Trending Now on Location: Welcome to Day 1 of SXSW Interactive

This has to be one of the most exciting weeks ever for the "Trending Now" team. For the first time, we are not in our Manhattan studio filming the show. Instead, we're on location in Austin, Texas, at the 20th annual South by Southwest festival.

There are three portions of the conference that people attend: interactive, music, and film. SXSW is known to attract emerging artists, filmmakers, and entrepreneurs from all over the world to showcase their creative talents and immerse themselves in the culture of innovative ideas that surrounds the SXSW bubble. There's a lot of celebrity spotting going on. Rumor has it, Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z will make an appearance this year. This year, the festival runs from March 8 through 17, beginning with the interactive portion.

The FAQ sheet describes this portion of the festival as follows: "An incubator of cutting-edge technologies and digital creativity." The interactive festival includes keynote presentations, panel discussions, meet-ups, book readings, and more. The entire festival provides a fantastic networking platform that allows you to talk one-on-one with some of the biggest technological innovators in the business.

SXSW is not just an opportunity to showcase your talents. Obviously, Austin is home of the University of Texas, so it's a college town. Some people even call it "the" college town. There's great food (barbecue, Tex-Mex, etc.), groovy people, and awesome nightlife.

We look forward to sharing this experience with you and bringing you the best that SXSW has to offer. If you're at SXSW or know someone who is, share your pictures with us on Flickr and Twitter using the hashtag #YahooTrendingSXSW.

[Related: 7 ways to enjoy and network the heck out of SXSW]

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