If you see downtown inundated (more than normal) with socially awkward people tomorrow and the next day, it's likely due to this:

How did the idea for SIC come about?

We spent a lot of time traveling the trade-show circuit in different cities and saw that they were focused on exhibit halls and not real quality programming, and we'd been wanting to bring a show like SXSW to Seattle. In recent years, Interactive at Sx has outpaced the music attendance, which was a catalyst for us to launch SIC.

What do you consider the highlights for this year's conference?

Highlights for this years conference are probably our panels that we have put together right after lunch each day that will cover topics like digital music transformations to the future of news and media to a panel of female industry veterans that explore whether or not [a] Mad Men[-type approach to advertising] would work in today's world.

What technologies is the conference focusing on this year?

Cloud computing, storage, recovery seems to be a major topic that's disrupting the industry on all sides from music distribution, data backups, etc. We also have a lot of content concerning social media and how it's transforming the way brands talk to their customers and how to run successful marketing campaigns using social media as a means.

You've got plans to expand the festival next year to coincide with City Arts Fest, can you elaborate?

We're looking to partner with City Arts Fest, as they're doing a great job in programming their music schedule, so we can focus on keeping the high-caliber speakers at our event. We eventually want to showcase film as well, but on a local level.

Who's better at drinking, geeks or nerds?

My vote goes to geeks. They live in pubs already and have a better stomach for it. Nerds don't feed themselves enough to compete face-to-face with geeks.

Seattle Interactive Conference runs Wednesday and Thursday at the Convention Center and includes afterparties for geeks and nerds alike.