The SXSW festival (or ‘South by Southwest – think Hitchcock, but geekier and in color) is an annual event that interactive, film and music enthusiasts all the world over look forward to with great excitement!

This year, as in years past, the Schipulites will have a small contingent joining thousands of other marketing and technology nerds in Austin for the Interactive portion of the SXSW festival.  And… to say that we are excited would be the greatest understatement of the year

Here are the Schipulites that are attending SXSWi this year and some of the panels we are most looking forward to!  Keep up with ALL of our SXSWi-related content on our shiny  new Storme site at:  www.storme.com/sxsw

Katie Laird – Communications Manager + Cupcake Lover
Twitter:  www.twitter.com/happykatie + www.twitter.com/schipul
Blog:  http://blog.schipul.com + www.happykatie.com
Storme:  www.storme.com/happykatie

Katie’s top 5 panels:

1. Big Brother in Your Brain:  Neuroscience + Marketing
2. Content Strategy FTW
3. From Trolls to Stars:  The Commenter Ecosystem
4. Open Leadership: The Upside of Giving Up Control
5. Okay, I know it’s cheesy because it’s my panel but…  Kicking Recession Ass with a Killer Company Culture (SO EXCITED!)

Jonti Bolles – All Star SEM Manager + Fitness Geek
Twitter:  www.twitter.com/jonti + www.twitter.com/semblog
Blog:  www.thesemblog.com + www.inmybesthealth.com

Jonti’s top 5 panels:

1. Beyond Algorithms: Search and the Semantic Web
2. Search Patterns: Tangible Futures for Discovery
3. Life After Wii Fit: Geeks on Fitness
4. Social Search: A Little Help From My Friends
5. Monkeys with Internet Access: Sharing, Human Nature, and Digital Data

David Stagg – Creative Guru + David Beckham lookalike
Twitter:  www.twitter.com/dstagg
Blog:  www.dstagg.com
Storme:  www.storme.com/dstagg

David’s top 3 panels (designers are minimalists, yo):

1. How Social Media Can Destroy Your Business Model
2. CSS3 with HTML5
3. Directing the Dead

JJ Lassberg – Brilliant Brilliant Project Manager + Earth Mama
Twitter:  www.twitter.com/jjlassberg
Blog:  www.jjlassberg.com

JJ’s top 5 panels:

1. Why Keep Blogging
2. Citizen Journalism Brigade
3. Kick-Ass cast can’t see through wall but they can kick your ass
4. How to spark a movement in the 21^st century
5. The Yelp Effect: When Everyone’s A Restaurant Critic

Courtney Pemberton – Sales Gal Extraordinaire + All Around Peppy Gal
Twitter:  www.twitter.com/cpembyrun
Storme page:  www.storme.com/cpembyrun

Courtney’s top 5 panels:

1. Blah Blah Blah: Why Words Won’t Work
2. The Inside Workings of FunnyorDie.com
3. Bam! An Entire Statewide University System Goes Virtual
4. Sex Education in a Web 3.0 World (Don’t judge me )
5. Slashing Through Red-Tape to Revolutionize Corporate Communication

Caitlin Kaluza - Social Media Project All Star + Cat Lover With a Wii Problem
Twitter:  www.twitter.com/qcait
Blog:  www.qcait.com

Caitlin’s top 5 panels:

1. Connected: The Surprising Power of Our (Real Life) Social
2. Customer Support in a 140 Character World
3. Zombies, Vampires & Monsters: Fostering Loyal Genre Communities
4. Social Gaming: Lessons from the Pioneers
5. Data is Money: How Geeks are Changing Finance

What panels and events are you most excited about?  Hope to see you there!!  Be sure to say howdy if you walk on by – even if we’re busy Tweeting / blogging / video-ing

You may also be interested in:

1. SXSWi or Bust: The Schipulites Take Austin
2. Trend Tuesday: Picking Panels for SXSW 2010
3. Friday Fun: SXSWi 2010 Wrap-Up Video
4. SXSWi Catch-Up: Sex, BestBuy & Gaming
5. Support some great SXSWi 2012 panels!

Tags: interactive festival, SXSW, SXSW 2010, sxswi, technology