Tech geeks, filmmakers and musicians. Some are singular and some are hyphenates: a musician-filmmaker-tech geek. 

But alone or in multiples, the mecca for this triumvirate is the annual South by Southwest (SXSW) festival every March in Austin, Texas. This year’s edition starts on Friday, March 11, 2011.

And CNN’s Mark Millian tells us why the festival matters. 

For one thing, Millian says, "SXSW is where popular app makers launch drastically new versions or websites. Foursquare, Plancast, PicPlz, Ustream and others all plan to release apps with new features this week to coincide with the happenings in Austin."

Millian adds, "The event’s film portion now takes up nine days — almost as many as the interactive and music sections combined. Past SXSWs have witnessed the premieres of "Kick-Ass," "Knocked Up," and countless documentaries. This year’s lineup features such high-profile premieres as a Conan O’Brien documentary about his recent comedy tour (O’Brien’s show, like CNN, is a Time Warner property), the Jake Gyllenhaal thriller "Source Code" and "The Beaver," directed by Jodie Foster and starring Mel Gibson."

The article also tells the story of Twitter, and how the company languished until it made a big splash one year at SXSW.