Event Review: New Media Atlanta 2009

The organizers of a brand new event in Atlanta went all out to put on a high caliber show for the technology community around social media and social marketing. The New Media Atlanta event was billed as:

The New Media Atlanta conference is a high level, business dialog about how social media is changing marketing and messaging – and in fact, changing the nature of all communications.   We’ll talk about strategies to leverage its power to build your company, product, brand, service, etc.

You’ll have an opportunity to ask your burning questions of the speaker panel and get real answers.

The opening speech by the organizers detailed a vision to make New Media Atlanta a yearly event on caliber with South by Southwest (SXSW). That is one grand order for sure! That is really like wanting your garage band to be U2?!? Ambition is a good thing, but flash can not make over substance and there was not as much substance as SXSW. Personally, I would not ever compared this show to SXSW were it not for the mention of it by the organizers.

Having said that, the even staff was GREAT, the venue was superb and overall the day was well organized and the presentations kept on time for the most part. Chris Brogan was the highlight for the event and he did not miss a beat! Once Chris took the state the crowd settled in for some particular strategies and approaches for social media.

The highs were the keynote by Chris Brogan, the small business presentation by Jonathan Baker of Monday Night Brewing was outstanding and a panel session with executives from Rubbermaid, Turner TNT, and Coke was VERY informative on strategy, ROI and techniques for social media engagement.

The areas for improvement would be, NOT to listen to the noise going on from the detractors. The event planners were overly focused on negative comments being made anonymously in chat rooms. They would bring then get onstage and make comment and even ADJUST the program based on comments by a small minority. The acknowledgment of this Back Noise became VERY distracting to the entire event. So the majority of the audience was subject to comments made anonymously by a few silly attendees and that threw off the "spirit" of the room in my opinion. What was a little know chat room became the focus of the event by the end of the day and that sentiment was fueled by many presenters and the organizers. Note to self…when you have  99% positive comments, do NOT focus in on pleasing the 1%, keep the 99% happy!

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