Wu-Tang Clan, José Andrés, CTA: What to Expect From D.C. At SXSW 2017

It's here. It's finally here: South By Southwest. The coveted technology and music festival in Austin, Texas kicks off tomorrow, and the Washington, D.C. Economic Partnership is ramped up and ready to go... again.

Each year, WDCEP partners with local vendors and organizations to bring the experience of the District to SXSW. Of course, it's all with the goal of making the Washington, D.C. metro area a marketable place for entrepreneurs to start a business.

"With everything that has changed politically here in D.C., we still want people to know that D.C. is a cool place," WDCEP CEO and president Keith Sellers told DC Inno.

As always, the WDCEP goes all out on what they call the "WeDC House," a hub for all District ambassadors and where D.C. centric events—concerts, panels, etc.—are hosted. This year, it's no different. WeDC — an initiative by the WDCEP in partnership with Events DC and the Executive Office of the Mayor — announced a few weeks ago they would be bringing the Wu-Tang Clan and D.C. band Thievery Corporation as their headline music performers. Other District ambassadors include José Andrés, Tim Ma and Cava Grill's Brett Schulman.

"Our message has been the same over the past five years: the only thing that has changed is our activation," Sellers said. "We’re even more inclusive and diverse with how we’re telling the message."

Events DC, who works with the economic partnership to organize its entertainment and panels lineup, started planning for SXSW 2017 right around when last year's festival ended. But Events DC CEO Gregory O'Dell told DC Inno the group's efforts really started to ramp up about six months ago."In the last six months, it’s been a lot heavier lift for all organizations involved," O'Dell said.

It's also important to note the cost of such an endeavor. When last reported in 2015, Mayor Muriel Bowser reportedly cut the SXSW budget by $125,000 down to $350,000—for the weekend that the District is in Austin. It's not clear if the budgeted amount has changed in the past two years or not.

But the District government isn't the only big name going hard for SXSW this year. The Consumer Technology Association will hosts its fourth annual International Policy Day on March 14 at the festival, a day-long summit to discuss emerging and disruptive technologies changing the way people live and work. (If you won't be at SXSW, CTA will also livestream the summit.) Summit panels include discussions on technology and the Trump administration, modernizing music licensing and the future of self-driving cars.

The list of D.C. tech people and makers who are heading to SXSW is pretty endless. If you're going and you're not on this list, send me a note to update the post.

A few of these names have been provided by Fosterly's annual list of DMV Tech SXSW attendees.