Scheduled March 8-12 at the Austin Convention Center and various other downtown venues, the 2013 SXSW Interactive Festival brings more than 25,000 digital creatives for five days of programming, Trade Show, networking and fun. Confirmed speakers include Elon Musk, Tim Berners-Lee, Anne-Marie Slaughter, Pete Cashmore, Jane Pratt, Al Gore, Shaquelle O'Neal, Matt Mullenweg, Bre Pettis and many many more. Programming for 2013 covers everything from blogging to new business models, food to fashion, private space exploration to social networks of the future -- and everything in between. For more information on the 2013 SXSW Interactive Festival, see www.sxsw.com/interactive.

If you are not able to invest in a badge for the 2013 event, then please be aware of all the SXSW Interactive Festival events that you can attend for free free free. These no-badge-needed events include the Digital Creative Job Market (March 7-8 at the Palmer Events Center), the SXSW Gaming Expo (March 8-10 at the Palmer Events Center), SXSW Create (March 8-11 at Red River and Cesar Chavez) and the Dewey Winburne Community Service Awards Ceremony (evening of March 10 at the St. David's Episcopal Church). For more information on these free free free events, please look them up by name using the search bar at the top right corner of www.sxsw.com/interactive.