First that type of panel was rare. For every panel like that there were four such as "Twitter and Dating in 140 Characters or Less", "Crowd Sourcing Innovative Social Change", "Interactive Documentaries: A Multidimensional Narrative", "Millionaire or Artist? how about Both?"

Second "tech" focused has different meanings for different folks I don't think debating SQL vs NOSQL is very tech-focused. Tech focused for me is here's this thing, maybe some of why/how we built it, but definitely some how you can use it, and esp here's the code.

SXSWi maybe a tech conference. It sure isn't a developer conference. But, I'm glad it's not. People whining that SXSWi is not the type of conference they want need to stfu and go to the correct conference.