Wow! What a weekend of Social Media goodness. I honestly wish I could have done more (not that 2 conferences isn’t enough), but alas, I’m only one person. So, let’s get to it, shall we?

New Media Atlanta – For Social Media People, Not By Social Media People

Friday morning at about the butt-crack of dawn, I jumped into the car with @briancauble, @andreafwalker, and @joshgrenon for a little road trip goodness. As the anointed driver of the group (voted most awake and most caffeinated), I navigated us (via GPS) to GaTech for New Media Atlanta.

First think I must say about #nmatl is that it was well organized. But from the time that I walked into the lecture hall it was being held in, I knew it wasn’t going to go well. It immediately reminded me of a quote that I had recently hear from one of those big named social media folks…

The difference between an audience and a community is which direction the chairs are pointing.

Now, having been to #soso in August, (not nearly as well organized as #nmatl) I realized that while the people who ran #nmatl may use Social Media, but I seriously doubt that they are Social Media people.

#soso focused on interaction, not just lecture. Granted we grouped together to hear @ajkeen and @mideastyouth, but most of the conference were tag-team sessions that promoted more discussion than lecture. One great example was where @jasonfalls and @RichardAtDell discussed creating a Social Media strategy and asked the audience the question while guiding the conversation. Kudos to those guys for a great session and the organizers of #soso for using that format.

Now I realize that most of the people in attendance were marketers (a live pole was done via text) and that marketers are used to the “bullhorn”. But, social media is about interaction, discussion, networking, etc. And I quite frankly feel that I didn’t get that kind of value from #nmatl. The biggest takeaway from the conference is that I won’t be back next year if they don’t change the format.

With the exception of Brogan. Hearing Brogan was worth the price of admission. Just wish I had known that a week ago, and I would have planned to go listen to him in Nashville.

Now, don’t think I’m spiteful. I think that #nmatl is a great idea and would benefit from some tweaking of the format. I’m hopeful that the organizers will listen to the feedback (hopefully they are hearing the same feedback that I have been) and change the format of the conference. Atlanta has a great deal of marketers, PR people, companies, conference space, etc. Essentially, all the ingredient to make #nmatl nationally recognized as the place to be for Social Media Pros.

I think a lot of people will be interested to see what happens next year.