Hugh Forrest

The South by Southwest (SXSW) festival has been held every month of March since 1987 in Austin, Texas, and is considered one of the most important meetings worldwide related to music, film and interactivity. Hugh Forrest is director of the SXSW Interactive Festival, an event that brings together over 30,000 digital creatives from the United States and the rest of the world and that has become one of the main showcases worldwide for the latest tendencies in new technologies, innovation and entrepreneurship. For five days, at SXSW, these professionals find inspiration through a programme that includes debates, presentations, brainstorming, networking, the creation of start-ups thanks to an accelerator, and entertainment.

In 2012, the Austin Chamber of Commerce named Hugh Forrest “Citizen of the Year”, together with the rest of his colleagues from the management of the SXSW festival. Last June, Ernst&Young named them Entrepreneurs of the Year. In addition to his work for the festival, Forrest forms part of the National Board of Advisers of the Poynter Institute of St. Petersburg, Florida. Forrest graduated in English Literature from Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. Before joining the SXSW team he founded a small alternative publishing company called The Austin Challenger and worked as a writer for different newspapers.