The 11th annual South by Southwest Music and Media Conference in Austin, Texas next week will be where it’s at for music lovers and industry big-wigs alike.

SXSW has been described by The Twist-Offs’ guitarist Erik Walter as a smaller version of Mardi Gras. Jeanie Pyun, senior editor of Mademoiselle, compared the conference to going to a New Year’s Eve party four nights in a row.

Last year’s conference brought 25,000 music fans nightly and 5,500 music business professionals to Austin. With all the partying hubbub, the real meaning of the conference can sometimes get lost in the music and beer.

Brent Grulke, creative director of SXSW, said the conference has a much more serious function than partying. “It is an event designed for the music industry and for people serious about their pursuits,” Grulke said.

Pyun said that SXSW is pretty interesting and fairly informative. “For Mademoiselle, I get to see the up-and-coming acts way before they actually head the national consciousness.”

She said viewing trends at the convention can sometimes serve as a base for future music and fashion stories. One of the bands she saw last year, Chainsaw Kittens, ended up being covered in Mademoiselle.

“It is a very mutually benefiting experience. Unknown or unsigned bands get a lot of exposure. Media people get exposed to possibly tomorrow’s video and rock stars. Label people get to see how their acts do in this sort of atmosphere,” Pyun said.

She said it is also a chance for bands and agents to see how their acts hold up under media scrutiny.

Pyun is looking forward to a change in climate from the rainy days of New York to sweltering Austin. “It is very warm. It is fairly relaxed and casual. It is not a convention in the strictly conventional sense.”

This type of environment proves to be conducive to the industry. “Most of the people here, either artists or members of the music industry, are able to accomplish the professional goals that they have set. We hope it is useful for the people,” Grulke said.

Anyone can register for the conference, but there is an unspoken degree of devotion to the music industry expected from those attending. Grulke said the conference already has enough of those who come only to party and listen to bands. “Certainly, we encourage anyone with a real interest in the music industry to come.”

Possibly one of the most influential musical events in the world, SXSW starts Wednesday, March 12 and features Carl Perkins, songwriter of “Blue Suede Shoes”, Tony Bennett, Everclear’s Art Alexakis, Cake, Soul Coughing, Deborah Harry and many, many more.

Lesser known up-and-coming bands on the bill include Spring Heeled Jack (which will be at the M-Shop later this month), Germany’s Atari Teenage Riot, Chokebore, Idiot Flesh and The Grassy Knoll.

More than 600 bands are expected to play in 125 different clubs from Wednesday, March 12 through Sunday, March 16. Several of those bands will travel overseas for the conference.

Grulke said SXSW has always hosted international bands, but recently, it has become more popular. “It is more difficult for them to come than anyone else. They need to have a clear set of objectives and to be more organized than anyone else,” he said.

Some of this year’s international bands include Atari Teenage Riot, Beastie Boy’s cohort Ben Lee from Australia and Amsterdam’s Bettie Serveert.

As for the longevity of SXSW, Grulke said, like any other business, SXSW is a service to a lot of people. “As long as it continues to be valuable for other people, then we can continue to do it.”

For those wanting to break into the music industry, SXSW can provide the possibility to open some real doors. Grulke has been involved with SXSW since its conception 11 years ago when he was a stage manager. Over the years, Grulke has worked with hundreds of volunteers, many of whom are students.

“There are some students who do meet people and get first-hand experience and many end up getting jobs. It has happened enough to where I know that it is a real possibility. That makes me really happy,” Grulke said.

For Paula Donner, publicist for Capricorn Records and a born and bred Texan, attending SXSW is a nice trip back home to the family, not to mention a weeklong celebration of music.

“It’s a lot of fun. You get to meet a lot of people and there is always a lot of good bands to see,” she said.

This year will be Donner’s fifth year of attending the conference. She said that besides SXSW being one huge party, it can also be a place where the more adventurous types attending may actually make some great industry connections.

However, Donner said, not everyone will be receptive and some industry people are there to meet friends, not college students.

“It is hard. You might run into some people that are important that you need to know,” she said.

As with anything remotely fun and worthwhile, there is a price to pay. Donner said attending SXSW can be a large financial consideration for college students.

You’ve got the price of the badge (which can run upward of $400), the a hotel room, food and drink for five days. (Don’t forget T-shirts, CDs and those funky red pepper lights for your friends marooned in Iowa for the week.)

Luckily, there is an alternative to the pricey badge that allows entrance to speaker sessions, the massive trade show and nightly shows. Wristbands, which enable wearers to attend only shows (space-permitting), cost about $30. Obtaining a wristband will be a bit harder this year than previous years. This is the first year wristbands will not be sold nationally. This shouldn’t discourage students who are Austin-bound, though.

“The real truth is there are single admission tickets at almost every show every night and those tickets are cheap. The vast majority are in the $5 to $10 range,” Grulke said.

Besides that, he said, there are always free shows and parties galore. “You can still have a really good time without any guarantee that you’ll be able to buy wristbands.”

This year will be Maintenance Shop program advisor Rusty Poehner’s fourth time attending SXSW. Poehner said she prefers SXSW to other music conferences held nationally, like College Media Journalists in New York.

“CMJ is enormous, but it restricts itself to alternative music. I prefer SXSW because they do a full range of music like jazz, reggae, blues and acoustic,” she said.

Poehner said Austin tends to draw more bands from the Midwest. “East Coast people don’t often go beyond the East Coast and West Coast people often don’t go beyond the Rockies. …

“We’ve used close to a dozen bands that we’ve been exposed to there,” Poehner said.

She said SXSW has ballooned enormously over the past four years she has attended. “It has become a major geek and schmooze-fest. Everyone in the world is there.”

She said it has been a very useful experience for the M-Shop director who is in charge of booking M-Shop shows. “It gives them major exposure to bands and an opportunity to see how the deals are made,” Poehner said.

“There are great panels on everything from how to run a club to how to deal with agencies and bands,” she said.

For Poehner, attending SXSW affirms the notion that the M-Shop staff runs its business correctly. “It shows that we’re for real and that we’re playing the right game from what I learn about the industry there. That is very reassuring.”

She said Austin is swimming in nightclubs, with about 125 venues. “I get to check them all out and compare them to us. We come out very well,” Poehner said.

Former M-Shop director Gregory Parks has attended SXSW three times. “The first year I went, through subsequent scheduling, we wound up having at least a dozen bands scheduled through the M-Shop. For example, Geggy Tah came about like that.

“Things really come to fruition down there,” he said.

Parks said it isn’t uncommon to find yourself watching a band you’ve never heard of before and may not even want to see because of time schedules.

“You wind up being pleasantly surprised. If you can be flexible with your night, you’re going to definitely wind up with a more enjoyable atmosphere,” he said.