This morning entrepreneur and innovator Sanjay Parekh (blog) is starting a riot in Atlanta. Dubbed Startup Riot, this first-ever, day-long event reflects Sanjay's continued role as one of Atlanta's biggest start-up cheerleaders and tech community advocates. The event features more than 50 companies. Each is given three minutes and four Power Point slides to make its pitch to an audience of companies, investors and job seekers. Beyond creating connections, the goal is to generate awareness for Atlanta's tech community. He doesn't expect to make money on this venture. For him "success means at least one company gets something out of this - either money, employees, or customers." Highly successful in his own right, Sanjay considers himself "very fortunate." As founder of Digital Envoy, he wants to "save workers from cubicle farms" and believes it is "my responsibility to give back to the community."Atlanta's Tech Community: Challenges and OpportunitiesAtlanta is not alone in its aspirations to build a tech community. A lot of really smart, successful people like Sanjay in other cities have spent a lot of time trying to figuring out how to build and sustain a Silicon Valley South. As Michael Arrington wrote about Silicon Valley in Techcrunch: "Students with a good idea are surrounded by people who want them to succeed, who are willing to give them money to support their ideas, and then to help them grow it. There is no where else in the world quite like this place." We in the tech community long for the Valley's concentration of technology companies, its commitment to innovation, and its tolerance for risk and experimentation. But we are not there yet. And it's not for the lack of trying. In Atlanta, there are numerous efforts to spawn and sustain a technology community. Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) acts as a catalyst to foster an environment for technology development. The Atlanta Metro Chamber of Commerce appointed David Harnett as its vice president of technology industry expansion to focus on increasing the presence of the technology industry clusters in Atlanta. The Atlanta Technology Development Corporation (ATDC) (blog) was named by BusinessWeek Magazine as one of the top incubators in the country. Georgia Tech is one of the nation's premier engineering schools. Or just ask Scott Burkett. An entrepreneur and Atlanta technology advocate, Burkett is a co-founder of the Startup Lounge. Its mission is to support the investment process in the development of emerging high-growth companies in Georgia and the southeastern United States. "One of the things Atlanta really 'gets' is technology. We have a very robust technology community here already. However, what we've always lacked is a robust early-stage capital market, and that has kept us from turning the Atlanta scene into a 'thing' for any extended period of time." Through efforts like Scott's Startup Lounge and Sanjay's Startup Riot, and other concerned citizens, Atlanta is making headway. Burkett told me: "There is a new emerging wave of angel investors and entrepreneurs here now. A vibrant community of early-stage risk-takers is beginning to flourish here and to spread out all around the city (and the state for that matter)." Beyond the efforts of these advocates, this movement is being made possible by the nature of the technology itself -- social media, lower barriers to entry, and open source software. I personally share this sense of optimism. I came to Atlanta seven years ago to work at EarthLink right after the Dot Com bust. As an advocate of social media, I see a broader vision beginning to emerge. It will take time to break old habits and make ideas matter as much as relationships. We can't compete with Silicon Valley on its number of entrepreneurs, but the robust attendance at Mike Schinkel's monthly Atlanta Web Entrepreneurs Meetup shows there is a desire for change. Like Atlanta's ever changing skyline, the business environment is evolving. As Scott Burkett predicts, "In a year or two, you won't recognize the Atlanta technology community." Let me get back to you.Technorati Tags: Startup Riot;Digital Envoy;Atlanta Social Media;Sanjay Parekh;Scott Burkett;Startup Lounge;Mike Schinkel;Atlanta Web Entrepreneurs Meetup;New South Media Buzz;Bernaise Source Buzz;Save to del.icio.us
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