Photo of the interactive playpen at SXSW by Michael Femia. Something that Ryan Gantz and I dreamed up with festival director Hugh Forrest that’s been part of SXSW since 2006.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the word “why” lately, inspired by Catherine Caine’s Goddamn Radiant program that I’ve been making my way through for a new thing I’m working on. In the first part of her ebook, she talks about “why” and points to Simon Sinek’s “Start With Why.” “Why” is the most compelling part of anything I do in my personal and professional life.

Since February of last year I’ve worked at MIT Technology Review’s tech community arm, the MIT Enterprise Forum. When MIT Technology Review relaunched their brand with a new logo and design at EmTechMIT in October, they started to use the phrase “technologies that matter” to describe the company’s approach. This is awesome. There is a lot of technology coming to life every day — but how much of that really matters? I like that at MIT Technology Review, there’s a filter for what matters.

I’m attending my ninth South by Southwest Interactive Festival in a few days. I missed 2011 and 2012 which means I’m not likely at all prepared for the massive crowds that will be in Austin. When I first started going to SXSW back in 2001, it was spring break for web geeks attended by a couple hundred of my peers around the world. Ah yes, those were the days! But I’m still excited to be making my way down in 2013 — massive crowds and all. Festival director Hugh Forrest and his team have built something amazing and useful and fun over the years. I’m proud to be part of the advisory board. Everyone talks about the parties — and they are a lot of fun — especially if you enjoy standing in line. But this year, I’m going to make a better effort to attend sessions at the conference, see a few movies at SXSW Film and attend 20×2, a long-standing evening event at SXSW Interactive that has managed to maintain the community vibe of the early festival years.

While I’m at SXSW, I’m conducting short video interviews with company founders who are tech innovators. Everyone will tell the story about their work and why it matters. I’ve already rounded up several people to interview including Nataly Kogan, Chief Happiness Officer at Happier, a new Boston company who recently launched their Happier app in February. The videos will go up on the MIT Enterprise Forum’s global video website where Enterprise Forum chapters around the world share content.

If you are a founder of a technology company and you’ll be at SXSW Interactive with something to say about your work and why it matters, please get in touch with me to discuss my project! I will be conducting interviews March 9-13.