In a few days, thousands of people will arrive in Austin to attend South by Southwest Music and Media Conference, four overlapping conferences featuring the latest topics in technology, music, film and education.

Among the biggest draws are the panels—discussions all over downtown Austin covering hundreds of topics.

South by Southwest solicits panel suggestions worldwide and selects its programming based on the preferences of staff, an advisory panel and Internet voters, according to its website.

SXSW accepted proposals for the 2012 conferences in June and July 2011. SXSW then posted the ideas online and allowed Internet users to vote for their favorites from mid-August to early September 2011 through its PanelPicker program.

According to the event's website, PanelPicker was first used for the Interactive conference in 2007 and expanded to the film and music conferences in 2010.

The 2012 site lists 3,231 proposals for SXSW Interactive, 176 for SXSW Film and 333 for SXSW Music.

Internet voters account for 30 percent of the decision-making process. SXSW's experienced staff make up another 30 percent. The remaining 40 percent comes from the SXSW advisory board, "a group of experienced industry professionals, whose advice and insights about programming and other event-related issues are trusted by the SXSW staff," according to the website.

This year, SXSW Interactive programmed more than 900 panels, including meet ups and mentor sessions, SXSW spokeswoman Kelly Krause said.

The SXSW Film schedule shows screenings for almost 300 films.

SXSW spokeswoman Elizabeth Derczo said SXSM Music has scheduled 190 sessions and more than 2,000 bands performing.