A few quick questions: Pete Cashmore at SXSW 2010

Right before South By, we sent a few SXSW-related questions over to Pete Cashmore of Mashable for him to answer. Mashable is one of the sites people both from within and outside the social media industry regularly refer to and read. In the 5 years since Pete founded Mashable in 2005, it has grown to gather a readership of 10 million unique users every month. Here’s what Pete thought of (and was up to) at South By this year:

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1. Has Mashable been at SXSW every year since 2005? How have you seen it evolve?

My first SXSW was in 2008.  Since then the Interactive part has grown dramatically — that’s a great sign for the industry, but it also means it’s a challenge to meet all the interesting people!  Interactive also includes a more diverse range of people now, including those who got into social media by way of traditional media, marketing or advertising.  That’s great for Mashable, since that’s the audience we write for.

2. What is the one panel/session you definitely do not want to miss this year, and why?

I organized interviews and meetings throughout, so I unfortunately didn’t have masses of time for panels.  However, I did participate in a panel on crowdsourcing called Crowd Control.  We spoke about how media companies can add crowdsourced content in a way that adds value, and posed the question: “is crowdsourcing a fad, or will it change media forever?”.  The audience voted overwhelmingly for the latter.

3. We’re sure you attend plenty of conferences and tech events every year. What makes SXSW special to the Mashable family?

SXSWi is the one place where everyone in tech comes together — people from all over the US, Europe, and even Australia and New Zealand make the trip.  That makes it a melting pot from which the future of the web emerges.

4. Name one thing you’re sure will happen at Mashable’s MashBash this year :)

A geek dance-off in the early hours of the morning (and it did!).

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Thanks for taking the time to answer these, Pete! Hopefully we’ll see you next year.