The annual SXSW Interactive Festival starts tomorrow and runs through Tuesday. With five days packed with sessions on everything from mobile game development to the ethics of ambient location to how new technology is being used in the medical field, the confab can be thrilling and overwhelming at the same time. 

Here are five sessions focused on the future of local and social that Street Fight readers will be especially interested in.

Does Social Marketing Even Work?
Sat. Mar 9, 5-6 p.m.
Courtyard Marriot
Join Frank Burns and Jason Ford of social marketing company Feedmagnet as they discuss the rise of social marketing, some of the problems with measuring it’s effectiveness and how to best utilize it and other aspects of digital marketing into your business, whether on a local or global scale.

GeoSpatial MeetUp
Sun. Mar 10, 11 a.m.-12 p.m.
Empire
Interested in LBS? In SoLoMo? Want to know what those acronyms mean and if they apply to your or your business? Come to the GeoSpatial meetup, with presenter James Sinclair from Can We Network to learn more about these innovative technologies and how to apply them.

Mobile Disruption and The Rise of Local Web
Sun. Mar 10, 3:30-4:30 p.m.
Hilton Austin Downtown
With the rise of mobile and location technologies comes a huge shift in how commerce is conducted and how people search and purchase items. While the ability to find something local and even have it delivered through mobile exists, there is still a gap in the implementation of this with local merchants. Bo Fishback from Zaarly and others will discuss this changing landscape and what it means for the future of local commerce.

The Future of Location: From Social to Utility
Mon. Mar 11, 12:30 -1:30 p.m.
Austin Convention Center
With a saturation of maps and location in the past few years, the key has become not telling people what is around them, but why it matters. Anil Dash from Activate and Dennis Crowley from Foursquare will be talking about the evolution of location and what comes next.

Is It Local? Scaling Local Infrastructure
Tues. Mar. 12, 3:30-4:30 p.m.
Hilton Austin Downtown
The idea of local economy and local commerce has exploded recently. With Postmates making same day delivery possible and others helping build a local infrastructure, this panel will discuss how this emerged, who will succeed and why and how to best scale supply and demand.

Isa Jones is an editorial assistant at Street Fight.