Skimble was among the startups to advance to the SXSW Accelerator finals in 2010. Photo from mariachily on Flickr.

Yes, it is hard to believe, but we are a few short months away from South by Southwest Interactive 2012, to be held March 9-13 in Austin, Texas.

For a second year, I was asked to serve on the advisory board for the SXSW Accelerator, taking place March 12-14. A live audience and a panel of expert judges will review the latest startups in social media, mobile applications, web entertainment and more. On March 12, 48 companies will battle for a place within the top 18 companies to then present on March 13. At the end of the second day, winners of SXSW Accelerator will be announced. A Music Accelerator follows the next day.

Our role is identify and encourage startups from the Silicon Prairie to represent their company and the region at the March 2012 event. This event provides participants with a tremendous level of external visibility and promotion for the work that their startup is involved in. (Here’s a list of 10 additional reasons to participate in the Accelator event.) 

Today, we want to share information with you about how your startup can apply to highlight your product or service. The deadline to register is Nov. 18, so please begin the registration process today. To learn more about entering your startup, visit the SXSW accelerator page. Here are the details (from sxsw.com):

Eligibility


• A company’s product/service must have launched no earlier than March, 13, 2011.
• A company’s product/service must not be launched after June 13, 2012.
• Companies will be allowed to submit only one product/service to the SXSW Accelerator event, and companies that submit more than one product/service will not be eligible to participate.
• Founders of the applying startup must retain some portion of ownership in the company to be eligible to participate.
• Companies must not have raised over $5 million in funds from combined funding sources.
• The product or service must fall within one of the following categories below:

Categories

To qualify for the SXSW Accelerator, companies must fall within this description:

• Innovative web technologies: This category pertains to applications and technologies that have the ambition to change the web as we know it. Right now we’re seeing lots of innovation in real-time search, augmented reality, the “Web Wide World”, artificial intelligence and the Semantic Web, recommendations technologies, personalization technologies and “big data.”
• Social media and social networking technologies: This category pertains to technologies that help people connect. With this category we’re looking for new and interesting uses, cases, as well as technologies that push the boundaries of how we find, follow and share information with others.
• Entertainment technologies: This category pertains to applications and technologies for film, television and gaming, as well as new and hybrid forms of entertainment that are reinventing the ways in which we relax, unwind and have fun.
• Mobile technologies: This category pertains to applications and those technologies related to that which allow users to connect by portable devices such as tablets, phones, and other connected devices.
• Health technologies: This category is about patient-centric health applications and technologies that connect patients, families, physicians, pharmacists, care providers (hospitals, clinics) and benefit providers — aka the care team — to share timely, relevant health data and drive better outcomes at affordable and sustainable cost levels.
• News-related technologies: This category pertains to applications and technologies to support the dissemination of news and information for communities, both on the content side or on the underlying business model side (for example advertising). This could include technologies related to data, text, documents, mapping and engagement, among other areas.

Best of luck! We are excited to continue representing the amazing work taking place on the Silicon Prairie!