austin-mapThe huge SXSW film, music and interactive conference officially kicks off today — and hundreds of Seattle techies have either arrived in Austin or are on their way.

Now, thanks to Glympse those geeks will be able to easily track where everyone is hanging in Austin for the big festival.

“As with any Glympse, no app is required to view the group — a web browser on any device will do,” explains Darren Austin, vice president of products at Glympse. “Attendees who want to join the group can do so by tapping the “Join Group” button at the top of the page.  The Glympse app will automatically launch and allow them to share their location with the group for as long as they choose.”

The idea was actually the brainchild of Mark Briggs, a longtime SXSW attendee who runs digital media operations at KING 5. (Editor’s note: KING 5 is a GeekWire partner). Biriggs is a longtime proponent of location-based services, having previously founded Seattle startup Serra Media.

Austin said he’s not sure how much participation they’s get. (When I check into the map earlier day there were only a few expired locations from folks, including Amazon.com’s Dave Schappell).

“This is a casual thing —not part of any concerted promotional push,” says Austin, adding that the core value proposition is allowing folks to easily find others who have a similar background.

“Schedules change a lot at an event like this and some parties that everyone thought would be cool are lame and vice versa,” says Austin.  “Bouncing text messages back and forth always ends up with one group chasing another from party to party and half the time they never manage to meet up.  It’s the classic: ‘you shoulda been there, man’ scenario.”

Location-based services have been a hot trend at SXSW ever since Foursquare launched at the event in 2009.

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