SXSW 2016 Open Data & Civic Tech Events

SXSW Interactive takes place in Austin during March 10-15 this year. It will feature hundreds of panels, workshops, and parties, and even a visit from President Obama.

As always, combing through all the official and unofficial events while keeping track of RSVPs can be super daunting, so we decided to help our our Open Data & Civic Tech friends with a curated list of relevant events to choose from.

So far, this list features 38 events pertaining to Open Data, Civic Technology, Policy, and SmartCities. At this time, most of the events on this list are official events, but we encourage you to shoot us an email or tweet us if you have anything else to add.

And if you can’t make it to SXSW, we hope we’ll see you at our next event on March 19th at Urban Co-Lab.

View the Google Doc here!


Here are a few highlights, in chronological order:

IBM Design Hive at SXSW

Friday, March 11, All Day
Hotel Van Zandt
Official SXSW Event

At 4PM, Russ Unger of 18F will present. Aside from being friends of Code for America and Open Austin, “18F is a civic consultancy for the government, inside the government, enabling agencies to rapidly deploy tools and services that are easy to operate, cost efficient, and reusable.”

Voter Technology: A Reimagined Future

Friday, March 11, 9:30 AM
Old School Bar, 401 E 6th St
Official SXSW Event

“Aging voting technology means upcoming elections are more likely than ever to result in inaccurate ballots or in voters being unable to cast a ballot at all. This group of panelists is unafraid to both sound the alarm bells and inspire us all about what is at stake for the 2016 presidential election, what stands in the way of updated voter technology, and what the future of the voter experience could look like given the right tools.”

Dell Policy Hack

Saturday, March 12, 6:00 PM
115 San Jacinto Austin, TX
No Badge Required - RSVP

“Join Dell for an interactive hack-a-thon that tasks teams of policymakers, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and students, along with a “coach”, to design solutions to policy challenges faced by entrepreneurs running growing businesses. The goal is to share the winning solution with the next president, recommending he or she implement them in their first 100 days in office.”

Civic Tech Hackers and Advocates Meet Up

Monday, March 14th, 11 AM
JW Marriott Room 209
Official SXSW Event

In case you don’t know already, Open Austin is hosting an official SXSW meetup to bring civic advocates, hackers, and supporters from all over together to share wins and roadblocks, and discuss ideas to take home.