SXSW 2011 is about to kick off, and already the buzz about the interactive festival is reaching fever pitch.

Get ready: It’s going to get a lot louder.

Starting today folks will flock to Austin to discuss the latest trends and batch of technology being touted as must-haves for interacting online. In addition to the hundreds of trade show exhibitors and companies on the official conference line-up, innumerable pitches will be happening in the hallways, after hours, and on the event’s fringe. In the face of this onslaught, where does a brand even start to figure out what’s worth their attention?

That’s where we try to help. We’ll be working with clients including PepsiCo and Samsung who have great programs to facilitate discussion on major trends. We’re also on the ground to help other brand contacts work though the sea of panels, parties and conversations to uncover emerging trends that can work for them – and which ones won’t.

Some sessions that address hot topics being discussed with clients include:

Brave New World: Debating Brands’ Role as Publishers (NPR, TechCrunch, HiveFire, Junta42, Carrier Evolution)

Measuring Social Media – Let’s Get Serious (Twitter, Mashable, Viralheat)

Analytics and Social Tools in Practice (Harvard, MIT Sloan)

The Science of Influence (Klout, ReadWriteWeb, Lithium Technologies, HubSpot)

Recommendation Engines: Going Beyond the Social Graph (StumbleUpon (client), YouTube, Pandora, All Things Digital)

Social Hotline: How Social Media Impacts Crisis Communications (RightNow (client), Big Break Enterprises

The New Frontier of Social Gaming (Zynga)

Online Mom Communities = Hotbed of Local Influencers (Mom Bloggers Club, Rock and Roll Mama)

The Thank You Economy (Gary Vaynerchuk)

And that’s just for starters. On the tech front there’s also a rich agenda on tap. New, very worthwhile tools are coming on the scene at a rapid rate. Geosocial, mobile, tablet apps, and group messaging are all tipped to be hot topics at SXSW this year, with good reason. But building them into a solid strategy – and executing on it – requires a firm grasp of business issues and unique realities of each client’s day-to-day-operations.  That’s the role we strive to straddle: a source to translate conceptual value of new platforms into real value for brands driving social media into their core operations.

We’ll have a group on hand very much looking forward to meeting with thought leaders and MPVs in the technology space.  SXSW 2011 is now here. Hope to see you there.

@cperry248