One of the best things about living in Austin is having SXSW in your backyard. This city turns into one giant party for a good week with a steady flow of geeks, film buffs, hipsters and free booze. If you fall into the geek crowd like myself, you might be interested in these interactive sessions below which will take place March 12-16. With two months still ahead, SXSW has posted a preliminary list of confirmed panels. I already have a comically long list of ones I’d like to attend, but here are five recommendations to start with:

1. Interactive Infographics / Casey Caplowe, GOOD

The designer in me is drawn to this session – serious eye-candy. GOOD consistently displays beautiful infographics both in their magazine and website. I assume Caplowe will walk us through examples such as these Transparency graphics. Yum. Read the full description.

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2. Revealing Design Treasures from the Amazon / Jared Spool, User Interface Engineering

If you’re like me and dread holiday shopping, Amazon was probably your one-stop-shop last month. So much for keeping it local. Anyway, Spool will uncover some of the great and not-so-great aspects of this monolithic e-commerce site. It should be an interesting dissection to watch. Read the full description.

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3. Designing the First Fifteen Minutes / Rob Goodlatte, Facebook

Goodlatte will share some insights in creating a user experience that keeps the user from immediately jumping ship. I’m especially interested in this one due to the SwapYourShop online community I’m collaborating on. Read the full description.

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4. Fluid Web Typography: Many Types, Many Faces / Jason Cranford Teague, consultant

I was banking on a Get Your Glyph On sequel* but have yet to see it listed. If it doesn’t surface, I won’t be totally and utterly heartbroken thanks to Fluid Web Typography. I’m hoping it touches on new legal solutions for font downloading as I discussed in this post. Read the full description.

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5. Long Distance UX / Lisa Kamm, Google

Our SwapYourShop team is always interested in learning more about collaboration among global teams, and what better way to learn than from Google? Kamm will share tips and tools on creating a smooth and effective long distance collaboration experience. Read the full description.

*I’m confused by this one. It appears as though Get Your Glyph On 2 is happening due to the web page but perhaps it hasn’t been confirmed because it’s not listed here.