Tammy Lynn Gilmore is the Publicity and Press representative for the South By Southwest Interactive, Music and Film conference in Austin, Texas. Tammy gave some insights onto the Interactive festival and it’s history at South By Southwest.

Matthew:
What is the history of how the Interactive festival began?

Tammy:
The SXSW Music Conference and Festival debuted in Austin in March 1987. The event now known as the SXSW Interactive Festival began in 1994 (but, at that point, it was called the SXSW Film and Multimedia Conference). Beginning in 1995, Film became its own unique, separate event and Multimedia became its own unique, separate event. Four years later, the name Multimedia had morphed to Interactive. ScreenBurn at SXSW, which is focused on video game technology, was added to the mix in 2006 — and for 2009 we have brought SXSW Accelerator into the fold.

Matthew:
What was the original reason, if any for combining interactive at a Music and Film festival?

Tammy:
The word convergence is overused, but one of the coolest things about SXSW is that it is a real-life experiment in convergence. Technology touches all aspects of our lives, and that’s especially true for musicians and filmmakers. It’s also natural to have a tech event in the heart of the Silicon Hills.

Matthew:
What are some of the major developments, events and accolades that have happened in regard to the interactive portion of SXSW over the years?

Tammy:
Using the Panel Picker for community-generated input for the first time in 2007, Twitter hitting critical mass in SXSW 2007, fostering creative, independent thinkers that we see go on to succeed.

Matthew:
Why would a technology, or interactive focused company be interested in attending SXSW? What would they do there in terms of having a presence?

Tammy:
There are abundant opportunities to meet the creative thinkers and builders of some of the newest and most exciting technologies. There is also the opportunity to reach out to a highly focused and targeted audience of early adapters and first generation users through our tradeshow and unique sponsor areas and to host events and parties that put you in touch with technology cognoscenti. Not to mention our the all-new Accelerator, which gives companies a chance to pitch their latest products to a panel of judges. We call it “American Idol for Geeks”: http://www.sxsw.com/interactive/accelerator

You can read more about the history of SXSW, including the film and music portions of the conference at http://sxsw.com/about.

Stay tuned on TheBitsource.com, or follow us on Twitter for more exclusive insights into this years Interactive Festival at SXSW. Information on the Interactive Festival at SXSW is located at http://sxsw.com/interactive. To attend SXSW you can register at http://sxsw.com/attend.