Hugh Forrest has been involved with the festival for almost as long as it has existed.
Image: ddp
Hugh Forrest is the veteran of the digital festival and has been organizing it for 35 years. He is the constant of an event that has changed its face dramatically over time.
AWhen Hugh Forrest became head of programming at South by Southwest in 1989, he was primarily attracted by the prospect of a better, more stable salary. He had previously tried to establish a monthly newspaper in his hometown of Austin, which he found exciting but also tedious and not very profitable. “That’s what you do when you’re 21 years old and can survive on peanut butter sandwiches and ramen noodles for months,” he says in an interview with the FAZ
South by Southwest seemed more solid to him, even though the event had very humble beginnings at the time. It had only premiered two years earlier, and when Forrest joined, the team could still fit into two office rooms. The technical equipment was limited to a fax machine, a printer and a Macintosh computer that he supplied himself.
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