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Oh yea I agree, SXSW music & film are great. But as someone who’s been to SXSW I don’t understand the point of SXSW “interactive”. And in this article it’s talking about big tech companies backing out.

Really what I’m saying is who cares if tech pulls out? Its the worst part of the conference. I can’t imagine anyone other than Austin beer & discount ice sculpture sellers would mind if SXSW interactive disappeared forever.

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That's fair. I think that, like many things, it's very important to a specific group of people, and irrelevant to many others. For a long time, SXSW was the cool place to launch your startup, and many people who still run in those circles remember launching their startups there, and have fond memories, etc.

I mostly agree, but you're forgetting an important part of the tech presence: a lot of those companies hold public parties with free beer and food. I've had plenty of VC-subsidized consumables through the years (though I don't know that I could remember a single one of the sponsoring companies... so maybe not very effective advertising).

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