Oh definitely yes. Being in a conversation where one of the parties doesn't know how to keep the topic aloft is excruciating.

If you want to see masters of keeping up a conversation, watch some comedy improv. Their entire task is to take a topic which they don't know about (usually specified by an audience member) and convert it into a conversation that must be kept up by each person. Once you see enough of these improvs you will notice that each comedian is able to inject something interesting into each sentence that keeps the conversation going, but not too much (or too little) that it causes the topic to die on the vine.