ey, if you’re in Austin, Texas, this weekend, you need to drop in on the South by Southwest Interactive Festival (SXSWi), which starts today. HowStuffWorks.com Editor-in-Chief Conal Byrne will be participating in a couple of panels over the weekend, and you should definitely check those out. Also? If you see him, call him “chief.” He loves that.

If you can’t be in Austin, then you’re missing out, speaking as someone who’s attended SXSW. It’s a whole lot of fun — lots of the great minds of music, filmmaking and tech are going to be there. If you’re like me and unable to participate this year, there’s a live feed of the show, thanks to Ustream.TV.

You know, SXSW started as a music festival only, way back in 1987. Organizers started small — there were only 700 people registered that year. Now they’re pushing 12,000.