This weekend marks the beginning of the South by Southwest Conference and Festival 2016 (SXSW), which brings inventors and makers from across the country to Austin, Texas for creative presentations and networking over the Lone Star State’s cuisine. Chris Valentine, founder of Adeo InterActive and event coordinator for the SXSW Accelerator competition, talked about what he sees as the trendiest technologies coming to Austin this year for the Interactive portion of the festival, held Friday through Tuesday.

Virtual Reality

“VR is going to continue to explode,” Valentine said. The use of virtual reality in computing, artificial intelligence, and gaming is causing the segment to burst onto the scene in the last six months after “bubbling under the radar,” he said.

“People like that experience of being able to shape their reality, and VR/AR is an extension of that.” These technologies are increasingly being used to create effects that improve one’s life in the real world, too, with sports organizations or companies using it for training.

VR and AR have developed in parallel, with some devices creating an entire digital world for the viewer and others overlaying information on what one normally sees. A combination of the two might finally make these devices something that can be used in everyday situations but won’t be uncomfortable, either to wear or to see others wearing. Google Glass never really caught on, in part because people thought it could be used to record others without their permission. The next trend in VR/AR will need a company to springboard it into the mainstream and find ways to make people more comfortable, as Apple did with the smartwatch.

“You need the large brands to say it’s okay, and then the startups circle around it and say okay, where can I fit in this?” Valentine said.

Fintech

Another field which fits that pattern – and is seeing more activity from startups this year – is fintech (financial technology). Companies like Apple Pay or Square are making fintech an increasingly visible part of the mainstream. Valentine says that he sees startups filling in the holes in that market. With more people starting to be aware of payment apps and devices, the startups see opportunity in the niches. One startup, called crnsy, informs travelers of their options in regards to currency exchange, including P2P transactions and traditional exchanges. Another, called loqr, uses smartphone-based authentication to help prevent identity theft and fraud.

The main challenge to fintech is security, making sure that it makes fraud more difficult instead of easier.

3D Printing

“3D printing really continues to grow as a sector and to me it is interesting to see how it has evolved over the last couple years,” Valentine said. That evolution comes in the form of enabling products that are more personalized than before, which allow the customer to have input on the things they’re designing. 3D printing companies are well established in the maker space, and support many of the companies that will be presenting this year at SXSW.

Global Industry and Social Good

Valentine also talked about the potential for inventors to create changes and foster social good.

“We don’t need another dating app, but they’re going to keep coming out. Some of those are interesting from a technology standpoint. But I’m more interested in a company that’s trying to make the world a better place.”

Some of those companies are working on smart data, like BreatheWise, a compressed gas regulator that allows gas distributors to see real time supply and usage data.

Startups around the world are able to communicate with one another better now than ever before, and hubs for startups are forming not just in Silicon Valley, but in Tel Aviv, London, and around the world. If Valentine stays up at night reading something about startups, he says, he’s reading about their globalization.

Whether a company bases its business on global expansion or reaches out to a specific local audience, location and scope can make or break a startup. A lot of those companies will be trying their hand at becoming the next big thing at the SXSW Accelerator pitch competition, judging for which runs on Saturday and finishes up on Sunday. We’ll have another look at competition after the show.