MUMBAI: Starting today, representatives from 30 Irish companies will converge in Austin to participate in South by Southwest (SXSW), the world's premier film, music and interactive conference. Here, where technology intersects with the arts, legions of thinkers, inventors and musicians spark discussions, catalyze ideas and forge connections. Like Twitter, Foursquare and others, many have used the venue to launch technologies that transform how we work and socialize.

With the Irish delegation is Ireland's Minister for Innovation, Mr. Sean Sherlock. The delegation is supported by Enterprise Ireland (EI), the government agency responsible for the growth and development of Irish companies in international markets. EI is joined at the conference again this year by IDA Ireland and the Irish Film Board.

Speaking at the event, Minister Sherlock said, "SXSW is synonymous with uncovering 'the next best thing' so it's an excellent venue to showcase Ireland's technology and creative flair. Today's Irish entrepreneurs are reaching into our strong cultural traditions to build inventive, socially relevant, useful and entertaining digital media products. Highly driven and competitive, they've shaped a start-up culture that's made Ireland a magnet for the digital media luminaries that converge at popular annual gatherings like F.ounders and the Dublin Web Summit. In Austin this week, I'm looking forward to engaging, sharing ideas and joining the inspiring conversations."

Minister Sherlock will attend the conference and participate in an early St. Patrick's Day event on Saturday for delegates and their guests. Collectively, the Irish will stage their presence at booth #1307 in Exhibit Hall 4.

Ireland's web, gaming, digital media and film ingenuity will shine in myriad ways throughout the event. For Storyful which uses social networks to create an authentic and socially useful journalism, SXSW is the latest stop on its US market roll-out campaign. This week the company named Erica Berger as head of its new Americas operation. Berger previously reported for The Economist from her NYC base. At Storyful, she will manage relationships with publications like the New York Times and The Economist, and tech companies like Google and YouTube. Also this week, the new Storyful Direct app landed in Apple's App store. The app helps citizens connect their content with news organizations.

Other Irish standouts at the show include:

Relevenz which will launch its plan-sharing social app for the Android smart phone.

VendorShop, a provider of Facebook shopping cart solutions recently scored a seed round which it will use to expand its presence beyond the 15 countries where it's currently entrenched. With the VendorShop solution, merchants can promote and sell products from their Facebook page without redirecting customers to another website.

Volta makes its first foray to SXSW. The provider of video-on-demand services specializes in Irish and international indie films. The company is collaborating with its European partners on a feature that will enable users to watch and share films from their Facebook accounts. For producers and distributors, this broadens the market for their films and facilitates social interaction with a wider audience.

XAP just launched Version 2.0 of OnePageCRM, a simple sales management tool for small businesses. They also boosted their global sales team by partnering with a New England-based re-seller.

Zartis hit a 2000 WordPress installation milestone for its user-friendly recruitment software and signed a partnership with SiliconRepublic, Ireland's leading tech industry news site. The company just added a feature that enables firms to launch employee referral programs with a unique social media integration flavor.

Ireland's presence will also be felt in film. Five Irish movies are slated for screening, with several marking their North American debut at SXSW. They include feature films "Citadel" and "Dollhouse," and the documentary, "Dreams of a Life." Two short films, "Foxes" and "Joy" complete the Irish line-up.

The 30 Irish exhibitors represent a snapshot of the more than 400 companies in Enterprise Ireland's Internet Media Entertainment portfolio, said Simone Boswell, Senior Vice President for the sector in the US. "The list of players is growing as more entrepreneurs than ever are tapping into Ireland's rich start-up ecosystem to bring clever technologies to the global market. Within the sector are dynamic web 2.0, gaming, animation, music, TV and film companies, along with SAAS across verticals in telecoms, Internet, media and entertainment," noted Boswell.