Social Media News – Digital Atlanta Nov 7th 2011

Digital Atlanta, Atlanta’s social media event of the year, us coming up with a gala opening party November 7th at The Fox Theater downtown, so it’s time to check in with one of its founders Susan Berry, and let social media practitioners know about this event.

Again.

If you’re saying, “Say, didn’t you blog about this before?,” the answer is, yes. Susan and her friend and colleague Stephanie Frost were part of a longer video called “Atlanta Social Media Party Links BASHH And Digital Atlanta Meetup.” But since the time for Digital Atlanta was drawing near, a video-blog dedicated just to Digital Atlanta seemed like a good idea.

But before we dive more into what Digital Atlanta’s all about, here’s that really fun video from this summer:

Digital Atlanta is a week-long series of events “all around the city of Atlanta to encompass mobile, gaming, social media, and everything digital,” as Berry said in my first video. But what she and Stephanie and I didn’t talk much about was exactly how it got started. Susan filled in the blanks for me this time around.

Susan credits the idea that became Digital Atlanta to her friend Bert Dumars, Vice President of E-Marketing for Newell Rubbermaid in Atlanta. Originally, Digital Atlanta started as “New Media Atlanta,” but the collective elected to re-brand the event with the name it holds today.

I wondered why the rebranding was necessary, and the main reason is that in 2010, New Media Atlanta was largely focused in one venue: the Georgia Tech Research Institute. Digital Atlanta’s a more “open” event, that reaches out to the city itself.

But another reason for the brand change may be related to this song Desiree Scales, CEO of Bella Web Design, Inc. came up with, and sang for New Media Atlanta:

Desiree Scales Sings about New Media Atlanta from Desiree Scales on Vimeo.

From all reports, Ms. Scales hasn’t formed a song for this year’s Digital Atlanta.

Digital Atlanta starts November 7th and runs through November 11th. It consists of 64 events at the following places: Georgia Tech Hotel and Conference Center, HandsOn Network, The Fox Theatre, The Centergy Building, The Hudson Grille in Midtown, Georgia Institute of Technology, Write2Market, Roam Atlanta, 22squared, with parties to be held at still more venues around town.

Many of the events are presentations, like the one that will be given by my friend video producer Amani Channel, who appeared in a video where long-time Atlantan and loyal liberal friend Grayson Daughters just plain blasted TIME’s Mark Halperin while we were all at the Mashable Social Media Day Party:

At Digital Atlanta, Amani, the co-founder of Web Video Chefs.com is sharing the stage with Lamar Tyler and Jeff Funk to talk ” Web Video 101: Easy strategies to engage your audience with video” Thursday November 10th, 3 PM, at the Hudson Grille. No, I’m pretty sure Halperin will not be in attendance.

For the full list of events, and to get tickets or become a sponsor, visit DigitalAtlanta.org.

Related Blogs