If you’ve ever heard Matt Mullenweg talk about the early days of WordPress, the South by Southwest (SxSW) Interactive festival that takes place each spring in Austin, TX usually crops up in the story. South by Southwest is in full swing right now, and WordPress has been all over the place.

On Friday the 11th, Matt was interviewed by John Battelle of Federated Media in front of a packed ballroom, talking about the future of WordPress. That night, the annual SxSW WordPress BBQ party played host to hundreds of WordPress users, developers, and businesspeople, and attendees got an extra treat this year in the form of a t-shirt made especially to commemorate WordPress and its Texas roots.

On Saturday the 12th, a second party co-hosted by the Austin WordPress Meetup Group and GeekAustin (and co-sponsored by the WordPress Foundation and WPEngine) brought together a similar crowd but with the addition of local WordPress community members who were not registered for the SxSW conference.

Starting today, the South by Southwest trade show opens, and this year for the first time it will feature an official WordPress Genius Bar. Staffed by professional WordPress support staff, developers, advanced users, theme designers, and even some of the core contributors and project leaders, the booth will be open from 11am-6pm each day to answer questions and help people with any WordPress problems they might have. If you are at South by Southwest this year, consider stopping by to say hello and pick up a WordPress button or sticker. We’ll also have a limited supply of the special WordPress/Texas shirts that we’ll be giving away at the booth, so if you’re at SxSW between now and Thursday, stop by.  Hope to see you there!

Location: The WordPress booth will be in trade show stand numbers 829, 831, 928, and 930 (it’s an endcap booth that combines those four spaces). You can find us in those spaces by following the numbered banners hanging from the ceiling.

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