SXSW Interactive launching education forum Three-day 'SXSWedu' conference will focus on Texas' Project Share, which provides online resources to educa

South by Southwest Interactive today will announce an offshoot of its popular annual technology festival. The first "SXSWedu" will be held March 8-10, the days leading up to the 2011 SXSW Interactive Festival, and will focus on Texas education.

Festival Director Hugh Forrest said that his organization is partnering with the Texas Education Agency to put a spotlight on the agency's K-12 "Project Share" Web portal. The Texas Tribune, a nonpartisan public policy news agency, will also be a partner in the conference.

Forrest said the idea for the education conference, which will be held at the AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center at the University of Texas, came after two well-attended panels at this year's festival that focused on digital educational challenges in Texas.

SXSW Interactive, which focuses on topics such as blogging, social media and Web design, had its biggest festival in March. It attracted more than 12,000 attendees, topping paid registration for the SXSW Music Festival for the first time.

Registration for SXSWedu will be separate from Interactive and aimed at teachers, administrators and others in education, Forrest said. Early bird registration, through Nov. 12, will cost $175 and will scale up to $200 in January and $250 in February. Walk-up registration in March will cost $300.

Forrest said the festival will seek proposals for panels for SXSWedu but because of time constraints won't put them for up for public voting the way it does for SXSW Interactive. Some panel proposals that have already been submitted through Interactive's Panel Picker program may be included in SXSWedu instead.

"We were just reviewing the education proposals that came in, and there's some very strong stuff that would fit well with this edu event," Forrest said.

Project Share provides online tools for teachers for professional development. The conference will focus on creating content for Project Share, using its resources, supporting its use in classrooms and discussing new directions for it.

Forrest said the conference's attendance goals will be modest.

"If we get 300 to 500 people for the first year, we would view that as a success," Forrest said.

A website for the conference launches today at SXSWedu.