Pitchfork

If South by Southwest fails to satisfy your craving for free booze, flyers, and promos, then head to Miami a week later for yet another schmoozefest.

Described as "part festival, part trade show, and part industry confab", the M3 (Miami Music Multimedia) Summit is the hottest thing the city has seen since a stubbly, houseboat-dwelling cop named Crockett met a big-city sophisticate named Tubbs. Or at least since the last MTV awards.

M3 runs from March 22-26 and aims to meld DJ culture, the technology industry, fashion, art, and whatever else is hip, marketable, and related to electronic music into one sweaty South Beach stew. Not coincidentally, it takes place at the same time as the Winter Music Conference, the dance music colossus that takes over Miami from March 24-18.

If the alluring mix of spandex, rollerblades, and A&R guys isn't enough of a draw by itself, the lineup of artists appearing at the summit is pretty damn impressive. Coldcut will play their first American show since 2000, and Gilles Peterson, Peter Kruder, She Wants Revenge, Lady Sovereign, Bugz in the Attic, Jamie Lidell, Hot Chip, Booka Shade, DJ Hell, Richie Hawtin, The Juan Maclean, Vitalic, Mark Farina, sthe National Trust, DJ Marlboro, Kudu, Sa-Ra, and many more will also appear.

In addition to the music, M3 will also host panels, speeches, workshops, and poolside networking parties. All this fun in the sun is enough to make any snowbound citizen feel a little less than enamored with everyone from the Magic City. Everyone but "The Golden Girls".