Part of SXSW’s charm is meeting up with old friends and following traditions as well as discovering what’s new in the world. One of those traditional events is 20×2 and they’ve confirmed this year’s details to The Baby!

The premise is a simple one. Twenty speakers each have two minutes on stage to answer the same question. This year… “What changed?”

Inventive performances, different angles and viewpoints, from raucous humour to quiet introspection, 20×2 is a roller coaster ride, and this year you can get on board at Elysium (705 Red River) starting at 7pm on Saturday 9th March. A few names have been announced, and yes, I’ll be one of the speakers!

Jamie, over on the Adobe blog, looks back at his time in Austin in March this year at his first South by Southwest.

At first, this year’s South by Southwest [2012] seemed like a bust… But a few days in, after the sun came out in a blaze of glory, people pulled off their rain suits and started to mingle. After that, the conference was in full swing — dozens of panels, hundreds of sessions, some awesome barbecue and many cameos and keynotes by some of interactive’ s famous, the whirlwind week ended just as quickly as it began.

He touches on a number of issues including; where will SXSW go now and can it avoid ‘bursting’ because of its size and expectation; the future of social media; the rise of the mobile app; and what the big brands were doing to woo the Southby attendees.

Most of all though, are the two big points he’s noted for SXSW 2013:

• A closer hotel which has me walking to sessions, no more shuttle dependencies.
• Better Adobe employee awareness, I found that our employees didn’t have a way to reach out to one another via some sort of gathering.

The hotel situation is one that crops up every year (and if you are looking for a hotel close by, don’t forget that downtown sold out by late November last year for SXSW Interactive), but the communication aspect, especially between a small group of people, is one that everyone has to deal with.

We’d suggest making sure everyone has a coffee together in the morning at a fixed time and place…

Just how big was SXSW this year? Well, Taylor McKnight and the team from Sched (good friends of The Baby!) have put together the numbers of SouthBy attendees using the timetable and planning service they provide.

So what did we go though in March? Over a million page views, eight thousand events, five hundred and fifty-eight venues, and there’s more in Sched’s annual report.

But my favourite number? If you add up all the events at SXSW,and how long they ran for you get the scarily big number of 10,652 hours of Austin events. That’s just over one year two months, and three weeks of content… you wouldn’t be finished by the time SXSW 2013 rolls around!

That’s how Kevin Moreno sums up this year’s SXSW in California’s El Pasino:

Whether you listen to hip hop, punk, pop, rock, or electronic, no matter what the genre is, SXSW will have a band you will enjoy. The greatest thing about this festival is whether it’s a big mainstream artist, an up and coming underground band, or somewhere in between, SXSW has it all.

More at El Pasino. We couldn’t agree more – and if you missed it, our 2012 Music Sampler is still available!

Mark Collins takes a look back at this year’s SXSW, although in the best tradition of the press, when he writes SXSW he means SXSW Music)

The price of Lone Star was fairly consistent. On the downside, mainstream America fully embraced SXSW after slowly creeping in on the festival for years. Whether it was the 60-foot-tall Doritos vending machine, the party sponsored by Nike, or American Express broadcasting a live Jay-Z concert on Sixth Street, everybody wants a piece of Austin. SXSW is still about music, but it’s also so much more.

With his favourite (and worst) bands, events, recycling, and the love affair from the hipsters for his Moleskine… it’s a fun read over at HuffPo.

I’ve been moonlighting over at Forbes for a while, but when my article on five companies that could ‘win’ at SXSW Interactive went live, well, I couldn’t not post it here.

Why have I chosen Eventbrite, Glancee, Highlig.ht, Lanyrd, and Pinwheel? You’ll need to read on at Forbes to find out

Friend of The Baby! Outroversion has always come up with the goods in terms of musical picks for SXSW, and his 2012 selection is going to be wonderful to listen to. Picking out the bands and performers is always tough, so a hand picked and curated collection of songs is always welcome.

We’re still putting the finishing touches to the SXSW Baby! sampler, so pardon us if we don’t look at Outro’s list in full just yet (so we don;t spoil our picking skills!) but after previous years, we trust him to choose good music.

More thoughts and the band list on his site, or you can dive straight in and grab the musical archive.