SXSW

“On October 20, 2000, they pulled the plug,” explained motivational speaker John Bates. “We had lost $80 million and when you do that, they come in, usually with security guards, lock you out and you have nothing. I was so embarrassed, so crushed, I thought I was going to die,” he explained. But, Bates survived the bursting of the internet bubble and today, as founder/CEO of ExecutiveSpeakingSuccess.com, he teaches executives all over the world how to pitch to obtain funding and achieve other objectives. And, he's good with a light saber.

Despite the high cost of attending SXSW, I think it’s more than worth it. For networkers, it’s a no-brainer for the level of access it provides to many industry movers and shakers. For music fans, the ease of meeting many speakers and potentially seeing many artists and bands up close is quite extraordinary.

'I'm not really a full-tilt blues guy or a full-tilt folk guy or a full-tilt country guy or a full-tilt rock guy, I've been influenced by all those forms of music and I enjoy 'em all. So it's a good place for a songwriter to be, where you just don't have to think about the future of the song. I just write.'

Film fans and writers we can learn something from other people’s mistakes, for example, the SXSW screenings of 'The Diabolical' and 'Roar.'

SXSW consists of over 3000 events, including 150 movies. I didn't quite make it to all of them.

SXSW presents three documentaries: "Best of Times," "They Will Have to Kill Us First," and "Disaster Playground."

Saturday marked the final full day of SXSW Music Festival 2015, which had a packed night of performances by Tove Styrke, Clean Bandit, and Tove Lo.

Snoop Dogg was the Keynote Speaker for SXSW Music Festival 2015, which also included performances from Brolin, Lenka, and Courtney Barnett.

Most movies are the merging of technology and short stories, novels or sagas. Manglehorn is technology merged with a poem. It is the story of a locksmith who has lost the love of his life because of something he has done and lives in self-imposed isolation. Manglehorn has constructed a cocoon of memories and fantasies, keeping his son, a former protégé, and the hope of new love at arm’s length.

Christian Slater and Lucy Lawless were on hand at SXSW 2015 to explain just why they are so creepy. Not, personally, of course, but in their new roles. Slater in the new sci-fi series Mr. Robot (SXSW Audience Award Winner – Episodic) premiering on USA Network. Lucy Lawless (Xena, Spartacus) joins the cast of WGN America's Salem for its second season.