Austin's annual South by Southwest festival is a glimpse into our future. Tech-savvy start-ups and multibillion-dollar enterprises alike are eager to show the world their newest projects and latest technologies. Our attendance at SXSW is an investment in our investments. We want to know about developing trends, and assess their impact on our existing portfolio. And we want to find the smaller, growing companies, that could be well-positioned for massive future upside.

President Barack Obama speaks at the South by Southwest Festival (SXSW) on March 11 in Austin, Texas. AUSTIN -- SXSW is all about FOMO. Between the festival's events being scattered across the city and a designed-for-dismay schedule that can schedule dozens panels on top of each other, this annual gathering is guaranteed to inflict Fear Of Missing Out. I'd like to think that I've learned how to manage this chaos--I've attended SXSW's tech-oriented Interactive conference every year since 2012--but instead, I kept hearing about fascinating things I'd missed via comments like "great emoji panel" (yes, actual event) or "they had drones delivering piñatas" (apparently that happened too). The only sane response is to accept that you don't run your SXSW schedule--your current location does.

Columnist Marc Saltzman shows you five great gadgets featured during South by Southwest Interactive. Fusing the arts with emerging technology, the 23rd annual South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Festival has just wrapped up in Austin, Texas. Featuring multiple panels, seminars, exhibitors and meet-ups over five days, topics ranged from high-tech movie making and coding games to robotics and artificial intelligence to more practical themes such as how start-ups can secure funding, "MedTech" and "FinTech" (financial technology) solutions. And, yes, I took advantage of silly photo ops, too, such as posing with Grumpy Cat, a woman riding a unicorn or an enormous TIE Fighter spacecraft from Star Wars. The following are five technologies, products and services that caught my eye at SXSW Interactive.