Held every year in the capital of conservative-leaning Texas, the South by Southwest festival increasingly celebrates the state's emergence as a technology hub stepping out of Silicon Valley's shadow.
The sprawling, counter-cultural conference -- first launched in 1987 as a music festival -- was always a bit of a Texas outlier, just like its host city Austin, a liberal enclave in the middle of a state best known for its big skies, cowboy hats and oil rigs.
