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Friday September 25, 2009 will mark an inflection point for social media events in Atlanta.  The question is, in what direction are we trending.  Atlanta has several Social Media events already.  They range from small meetups to multi-day unconferences such as SoCon.  New Media Atlanta is the new kid on the block and brings with it lofty aspirations and polished marketing.

First, lets look at how the event was marketed.  This is important because there were a lot of people in attendance.  Many of them paid what they considered to be a reasonable sum of money to attend.

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.

Have you been curious about what social media can mean for your own business?

Are you interested in learning from a group of experts who have the experience to guide you along the way long-term?

Does a chance to meet some real-world social media leaders, authors and speakers appeal to you?

This conference is meant for you and other business owners who are engaging in social media but haven’t quite made the leap to exponential success.

Maybe those people (myself included) should have honed in on the words “high level” because this is what the morning was… High Level.  Unfortunately, the event hosts exacerbated the problem by starting late and kicking the event off with a good hour of “thank-our sponsors.”  Even though, the marketing was beautiful, the event well coordinated, and the facilities fabulous – serious credibility had been lost before the kickoff keynote speaker took the stage.  And it had already seeped into the conference backchannel conversations (on twitter and backnoise).

To make things worse, the opening keynote tried to adapt his presentation because of the sentiment trending in the backchannel.  He stated “the conference sucked so far.”  This was followed by two more presentations that were either retread presentations from another event or a glorified “look at me” show.   The backchannel toxicity escalates further.  Thank goodness it’s lunch time.

Lunch provided a welcome respite, needed food and drink (since both were banned from the auditorium), and the chance to speak with the closing keynote speaker – Chris Brogan.  Chris was kind enough to chat with everyone and sign copies of his book “Trust Agents.“  Unfortunately, it was not good enough to keep me at the conference – especially since it was being live streamed.  So I, and a whole bunch of other people, left the conference.

I’m not sorry.  I got to avoid the Friday afternoon Atlanta traffic.  I still got to watch the conference, although I was not there in person.  And I was still able to follow the backchannel – which was still toxic.   Content wise, the afternoon picked up.  The panel was good, and Chris Brogan did not disappoint.  Here’s why – he addressed the backchannel.  He made it part of his presentation, or a better term would be a conversation.   I am sorry that I did not go to the after party.  and skipping the Atlanta traffic was worth it.

I know many people were disappointed with the conference.  It’s a real shame because if the content issues are addressed, this could be a great event – especially since the people organizing it know how to market it and make it look good.  I don’t want to say the “Lipstick on a pig” line, but I do live in the South.  Do I feel like I got my money’s worth?  The answer would be “no.”  Admittedly, I left early.  However I blocked a day off from clients and I paid for the event – so there were some significant investments made.  Leaving allowed me to recoup about 40% of that.  Would I go again next year?  The answer is maybe.  It is contingent upon the content.  I will also be asking a lot more questions about the content before agreeing to go.

So in a nutshell, here are the salient points about the conference:

1. Don’t start late with a bunch of advertising
2. consider putting your keynote speaker first – especially if you have a high powered panel later.
3. If it is going to be “high level” content, don’t bill it as a business solution solver.
4. If you are going to bill it as business oriented, have more business representation present (from multiple industries)
5. Encourage your presenters to bring “fresh material”, I don’t want to see last years presentation – again.
6. Pay attention to the backchannel and adjust as needed
7. Kudos for putting the event together and executing on it.  Event planning and execution is hard work.
8. Bowling shirts are COOL.

Over the next few days, I’ll be post ing a few more blog posts related to the backchannel conversations.  This topic has many facets for exploration, and the one I want to discuss is its role in learning and development.

Were you at New Media Atlanta?  What were your thoughts? What’s your feedback?  What were your snarky backchannel comments?