If you've ever sat in a session at SXSW and thought, I could do that, or better yet, I have something to say that nobody's saying yet, this is your moment. PanelPicker®, SXSW's community-sourced session proposal platform, is officially open for 2027 submissions, and the entry window runs June 23–July 26, 2026. This is how a significant portion of the SXSW Conference gets built: not top-down, but from the ground up, by thinkers, practitioners, researchers, and creatives who have a point of view worth platforming.
PanelPicker® supports a wide range of session formats, so the question isn't whether your idea fits, it's which format best serves it. A single sharp perspective might be a Presentation. A topic that gets richer with multiple voices might be a Panel. A hands-on concept with real professional takeaways belongs in a Workshop. If your idea lives somewhere between teaching and conversation, a Core Conversation or Fireside Chat might be exactly right. There are also formats for book readings (publication date of June 2026 or later), Meetups, and established Podcasts. Whatever the format, the SXSW programming philosophy is the same: we're not looking for surface-level takes or content people could have Googled. We program sessions that go deeper, that reframe how people think about their work, and that can't be found anywhere else. If your proposal does that, you're on the right track.
A few things that make proposals stand out: specificity wins over vagueness every time, so resist the urge to pitch a broad topic and instead nail down the precise angle you're bringing. Your title is competing with hundreds of others - cute is fine, but clear and direct is better. The supporting material you include matters enormously, so treat it like the first chapter of an argument you're making to both the community and the SXSW staff. Once proposals are submitted, community voting opens August 5–23, 2026, but know that votes aren't the only thing that determines who gets on stage. A group of 200+ PanelPicker Evaluators from around the world, plus the SXSW programming staff, weigh in alongside community votes, which means less well-known voices have a genuine shot alongside speakers with massive online followings.
Not sure where to start? SXSW is hosting an AMA webinar on June 23 where you can ask questions, learn best practices, and get a feel for what makes a strong submission RSVP Here. Throughout July, virtual Office Hours give you a direct line to SXSW staff for feedback on your proposal before you hit submit. Head to panelpicker.sxsw.com to get started, and meet us in Austin, March 15–21, 2027, for South by Southwest. The stage is waiting.
