Series readers: “IoT: Is the Coming Plague of Devices Too Smart?, and “Designing Smart Objects for Emotional People“. There’s also a meetup for smart home lovers, with iControl’s John Dial listed as a presenter.

Commercial efforts to raise awareness about big data’s trek into broader markets will also be present at SXSW, including IBM Watson’s bright orange food truck, feeding you more than late-night snacks. iControl will also be teaming up with several other big brands to host the Connected Home Developer’s Garage, debuting at this year’s event.

Party on

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Your SXSW experience will not be complete if you don’t attend at least some of the awesome parties happening at the event.  To get you started on the right track, online marketplace for self-storage SpareFoot is kicking things off with The SpareFoot Party.  The SpareFoot Party is a massive unofficial party/DJ showcase and this year it will feature talents such as Jayceeoh, Caleb Mak, Stripper Boots, Andrei Matei, and Battle of the Storage Bands contest winner.

The party will be hosted at DJ Gatsby at the Scoot Inn, on 304 E 4th St., on Friday, March 7 from 8pm to 2am.  The party is free and open to the public but you must be 21+ to be admitted.  You can RSVP here.

 

photo credit: jaredpolin via photopin cc


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