Connect with Us at SXSW Interactive

The Facebook team is heading to the SXSW Interactive Festival this week in Austin, Texas. Whether you'll be there in person, or can join us online, we hope that you'll be a part of the excitement too.

We'll be participating in panels and events to discuss the latest in building with Facebook with some of the best innovators and developers in the industry. If you won't be able to make it to Austin this year, you can watch our Facebook Developer Garage via live stream on Sunday, March 14, beginning at 2:00PM CST.

SXSW Panels and Events

Note: All times are Central Standard Time.

Friday, March 12th
Panel: Securing Web Behemoths - Web Applications That Are Large

• Facebook Speaker: Ryan McGeehan
• Time: 5:00 PM
• Location: Austin Convention Center, Ballroom A
• Overview: An industry panel of security engineering managers will discuss their approaches to securing giant websites, and share insights on the tools they use and how their efforts can be applied at other companies.

Saturday, March 13th
Talk: Designing the First Fifteen Minutes

• Facebook Speaker: Rob Goodlatte
• Time: 12:30 PM
• Location: Austin Convention Center, Ballroom B
• Overview: The first fifteen minutes a user spends with your product are the most important. Learn from the successes, mistakes, and insights of designing new user experiences for products.

Party: OK! Happy Cog’aoke, sponsored by the Facebook Design team

• Time: 10:00 PM
• Location: Scoot Inn, 1308 East 4th Street, Austin, TX
• Overview: Join the Facebook Design team at SXSW's premiere karaoke event. Even if you're not up for the karaoke challenge, come for the open bar and cheer for your favorite contestants.

Sunday, March 14th
Panel: Beyond LAMP: Scaling Websites Past MySQL

• Facebook Speaker: Serkan Piantino
• Time: 9:30 AM
• Location: Austin Convention Center, Ballroom B
• Overview: Explore how startups scale from a basic LAMP stack (on PHP or Python) and the other solutions to run something bigger.

Panel: Social Games: Lessons from the Pioneers

• Facebook Speaker: Gareth Davis
• Time: 9:30 AM
• Location: Austin Convention Center, 6AB
• Overview: As we enter a new era of games designed, produced, distributed, and operated to facilitate interaction among players, the pioneers in the industry will discuss how they're approaching the new medium.

Panel: From Right-to-Left: Entrepreneurship & the Middle East

• Facebook Speaker: Sacha Tueni
• Time: 9:30 AM
• Location: Hilton, A/B
• Overview: Can the Middle East reinvent itself through digital entrepreneurship? Can the Internet and mobile technologies create a bridge for collaboration and co-operation, independent of politics and location?

Panel: CrowdControl: Changing The Face Of Media Or Hype?

• Facebook Speaker: Randi Zuckerberg
• Time: 12:30 PM
• Location: Austin Convention Center, 12AB
• Overview: A discussion about new media democracy, citizen journalism, and wisdom of the crowd. This panel will discuss core tenets of this theory and how it is affecting current and future digital media business models.

Event: Facebook Developer Garage Austin

• Facebook Speaker: Gareth Davis
• Time: 2:00 PM
• Location: The Phoenix, 409 Colorado St., Austin, TX
• Overview: Join the Facebook team and the developer community, including those from Playfish, Seesmic, Gowalla, and PopCap, as we explore connecting people across platforms. Come to learn, stay to connect with the community. RSVP early as this event historically fills up fast.

Watch the Live Stream at Ustream or here:

Tuesday, March 16th
Workshop: Mobile Content is Social: a SXSW Workshop

• Facebook Speakers: Michael Sharon, Tom Watson
• Time: 2:00 PM
• Location: Austin Convention Center, Ballroom F
• Overview: This whirlwind tour through various interaction models, content strategies, use cases, and interface tweaks will be peppered with anecdotes and tips to help you create addictive mobile social experiences.

Wednesday, March 17th
Workshop: Social Networks and the Future for Musicians

• Facebook Speaker: Raquel DiSabatino
• Time: 2:00 PM
• Location: Austin Convention Center, 12AB
• Overview: Panelists will discuss how can musicians can use social networks to improve their careers, connect with fans, and even make more money.

For more details on SXSW Interactive, check out the SXSW Page.

Julia, who manages Facebook Developer events worldwide, can't wait for the festivities to begin in Austin.