People You Should Know: Hugh Forrest
March 7th, 2008 | by Brad King |Since this is a very SXSW opening post, it seemed appropriate to introduce you to the man behind the most important technology/geek conference of the year. SXSW Interactive started 15 years ago, six years after the Music Conference and Festival took off.
Initially, there weren’t many folks here, but the event quickly turned into a must-attend event for the major players. It’s still not as big as Music — and maybe not as big as Film — but this year, somewhere in the neighborhood of 7,000 to 9,000 people will pile into the Austin Convention Center.
For sure, he’s drawn some criticism over the years because of the open nature of the panel selections (I am on the Advisory Board, which means I get to help pick once the community has spoken, although our voices are but one of a large chorus), but that’s the nature of running this type of conference.
Here’s a few bits and bytes about his:
