Inaugural Austin Interactive Showcase Will Highlight Local Technology Innovators as Kick-Off to First Night of SXSWi Entrepreneur’s Lounge

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--One month from today, the first Austin Interactive Showcase will be held in conjunction with the Entrepreneur’s Lounge, an evening networking event held each night of SXSW Interactive. Sixteen local Austin companies with a focus on Interactive technology innovations will be featured for all Entrepreneur’s Lounge attendees, and particularly press, bloggers and influencers from around the world in town for the annual SXSW Interactive conference. The Showcase falls on the first night of the Lounge, the first night of SXSW Interactive and the evening the Lounge is sponsored by the City of Austin. Envisioned and coordinated by Porter Novelli’s Austin office, the Showcase runs from 5-7 pm, Friday, March 13, 2009, at Fogo de Chao.

Press and guests of the Entrepreneur’s Lounge are invited to stop by the Austin Interactive Showcase and meet the Austin companies showcasing their pioneering ideas, products and services.

Media interested in more information about this invitation-only event or the featured companies, please contact Rebecca Ewing.

WHAT:		Austin Interactive Showcase, sponsored by the City of Austin
WHO:		Sixteen Austin-based Interactive technology companies in various stages of development
WHERE:		Fogo De Chao
		309 E. 3rd St., Ste. 100
		Austin, Texas, 78701
WHEN:		Friday, March 13, 2009
		5:00-7:00 p.m.

“Nearly a year ago, we at Porter Novelli Austin, along with several other local Interactive influencers came together to bring to life the need to showcase our city as the home of an impressive – and growing – set of Interactive technology companies and solutions,” says Laura Beck, EVP and managing director of Porter Novelli Austin. “There is no better time to do so than during SXSW Interactive when all eyes in the technology world are on Austin, but in the past may have connected us more as the host of the conference, not a hub of innovation. We believe the 16 representative companies that are part of the first Austin Interactive Showcase will help publicly demonstrate the amazing stuff happening right here all year long.”

In its 16^th year, SXSW Interactive continues to grow, attracting over 7,500 interactive influencers of all levels. This year, press and guests of the Entrepreneur’s Lounge will get to meet a set of Austin’s own Interactive companies. Featured companies in the first Austin Interactive Showcase include:

• AntStorm - a new spin on social bookmarking, allowing consumers to save great content they find on the Internet, access it anywhere, share it everywhere and invite others to suggest similar content.
• Bazaarvoice - fully supported, hosted technologies that capture consumers’ opinions, questions and stories to help organizations gain sales, operational efficiencies, and – ultimately – real cultural change.
• B-Side Entertainment - an independent film distributor that uses proprietary technology to transform the way films are acquired and marketed, powering more than 200 film festival web sites, and capturing and mining feedback from 2 million audience members.
• BuzzStream - tools to build and manage relationships with word-of-mouth influencers – such as bloggers, press and link prospects – helping organizations improve search ranking performance, drive web traffic and attract coverage.
• Challenge Games - online, short-form games that are challenging, can be played in 3-10 minute time increments, and are fun and easy to play whether you're a serious or casual gamer.
• Convio - leading provider of on-demand constituent relationship management (CRM) software and services that give nonprofits a better way to inspire and mobilize people to support their organization.
• Moximity - location-based social network application delivering information users need regarding the whereabouts of friends, favorite eating or entertainment destinations, etc., to make real-time connections and improve social life.
• OneSpot – a Web service that aggregates, filters and prioritizes millions of content items every day, allowing publishers, bloggers, and brands to easily discover, curate and publish the best of the Web for their audience.
• OtherInbox - technology to automatically separate and organize e-mails from online shopping and social networking sites, enabling users to focus on messages from real people.
• Pangea Software - video game developer/publisher that has established itself as one of the leading iPhone developers with five Top 10 hits as well as various awards.
• Piryx - Political Engagement Platform designed to empower the average citizen candidate and social activist with the ability to effectuate change in Public Policy.
• Pluck - software that helps standout publishers, retailers and brands – including USA Today, Whole Foods and the NFL – add social interaction and community features to their Web sites, resulting in greater site traffic, site-driven revenues, consumer engagement and customer loyalty.
• SocialAgency - SpredFast platform combined with social marketing expertise allows users to extend their branded content from a single administration interface to the blogosphere and major social networks such as Facebook, MySpace, Orkut and Bebo.
• Socialware - patent pending technology that sits between enterprise users behind the firewall and external social applications and platforms to both create a secure layer of communication as well as provide full access control and complete archiving and management of the data shared across social applications.
• TicketCity - proprietary real-time ticketing platform, interactive seat-selection mapping features, and the largest inventory of seats has made TicketCity the top privately held ticket broker in the world.
• Turn2Live - the first online tool that offers users the ability to seek out live-music events based on their mood and current location, delivering the most comprehensive, accurate and user-friendly live-music search in the industry.

About Entrepreneur’s Lounge

The Austin Interactive Showcase will be held the first night only of the five-night second annual Entrepreneur’s Lounge at SXSW Interactive. The City of Austin will sponsor the first night of the lounge, and therefore, the Showcase itself. Saturday, March 14 is sponsored by Fish & Richardson; Sunday, March 15 by Nokia; Monday, March 16 by Digital Media Council and Chamber of Commerce; and the last night, Tuesday, March 17, by the UK Trade & Investment group. The Entrepreneur’s Lounge is an invitation-only event open from 5-7 pm each of the five nights of SXSW Interactive.