2009 SXSW Interactive Speaker Lineup

The SXSW interactive speaker line up is like a who's who in the world of geeks and media. The opening remarks will be coming on March 14 from Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos online shoe retailer. This e-commerce whiz also spoke at the 2008 SXSW conference. Mr. Hsieh's principle for success is to provide extraordinary customer service. This philosophy has paid off, as under his leadership, Zappos grew from $1.6 million in gross sales to more than $1 billion in eight years.

Other interactive speaking events include keynote interviews and panels. A keynote interview by Guy Kawasaki will be with Wired Magazine Editor-in-Chief Chris Anderson on March 17.

Other keynote interviews are scheduled, such as:

* New York Times Magazine Columnist Virginia Heffernan will be interviewing Graffiti Research Lab Co-Founder James Powderly on March 16. Graffiti research lab brings together graffiti artists and open source technology.

* BusinessWeek reporter Stephen Baker will be interviewing fivethirtyeight.com's Nate Silver on March 15.

Interactive panels include Twitter Inc's John Adams, tantek.com's Tantek Celik, Julie Ahrens of Stanford Law School, Kristin Alexander of Microsoft Xbox, David Altounian of iTaggit.com, Google's Irene Au, Evan Shapiro of IFC/Sundance Channel, John Slabyk of Obama for America and Mozilla's David Baron.

The variety in the list of topics is staggering; ranging from International Business in China for Fun and Profit to Kick-Ass Mash-ups with Punk Rock APIs to From Framing Shots to Pushing Pixels: Crossing Between Film and Video Games.

Other interesting topics include: Are Women Taken More Seriously On The Web?, Posse Blogging: Never Blog Alone, Grokking Bloggers: It's About Love and Underpants, Can the Afrosphere Survive the Age of Obama?, My Boss Doesn't Get It: Championing Social Media to the Man, Friendship is Dead, Is Privacy Dead or Just Very Confused?, Wireframes for the Wicked, Designing for Irrational Behavior, and Rebuilding the World with Free Everything.

Since the scheduling is subject to change, attendees should be sure to check the SXSW website prior to purchasing tickets or attending events. The SXSW website allows users to create a custom calendar of events in order to ensure nothing is missed.

Sources:

Tony Hsieh to Deliver Opening Remarks on Saturday, March 14. SXSW website. http://sxsw.com/interactive/talks/opening_remarks

Tony Hsieh - CEO. Zappos.com. http://about.zappos.com/meet-our-monkeys/tony-hsieh-ceo

Keynote Speeches at SXSW Interactive. SXSW website. http://sxsw.com/interactive/talks/keynotes

Full Schedule of SXSW Interactive Sessions. SXSW website. http://sxsw.com/interactive/talks/schedule?action=panelistidx