Mayors Mitch Landrieu (New Orleans), Pete Buttigieg (South Bend), Steve Benjamin (Columbia), Nan Whaley (Dayton) and Steve Adler (Austin) Among Delegation of Mayors in Austin, TX

Thursday, March 8 – Tuesday, March 13, 2018

Austin, TX – More than 20 mayors from across the country will head to Austin, TX this week for South by Southwest (SXSW), a world-famous event that brings together new ideas, emerging technologies and a prolific concentration of cross-industry thought leaders.  As part of the annual event, the mayors will participate in Civic I/O, an event that was created in partnership with the United States Conference of Mayors, South by Southwest and the Office of Austin Mayor Steve Adler. Civic I/O immerses forward-thinking mayors from around the country with the most innovative technologists, entrepreneurs, philanthropists, and creatives during SXSW. Mayors will participate in a series of interactive discussions with leaders that will focus on how cities can leverage emerging technologies to tackle some of the biggest civic and municipal challenges and deliver better services.

On Sunday, March 11 at 11 am, Civic I/O will showcase the Mayor’s Matchup: Tech Innovation Pitch Competition where emerging companies will have the opportunity to pitch their ideas to address challenges facing cities in a “Shark Tank”-style forum. A panel of mayors and industry experts will serve as judges and award $10,000 to the winner. Last year’s first place winner was RideAlong, a digital tool aimed at facilitating safer interactions between police and people with mental illness.  It is currently being piloted in Seattle, WA.

While in Austin, mayors will also participate on a variety of SXSW Interactive panels highlighting how cities are leading the way in finding solutions to the nation’s greatest problems—from public safety and racial equality to disaster response and climate change.

Panels will be on the record and open to media with an official SXSW badge unless otherwise indicated.  All Civic I/O evening events are closed to press.  Mayors are available for interviews while in Austin.  To arrange an interview, please contact Sara Durr at sara@durrcommunications.com.

Below is a list of additional SXSW panels that feature Mayors:

Saturday, March 10, 2018

Primed for Amazon: Value & Cost of HQ2 for Cities

12:30PM – 1:30PM

Hilton Austin Downtown Salon G

Mayor Nancy McFarlane (Raleigh, NC)

Mayor Sly James (Kansas City, MO)

Justin Bibb, Senior Advisor, Gallup

Agile Activism: Big Change Starts at City Hall

2:30PM – 3:30PM

Hilton Austin Downtown Salon G

Mayor Steve Benjamin (Columbia, SC)

Mayor Pete Buttigieg (South Bend, IN)

Mayor Nan Whaley (Dayton, OH)

Tech Clusters: Local Laboratories, Global Impact

3:30PM – 4:30PM

Palm Door on Sixth

Mayor Mark Mitchell (Tempe, AZ)

Kerry O’Connor, Chief Innovation Officer, City of Austin

Juhan Lepassaar, Head of Cabinet for Vice President Andrus Ansip, European Commission

Local Leadership in the Wake of Terror

3:30PM – 4:30PM

Hilton Austin Downtown Salon F

Mayor Andy Berke (Chattanooga, TN)

Mayor Buddy Dyer (Orlando, FL)

Sunday, March 11, 2018

America’s Mayors: Fighting for Racial Equity

3:30PM – 4:30PM

Hilton Austin Downtown Salon F

Mayor Libby Schaaf (Oakland, CA)

Leon Andrews, Director of Race Equity & Leadership, The National League of Cities

Atyia Martin, Chief Resilience Officer, City Of Boston

Tech’s Evolving Role in Disaster Response

12:30PM – 1:30PM

Hilton Austin Downtown Salon G

Mayor Mitch Landrieu (New Orleans, LA)

Mignon Clyburn, FCC

Caroline Joiner, TechNet

Monday, March 12, 2018

Amplifying Youth Voices to Redesign Opportunity

12:55PM – 1:40PM

Four Seasons Ballroom CD

Mayor Michael Tubbs (Stockton, CA)

Wendy McCulley, FUSE Corps

James Weinberg, FUSE Corps

Tuesday, March 13, 2018

Innovative Cities against Climate Change

9:30 AM- 10:30 AM

Four Seasons Ballroom AB

Mayor Steve Adler (Austin, TX)

Kate Brandt, Google

Romain Lacombe, Plume Labs

Mark Watts, C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group

How Can Cities Support Hyperscale Data Storage?

3:30PM – 4:30PM

1100 E 5th St.

Betsy Price (Fort Worth, TX)

Tim Bright, T5 Data Centers

Reid Geotz, Hillwood, A Perot Company

Matt Vanderzanden, Facebook

RSVP:

Interested media should RSVP to Sara Durr, sara@durrcommunications.com.

 

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