This week thousands of techies, entrepreneurs, executives, investors and digital divas and dons are descending on Austin, Texas for the SXSW Interactive conference. Starting Friday, prepare yourself for the constant barrage of tech (or not so tech) related updates, from startup launches and thought-provoking panel discussions to Instagram pics of free food and party snapshots– set to take over your Twitter stream, Facebook timeline and Instagram feed.
With numerous keynotes, panels and parties connected to the interactive, film and music conferences, it’s something you have to experience at least once in life–even if it’s through your laptop or mobile device. For those not attending SXSW, you can still be a part of the action by following along online.
Here, we’ve compiled a list of quick and easy ways you can follow SXSW from the comfort of your home:
Hashtags
The official hashtag for SXSW 2013 is #SXSW. While SXSW organizers have provided attendees and on-lookers with the official hashtag, most news outlets and organizations have created signature hashtags (i.e. Mashable’s #MashSXSW, Black Enterprise’s #BESXSW, etc.). Black Enterprise will be on the ground, covering a bevy of panels and will be using #BESXSW, so join in on the conversation on Twitter and our other social media sites.
Blacks in Technology (BiT) will be in full force at SXSW, and hosting various events throughout the interactive portion of the conference. Follow BiT’s updates via #BitHouse.
The SXSW website has a helpful guide that lets you search through all of the panels and events. Since each panel has a specific hashtag associated with it, peruse through all of the panels and find the hashtags by scrolling through to the details for each event.
You can also follow the official SXSW social media accounts:
Twitter: @SXSW
Facebook: SXSWFestival
Google+: +SXSW
Vimeo: OfficialSXSW
Instagram: @SXSW
Live Streaming
Toggling between hashtags is great for getting various points of view during an event, but sometimes you just want to see things for yourself. Even if you can’t physically attend SXSW, live streaming makes you feel like you’ve got a front-row seat to the panel discussions, keynotes, and concerts.  Click here to keep up with all the “streaming goodies.â€
Social Curation Tools
Mass Relevance, a social curation platform that calls brands like Victoria’s Secrets, Pepsi and New York Giants clients, allows you to search interesting tweets in real-time, sift through them and view trends. Users can even reply or retweet directly from the tool. You can take a look at the platform here.
Storify
The nearly two-year-old platform allows users to combine photos, tweets and other forms of content from across the web into a cohesive story. Storify has pulled together all of the SXSW stories into one location, which you can check out here.
Will you be at SXSW? If not, how will you stay abreast of all the SXSW news and updates? Â Let us know in the comments section.