There’s so many web-related conferences these days, you have to travel a lot to make it to just a fraction of them. One that I regret missing is SXSW Interactive (South by Southwest). It is a huge event, in Austin, Texas, with many thousands of attendees and dozens of panel discussions, presentations, and parties. It draws an impressive crowd of thought leaders in web design and other interactive media. There’s overlapping film and music events that draw even bigger crowds.

Fortunately for those of us who missed it, many of the sessions were recorded and are available as podcasts. It’s definitely not the same as being there—not only do you miss all the personal interaction, of course, but you also don’t get to see the slides. But I’ve found many of the SXSW podcasts well worth listening to.

Here’s a few of the ones I found interesting:

• Will Wright Keynote—A fascinating talk by the creator of the Sims, about storytelling and game playing and how they are similar and different, and how games can improve their storytelling. (The second half of the talk is a demo of the new game he’s developing, which is not so interesting as audio…)

• Tag. You’re It—Interesting anecdotes about the different ways tags are used and how they support and influence user behavior.

• Turning Projects Into Revenue Generating Businesses—Inspiration from people who have done it about growing side projects into real revenue streams.

• Online Publishers & Ad Networks—Targeted advertising for web publishers. Networks that connect advertising to publishers have become remarkably sophisticated.

• A Decade of Style—A panel of web standards advocates discusses the evolution of CSS design.