August has arrived and we are now open for business for SXSW 2009! Click here to register (and to book your downtown hotel room). Meanwhile, allow us a deep breath in preparation for the many busy days that lie ahead. Not that we didn't have plenty of activities to occupy our time over the last several months. To this end, here is a quick glimpse at some of the projects that Team Interactive devoted our attention to during the so-called off-season...

A New Flavor to SXSW.com
In an effort to remove barriers to you the end user, we teamed with Blue Flavor to develop an all-new information architecture for the SXSW website. While we haven't yet integrated all of their fabulous suggestions, their work has vastly improved the usability of our stockpile of online data. Many thanks to Nick, Tom, Tiffani, Keith and the rest of the Seattle crew for pushing us (err, pointing us) in the right direction on this stuff.

Revised Look and Feel
We were honored to work with Austin's Sibley/Peteet Design to develop the fresh new identity for 2009. Sure it is difficult to represent all that is SXSW in one small image, but these guys came up with a plan that makes sense. The symbol for Music is a microphone; for Film, it is a movie camera. As for Interactive, the handheld device represents the human element and microburst nature of communication within our core audience.

Even More Blog Content
More content than ever before will flow through the Bits & Bytes blog (that's the space you are reading right now). From news about past speakers to updates on the 2009 programming to previews of Trade Show exhibitors to information about scheduled technology-related events around Austin and around the world, this is the spot to stay on top of all things that matter to the SXSW Interactive community. Make it even easier by signing up for the RSS feed.

Podcasts Galore
All the amazing audio content from the 2008 SXSW Interactive Festival has now been posted to the 2008 Podcast Blog. Which of these 150+ sessions do you want to listen to first? Check out the 2008 ratings to find out what panels event attendees thought were the most interesting and most beneficial. Special thanks to our former intern Andrew McNeill for pulling together all these podcasts. Now get back to studying for your exams!

Panel Voting Begins August 8
2009 marks the third year that we will use the SXSW Panel Picker to help select event programming. When the proposal submission process closed on Friday, July 11, we had received more than 1100 incredible ideas from across the United States and around the world. These speaking proposals will be displayed on the Panel Picker voting interface, which will run from August 8-29. Thanks again to Lindsey Simon for developing this amazing online application.

The Tinkering Continues
Stay tuned to sxsw.com as we continue to add new content and information to the site in the coming weeks. Find something on the website that isn't clear? Then please let us know. And, as always, if you have any SXSW-related questions, give us a shout and we will provide all the right answers.