For the past 6 years, .CO has made the journey to the South by Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas. We’ve loved every minute of celebrating our COmmunity, meeting so many innovators, and seeing all of the amazing things being brought to life on .CO domains.

As this year’s festival is rapidly approaching, we can’t help but reminisce about our past experiences. We could spend countless hours sharing 6 years of SXSW stories with you–but instead we hope you’ll settle for our rundown of how .CO has taken on Austin over the past few years.

2015

In 2015, we loved meeting and hearing about what the .CO innovators of the world have been building. We had a blast hanging out with our COmmunity at our Happy Hour and enjoyed seeing .COs such as Glif.co, WorkingOn.co and Publicize.co sharing their stories through video interviews. And, from giveaways including goPros and complimentary conference badges, we showed our COmmunity members some serious love!

Kyle Taylor of Drawattention.co shows off his GoPro camera he was surprised to find at the bottom of his .CO swag bag.

Additionally, we were able to learn from the best in the industry, including Dave McClure and Steve Case. As Case shared, “We are in the 3rd wave of the Internet, making Internet more integrated in life than ever before.”

2014

In 2014, the .CO team took on Austin in full force! We treated our COmmunity members to all sorts of programming and treats at our .CO pop-up headquarters. .CO startups, innovators, entrepreneurs and tech enthusiasts enjoyed networking over drinks, having fun in our .CO photo booth and enjoying Austin’s famous Torchy’s Tacos for lunch.

Sprint’s mobile advertising division, Pinsight Media+ stopped by the HQ to teach attendees how to monetize their apps ‘like a boss’. 

Over 80 .CO companies signed up via our  Membership Program to be SXSW VIPs, which gave them access to a co-working space at our pop-up HQ, premium .CO swag bags and an open bar at Dave McClure’s Half-Baked party. It also put them in the running for the opportunity to have a video interview with Tech Cocktail.

Workshops from Decoded.co and Pinsight Media inspired our guests in the mornings and chats with influencers such as Kelly Hoey (founder of WIM.co), John Battelle, Gary Vaynerchuk and DJ Skee provided our .COers some food for thought each afternoon. With the exception of Saturday, we wrapped up the day with a fun-filled Happy Hour.

John Battelle (Newco.co) discussed innovation with Gary Vaynerchuk (Grapestory.co).

2013

In 2013 we teamed up with our partner UP Global in their #UPGlobalLIVE Lounge. Guests enjoyed mentoring office hours and Q&A with keynote speakers, as well insightful panels with veteran industry speakers–one of which included our VP of Brand, Lori Anne Wardi.

Tony Hsieh (founder of Zappos) explains how he’s helping to bring innovation to Downtown Las Vegas during Q&A with Frank Gruber (founder of Tech.co)

Attendees, our team and local artist Tiki Jay also collaborated on a giant 5 x 10 foot canvas. The canvas gave everyone the opportunity to leave their mark (quite literally) on the “Startuplife”!

2012

2012 was all about supporting, educating and celebrating .CO startups. We were thrilled to award  domain scholarships to deserving entrepeneurs and enjoyed sponsoring some of the most engaging events and programming at SXSW for startups and entrepreneurs to gather, learn, network and celebrate the startup life.

2010 and 2011

Still in its infancy, our team acted as a sponge in 2010 and 2011, soaking up and gaining knowledge from industry influencers. SXSW served as major inspiration for our team as we networked with the best and forged lasting bonds with folks already living the #StartupLife.

As you can see, we’ve come a long way from our meager beginnings–but we still embody #StartupLife.

As we prepare for this year’s trip to Austin, we’ve been hard at work organizing fun events and finding special goodies for our COmmunity.

See for yourself what we’ve  got in store for our .COers this year–and be sure to follow @dotCO on Twitter for up-to-date info on all things SXSW.

We hope to see you in Austin! Cheers!