At a conference last December that I attended for a few minutes, I heard Tino Mantella mention a Venture Atlanta conference that they (they being the Atlanta CEO Council, the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, and TAG I think) were planning to hold this year. I held off discussing this event until they had a website which they now have.
I’m not entirely sure what the goal is here although the tag line implies that this conference’s goal will be to introduce (Georgia?) startups to venture investors. From the looks of the sponsorship package, the group is looking to raise a bit of money ($5k, $10k, and $20k sponsorships are available) - probably to pay for the facilities (it’s being held at the OMNI Hotel downtown).
As a little bit of a pre-announce, I’m hoping to organize a somewhat similar event this year. Some of the goals of this event will be the same as Venture Atlanta, but some will be vastly different. I’ll post additional details here as this develops.
Regardless, this increasing focus on the community and community building is certainly a great development and hopefully it’ll help spawn some great companies in Atlanta, the Southeast, and the East Coast.