The Underappreciated Reason SXSW Matters (In A Word)

It is tempting to search for the next big thing. There were no shortage of journalists sent to SXSW this past weekend for their annual quest to answer exactly that question. And this year many came up empty — or at least indifferent. Some even skipped the event completely. Of course we like to see winners and losers. And SXSW certainly has the track record of a kingmaking conference (Twitter and Foursquare both launched there).

The reason SXSW actually matters, though, has almost nothing to d...