As it does every March, Austin, Texas will welcome the hordes to its SXSW Music, Film and Interactive event starting this Friday. The ever-growing, innovative festival started in 1987 as a music conference attended by a few hundred badge holders and has since grown into a massive meeting of creative minds with more than 50,000 attendees expected in 2014.
So how did SXSW become a behemoth that’s influenced other major festivals around the globe? In the debut episode of the Dailymotion/Mashable series That Was Me, we throw the spotlight on the guy who’s held it all together for nearly three decades — Founder and President of SXSW Roland Swenson.

Image: DailyMotion