Shawn O’Keefe, SXSW Create producer, volunteered at SXSW in 2000 and was hired a year later when there was only a director and a salesperson on staff. Now, he said, there’s about 30 year-round staff members and more than 100 volunteers.

Now in its third year, SXSW Create is growing bigger every year, O’Keefe said.

The public event is a little less daunting than SXSWi and allows the community to get involved in technology talks.

We want to educate the public about what’s happening in technology and how it’s impacting their life,” O’Keefe said. “And more than that, we’ll share some tools that they can use to make their lives better and transform the world around them. It really is about creating a focal point for the community to come together and discuss a lot of these issues around technology.”

This year, SXSW Create is in a new location, sharing The Long Center, 701 W. Riverside, with the some of the SXSW Gaming Expo. Hours are 11 a.m.-6 p.m. March 7-9 (Friday through Sunday).

The event was a little hard to explain because it’s so different every year, O’Keefe said. This year, some universities will be showcasing drones, there will be programming meetups and show and tells, and there will be robotics competitions.

“It’s going to be a very diverse group of people; not so much like a traditional trade show,” O’Keefe said. “Certainly the focus is creativity and what you can do with technology.”

So if you haven’t made the dive into SXSWi but want to start somewhere, SXSW Create may be the place. And it’s open to the public… and it’s FREE.

O’Keefe, whose been a part of SXSW for 13 years now, even admitted that SXSW can be overwhelming.

It’s easy to lose sight to the overwhelming nature of SXSW where you have panels on  monetizing things and a wide variety of sessions on different aspects of technology, but I think that what we want to do at Create is just get back to showing how much fun technology can be and bring out the kid in all of us; that sense of wonder and fascination; and to realize that you have access to that and the tools and toys to change the world are cheaper than ever before.”