#SoCon09 basically proved it was Atlanta’s premier Social Media event yesterday without question. The event however was not located in Atlanta, much to the chagrin of Andrew Wilson, who just might understand that Atlanta has a brand identity issue. The conference had record attendance of like 325 folks.
Some of the highlights from my perspective:
- KSU got a $1.5M grant to research journalism in context of social media
- Chris Carfi rearranged the room and lead the engaging keynote discussion on markets
- Search.twitter.com basically STOPPED due to refreshes for those on the KSU network
- #SoCon09 sustained as a trending topic right up until the end of the day
- Met at least 6 people from Twitter I hadn’t met before – real life can be fun
- Met EVEN MORE people who I will now get to know better on Twitter
- Learned about really cool stuff people are doing in Atlanta – where are you people the rest of the year?
- Jeff Haynie reaffirmed that Your Idea Sucks and it is about execution!
- I met a person more theoretical and conceptual than myself, ok I met Greg Bond before, just didn’t realize it.
- Plenty of pictures shared in real-time
- I learned that facilitating a discussion is far more rewarding than giving a presentation
- I figured out you can go to a conference and make it to baby shower without issue, even if you start your day in Kennesaw
So who was there? A bunch of people, but to highlight a few and create pseudo blog roll:
- Jason Brett
- Lee Kent
- Kim Brame
- Mike Gresham
- Saba Long
- Michael Forrester
- Steve Cadly – dude you need to delete the hello world post, just an idea
- Rhonda Duffy
- Jeff Hillmire
- JBrotherLove
- Grayson Daughters
- Richard LeBer – His companies actually make stuff, like real stuff.
- Elizabeth Fairleigh
- Thomas Strickland
- John Mecke
- Matt Hyatt
- Taryn Pisaneschi
- David S. Cohen
- James Andrews
- Jess Pater
- Peggy Duncan
- Rob Dunford
- Urvaksh Karkaria
- Dougal Campbell
- Mike Adkinson
- Glulife
- Tessa
- Caleb Masland
- Amani Channel – Thanks for the live stream!
- Josh Hallett
- Moushumi Kabir
- Eli Wendkos
- Jeff Garbers
- Mallory8
- Scott Lockhart
- Jamie Gumbrecht
- Megha Bradley
- Brent Leary
- Sean Wood
- Joe Winter
- Hillary Meister
- Cameron Watson
- Matt Smith
- George Daniels
- Andrew Mccann
- Ricky Steele
- Ruth1150
- Justin Ruckman
- Kristina McInerny
- Bill O’Neill
- leatrice Ellzy
- Joe Magennis
- Desiree Scales
- Jessica Latin
At the end of the day, a big thanks has to go out to Leonard Witt, Sherry Heyl and all the folks at KSU. The event clearly shows that technology interest and expertise isn’t in short supply in Atlanta. As a follow up, I started trolling through the event tweets and the tweet below made me ask myself a question: So why would we wait until next year to synch up?
We shouldn’t! Every month ATL Tweeters and Social Media Club Atlanta meet to share ideas, discuss things we are seeing in the community and try to find ways to get just a little more social in ATL.
If I left you off the “blog roll”, I apologize, I recreated via hash tags and cards I had in my pocket – so leave a comment and your link so everyone can read other folks out there in the Greater Atlanta Area.
Great meeting y’all and see you at either ATL Tweeters or the next Social Media Club meeting.
Cheers!
~jon
