Applications for SXSW Accelerator due this Friday, Dec. 10th

As you know, we’re huge fans of South by Southwest Interactive, which takes place each March in Austin. For the past few years we have made the trek down (including throwing a party last year), and have encouraged as many people as possible from the Silicon Prairie to do the same.

In addition to simply attending, a few months back, we encouraged startup companies to apply for the SXSW Accelerator, which allows early-stage technology startups to present their companies in front of a panel of well-known judges for feedback, the potential prestige and awareness of winning the event at SXSW, and a whole slew of prizes.

The deadline has quickly crept up, with the last day top submit your company for consideration being tomorrow, Friday, December 10.

We highly encourage startups from the region to participate in this year’s event. The judges have just been announced and include such personalities as:

• Albert Wenger of Union Square Ventures
• Craig Newmark of Craigslist
• Timothy Draper of Draper Fisher Jurvetson
• Robert Scoble of Rackspace

Eligible startups are those which fit into one of the following categories:

• Innovative Web Technologies
• Social Media and Social Networking Technologies
• Entertainment Technologies
• Health Technologies
• News Related Technologies

Additionally, to be eligible startups must have launched after March 15, 2010 or plan to launch prior to June 15, 2011.

If you’re interested in applying, simply visit the SXSW Accelerator site, sxsw.com/interactive/accelerator to submit your application.

To all those young startups on the Silicon Prairie, this is an outstanding opportunity to showcase your technology in front of some fantastic judges, at one of the largest tech-related events in the world. We highly recommend that you consider applying. If you have questions, you can check out the official FAQ, or drop us a line and we can get you in contact with the organizers.