SXSW Startup Village
Located on the fourth floor of the Downtown Austin Hilton, this is where a lot of the startup action takes place. You’ll find panels, meetups, lounges, pitches, and mentoring. The Startup Spotlight, with pitches from almost 40 early-stage startups, happens on March 7 from 4-6 pm and March 10 from 4-6 pm. (That’s expanded from one event and half the startups last year.) The SXSW Accelerator, a demo day-style event with pitches from over 60 startups, runs from March 8-9.
Sessions
Here’s a roundup of SXSW sessions that would be most interesting to entrepreneurs – and where you’ll likely find the startup crowd. Also take a look at the hackathons and workshops on things like UI, raising funding, and coding.
SXSW Trade Show
The SXSW trade show is mostly home to larger companies that can afford the booth fees, which range in the thousands of dollars. But a few exhibitors should be of interest: the startup community Geeks from Gangnam, and companies like 99designs, StartupValley, BitPay, Pubslush, and Visual.ly.
Hours: March 9, 11 am-6 pm; March 10, 11 am-6 pm; March 11, 11 am-6 pm; March 12, 11 am-4 pm.
Parties
For a guide to the hundreds of parties rocking out at SXSW Interactive, follow @sxswparty or @sxswpartylist on Twitter. Also check out Eventbrite’s SXSW 2014 guide.
Startup Oasis and Tech Cocktail
Powered by UP Global and the Kauffman Foundation, Startup Oasis runs from March 7-9 at the Old School Bar and Grill, with events like office hours, pitches emceed by Dave McClure, and startup launches. On Saturday, Tech Cocktail will be hosting our Startup Celebration sponsored by .CO and CEA out of the Startup Oasis – including live interviews with entrepreneurs and thought leaders, the Mobile Future lunch, the Digital DC Day Party, a pitch competition featuring 20 hot startups, and our huge startup showcase Mixer.
