Roland Swenson was a guest speaker at the CTCAR Signature Event in downtown Austin last month. As President and Founder of SXSW, he spoke of the formative years of SXSW back in the late 1980's. Austin was not a major music market at the time, but the character of the city made it a perfection location for the conference. Austin's University of Texas already drew people from around the world. Couple that with government growth, high-tech and other business growth, a great central Texas location, outdoor and quality of life, Austin had a good base to build-on. Each year the week long conference grows bigger and now has even more interactive/multimedia events. SXSW is one of the biggest events in Austin and Texas and draws tens of thousands attendees and is a big economic driver every year for Austin.