On Tuesday afternoon, SXSW announced that Bill Gates, the chairman of Microsoft and co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will make his way to Austin as a keynote speaker at this year's conference.
But it's not at the ever-growing Interactive portion of the conference that Gates will be featured. Bill Gates will give the final keynote of SXSWedu, the educational arm of SXSW.
SXSWedu takes place March 4 - 7, 2013 and will provide an array of programming for a "passionate audience of education stakeholders and practicioners." Gates will give his closing keynote on March 7.
While Gates is most widely known for his influential work at Microsoft, he will address the foundation's education focus, says SXSW:
SXSWedu is thrilled to announce Bill Gates will deliver the closing keynote address at the SXSWedu Conference & Festival Thursday, March 7 in Austin, Texas. Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, will address the foundation’s U.S. education work, which focuses primarily on ensuring all students are prepared for success in college and career.
In 2000, Gates, along with his wife Melinda, formed the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which merged the William H. Gates Foundation and the Gates Learning Foundation. Today, the organization takes on the world's toughest problems, from extreme poverty and poor health around the world to education system failures here in the U.S.
The foundation funds creative ideas that can help remove these barriers, whether it be a new farm technique in a developing country or a new teaching method for a local classroom.
SXSWedu is a four-day event in advance of the main SXSW programming. The registration deadline for ordering a discount badge to SXSWedu is Friday, January 11.
