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Thursday, March 19, 2009
Attendance at South by Southwest Interactive tops 11k
Forrest said final accounting for the fest is not yet complete, so that total is not official, but is close to what the festival expects will be the final numbers.
In 2008, more than 9,000 were registered for the Interactive fest. That includes platinum and gold badge wearers, who may not necessarily have attended Interactive events.
Theories about the growth included job seekers looking to weather the bad economy, a large number of start-up companies trying to promote their wares at the fest and the continuing cross-over between Film and Interactive.
“Part of our growth is from the film side buying Interactive badges for the Interactive programming,” Forrest said, “there’s lots of carryover in the audience.”
Forrest said the Film fest attendance was estimated to be flat from last year and the Music fest attendance is expected to be down about 5 to 10 percent.
Overstuffing was a problem at Interactive in some Core Conversation panels with many an attendee sitting on floors and the larger parties at the fest suffered from long lines. Forrest said that fewer larger companies send 15 to 25 employees at a time, but many smaller companies were able to afford to come.
“In a down economy, it’s a great place for innovation to happen,” he said.
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