sxsw Interactive Keynotes

2008 Interactive Keynotes

Mark Zuckerberg to Keynote on Sunday, March 9

SXSW Interactive is pleased to announce Facebook’s founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, as the keynote presentation on Sunday, March 9 at 2:00 PM. Sarah Lacy, author, BusinessWeek columist and co-host of Yahoo Finance’s "TeckTicker" will host the on-stage interview with Zuckerberg, the 23-year-old who has emerged as one of the brightest young minds in the booming social media industry. With his direction, Facebook has grown from a college networking tool to a global phenomenon. The site is now used by people of all ages with over 50% of users returning daily. As Facebook continues to launch new innovations and expand functionality with Facebook Platform, the number of users on the site continues to soar — more than 60 million at last count.

Frank Warren to Keynote on Monday, March 10

Called "the most trusted stranger in America," Frank Warren is the sole founder and curator of the PostSecret Project: A collection of nearly 200,000 highly personal and artfully decorated postcards mailed anonymously from around the world, displaying the soulful secrets we never voice, and the creator of the New York Times best-selling books: "PostSecret, The Secret Lives of Men and Women," "My Secret," and "A Lifetime of Secrets." Warren has appeared on the Today Show, Good Morning America, 20/20, CNN, MSNBC, CBC, NPR and Fox News. He graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in the Social Sciences and moved to the Washington D.C. area to start a business. Fifteen years later, Instant Information Systems, his small business, takes up less of his time as he devotes more time and energy on the project that thrust him into the public eye. Warren receives between 100 and 200 postcards everyday.

Jane McGonigal to Keynote on Tuesday, March 11

Game designer and future forecaster Jane McGonigal takes play seriously. Currently a senior researcher at the Institute for the Future, Jane McGonigal writes and speaks about the power of digital games, virtual worlds, and other immersive experiences to change reality and to shape our future. As a game designer, she creates massively multi-player experiences that are doing just that. She specializes in collaborative games that blur the line between virtual worlds and the real world. Previously, she was a lead designer at 42 Entertainment, the company that invented the genre of alternate reality games and created the award-winning "I Love Bees." More recently, McGonigal designed the "World Without Oil" game, a collaborative online simulation of a global oil shortage. She has a PhD in performance studies from the University of California. MIT Technology Review named her as one of the world's top innovators under the age of 35.

Past Keynotes at SXSW Interactive

Keynotes have included visionaries and innovators such as Heather Armstrong, John Battelle, Stewart Brand, Burnie Burns, Denise Caruso, Ana Marie Cox, Mark Cuban, Cory Doctorow, Thomas Dolby, Richard Florida, Limor Fried, Richard Garriott, Malcom Gladwell, Philip Glass, Steven Johnson, Jason Kottke, Jaron Lanier, Kevin Lynch, Craig Newmark, Dan Rather, Howard Rheingold, Todd Rundgren, DJ Spooky, Alex Steffen, Bruce Sterling, Phil Torrone, Jeff Veen and Will Wright.