The invitation to participate in NPR's early-evening meet-and-greet at this year's SXSW music festival came too late for me to find a reasonably priced non-stop flight into Austin.

NPR: Layover Loot: A Stop In Dallas For Local Gems

This past weekend the South By Southwest (SXSW) festival came to a close, capping off almost two weeks of presentations, music, film, comedy and exhibits for the tens of thousands of people attending, not to mention the hundreds of small and large companies participating.

FORBES: Why I Won't Be At SXSW Next Year

Mike Yavonditte is quick to dismiss chatter about his 5-month old company Hashable, a mobile networking site, becoming the darling or breakout company of the 2011 South by Southwest Festival (SXSW) in Austin, the so-called spring break for geeks.

FORBES: Hashable: South by Southwest's 2011 Breakout Company?

At the South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive annual festival in Austin, Texas in March, DeNA showcased new games on the Mobage platform like Transformers: Legends (part of the Transformers franchise) and did the schmoozing necessary to generate product buzz.

FORBES: 'Game On!' Says Tomoko Namba, Founder of DeNA

The Tweet-A-Beer mobile app is rolling out this week at SXSW, the Austin, Texas, festival that has helped launch such social-networking staples as Foursquare and Twitter.

CNN: Mobile app lets you 'Tweet-A-Beer'

In 25 years, SXSW has mushroomed from a tiny music festival run by the local alt-weekly to a ten-day extravaganza attended by some 49, 000 people that, together with spring-break traffic, causes unholy traffic jams on Interstate 35 into and out of Austin (and has turned those same editors into decidedly wealthy entrepreneurs).

FORBES: TEDActive and SXSW Interactive

And those also holding badges for the music portion of the festival can find themselves rocking until dawn, literally--although to date, SXSW has yet to market an antihangover app.

FORBES: TEDActive and SXSW Interactive