Scenes from SXSW Interactive (pictures)

South by Southwest Interactive has wrapped up, and it was a long week. There were lots of people, lots of parties, and lots of interesting discussions, but there might not have been one "next big thing."
Just as SXSWi in the past was dominated by golden boys like Twitter, location-based services such as Foursquare, or group messaging apps, this year the masses seemed to constantly be searching for "the thing," -- but they were never able to settle on one.

At its heart, Austin is a music town, and even during the Interactive portion of the festival, the nights are filled with music as bars and clubs downtown host exclusive parties.

Inside the Austin Convention Center on Saturday morning, the heart of the South by Southwest Interactive world.

During the festival, many blocks of 6th Street are closed and there is music everywhere.

Street art along 6th Street on Thursday night in Austin, Texas, beckons to "Follow Me."

During his keynote speech at South by Southwest on Saturday, Elon Musk discussed Tesla, SpaceX, and SolarCity, and how he sank his whole fortune into these three innovative companies.

Outside the Austin Convention Center on Thursday night any surfaces not already covered with ads, flyers, and other promotions were quickly being plastered with bills for the coming week.

British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee, who is best known as the inventor of the World Wide Web, was at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers meetup on Saturday afternoon.

NASA's full scale model of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which is the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, and will be launched in 2018.

The mirror array on the full scale model of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which is the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, and will be launched in 2018.

CNET's Seth Rosenbaltt moderated a panel Saturday on Web browsers, during which Mozilla's Jay Sullivan revealed there are no plans for Mozilla to return to iOS.

MakerBot's Bre Pettis pauses briefly before unveiling the Digitizer, which will scan real-world objects into 3D-printable digital files.

The MakerBot Digitizer prototype was shown for the first time at South by Southwest.

"It's kind of like Tron," MakerBot CEO Bre Pettis explained, as a prototype of the new Digitizer 3D printer fired its laser scanners at a garden gnome.

3M was showing off some holographic technology around the Austin Convention Center this week at South by Southwest. A video image was projected from behind onto a thick cutout in the same shape as the projection, which gave the impression of a very life-like figure speaking to you.

This strange-looking 50-foot-tall plastic bottle tower was actually part of a demonstration for the Lytro light field cameras, which were available to check out and use for the day.

At a panel discussing the future of 3D printing moderated by CNET's Rich Brown, these two 3D Systems employees were actually wearing Cube 3D printers.

Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley talks location with blogger and entrepreneur Anil Dash. Crowley says Foursquare's massive amounts of data are so much "more than mayorships and badges."

With tens of thousands of people in town, traffic is awful in Austin this week. A better way to travel is a pedi-cab, a tricycle which carries up to three passengers.
Many of these pedi-cabs are sponsored, and free, like this one powered by Oreo.

At a panel on "Mobilizing Ingenuity to Strengthen Global Security" with CNET's Daniel Terdiman, acting U.S. Undersecretary of State Rose Gottemoeller (far right) said she believes the public can play a vital role in helping combat international arms control violations and threats.

A video of Grumpy Cat, quite possibly the biggest story coming out of South by Southwest, was projected in the windows of a building along 6th Street on Saturday night.

The CNET party on Saturday night.

Wanderu is a service that facilitates travel on intercity buses and trains between any two points in the country. This little monkey appears to be a fan.

Social media guru Gary Vaynerchuk doles out advice inside the Austin Convention Center on Sunday.

Al Gore chats with journalist Walt Mossberg on Saturday during South by Southwest Interactive.

Musician Robert DeLong performs at the CNET party in Austin, Texas, on Saturday.

A unicorn from Samsung's new Unicorn Apocalypse game makes an appearance at the CNET party on Saturday.

Fun in the afternoon sun at the Spotify House at South by Southwest.

The Spotify House had long lines to get in on Monday afternoon, as people came for the free drinks and performances from Robert DeLong and Atlanta's Watch the Duck.

Someone's turn has gone horribly wrong while playing a large-scale version of Jenga at the Mashable party on Sunday night at Speakeasy in Austin.

A trip to Austin is never complete without a visit to Salt Lick for barbeque. A visit to the legendary spot has become a sort of South by Southwest annual pilgrimage for many festival attendees.
We'll see you next year!