This past weekend I attended (and spoke) at SoCon 08 in Atlanta. On my personal blog I also posted this photo and note….we’re all equals. I led a mid-day recap session and showed this photo as well. The picture shows how the day started.

That’s what makes events like SoCon08 refreshing. The modified un-conference format gets a diverse group of people in a room. It’s not all PR/marketing, or business/VC…it’s everybody. The thing that unites the audience is the interest in the topic(s) and some geography.

It’s also interesting to compare/contrast the cities that I have had similar events, Orlando, Philadelphia, Savannah, etc. Each of them has a great tech/social media core. Their passion and interest spans both local and national interests. The purpose can be based in personal or business interests.

Sometimes the most inspired business ideas come from those personal passions. That’s why it’s important to mix those two audiences often.

In the afternoon I led session on practical uses of social media as well as a photography session. Guess which one I was most excited about?

It’s also interesting that many times the most interesting sessions are the smallest ones. If you get 8-10 people in a room that share an interest and the discussion can last for hours, compare that to a standard conference experience with a 2 hour general session with 400-500 people in the same room. Yawn.

During the lunch break somebody asked me if Atlanta was ahead of other markets in the Southeast (and perhaps the East coast) with regards to tech/social media. I think people will always think of NYC when they think of the East coast, but what about you? When you think tech and East coast what cities/areas do you think of?