

Nevertheless, PW attended a handful of lively panels and presentations and the show remains a magnet for tech entrepreneurs and business-minded social visionaries. In addition, this year an unusual number of panels were held in smaller rooms, resulting in lots of complaints from people who were turned away. Programming, at least that involving book publishing and related ventures, seemed diminished and kind of flat-though SXSW has scores of panels and it’s impossible to see them all. While SXSW remains a great venue for discovering tech trends (and tech personalities), this year’s show offered as many challenges as insights.


This was PW’s third year at SXSW Interactive, the annual technology festival in Austin, Tex., and it may have been the toughest year to cover.
