Toby ShapshakWhile Austin is known for its BBQ, this week the tech industry descends on the Texas capital for the best brain food on the tech conference circuit, the South By South West (SXSW) festival which starts on Friday. SXSW Interactive chief programming officer Hugh Forrest says these include "Foursquare in 2009, Gowalla in 2009, Highlight in 2012, Meerkat in 2015" and while "Uber didn’t launch at SXSW, but according to Fast Company, it was conceived here". The 2017 highlights, he says, include artificial intelligence, future transport, health care and, increasingly, politics and policy. (He speaks on Sunday, March 12 at 3:30pm at the Austin Convention Center.) [My talk on how innovation is better in Africa is on Friday, 10 March, at 5pm at the Hilton Austin Downtown, room 400.]

Source: Forbes March 09, 2017 13:16 UTC