Feb 1, 2018
Hugh Forrest is the chief programming officer of South by Southwest that takes place every March in Austin.
SXSW Conference & Festivals is a ten-day-long convergence of tech, movies and music now entering its 32nd year.
SXSW Interactive has gained an international reputation as one of the world’s most influential tech events. It’s been called Spring Break for Geeks among other nicknames.
An Austin native, Forrest graduated from Austin High School and majored in English at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio.
Before SXSW, Forrest held several jobs in the newspaper industry and he started an alternative newspaper in town, The Austin Challenger, a rival to The Austin Chronicle, which runs SXSW.
In 1988, Forrest joined SXSW to head up the Interactive operations.