• by Steve McClellan , March 4, 2014

Publicis Groupe’s Leo Burnett and HuffPost Live, the Huffington Post’s live streaming network, are teaming up to create a series of video interviews with some of the best and brightest players in technology and marketing at the SXSW Conference in Austin later this month.

Burnett and HuffPost have so far secured about 30 interviews with leaders in their fields who are speaking and making presentations at the event, based on themes including social innovation, robotics, global goods and shopper marketing as well as other themes.  One example: Dr. Leslie Sason of the Keck Center for Body Computing at USC.

The partners also say they have lined up chats with some of the hottest start-ups and media companies as well. Among those on the list so far are Birchbox, AirBnB and StichFix.

The partnership signals “a new wave in agency/publisher collaboration,” said Carey Isom, SVP, director of strategic Partnerships, Leo Burnett. Both companies generate a lot of content, Isom said, adding,“it’s a natural fit for us to join forces and bring our audiences the news that matters most from Austin.”

The video series that the two companies are creating is called #SXLB @HuffPostLive. For the past two years, Burnett has hosted its own series of interviews at SXSW under its #SXLB banner. Previously, the agency has chatted with  luminaries at the conference, such as tech maven Guy Kawasaki, the writer and documentarian Douglas Rushkoff and Tumblr Founder and CEO David Karp, to name a few. This marks the first year it is partnering with another company to offer content at the event.

The interview series can be viewed Saturday, March 8 through Tuesday, March 11 at HuffPost Live and on a co-branded HuffPost Live/Leo Burnett SXSW page.

The interviews will be broadcast from a pop-up studio located in the South Congress neighborhood of Austin, the central area of the SXSW festival.