Crossing some old Atlanta boundaries

02/22/13 23:21:00    

By Michael Mealling

One of the Atlanta Tech and Startup Week events that I attended was Founder Fables which was an off the record event where co-founders were able to talk freely. While I can't talk about anything else that happened there, I can talk about one co-founder that had some interesting things to say and show: the unofficial other mayor of Atlanta, Mr. Jermaine Dupri. Mr. Dupri spoke about the process behind his new website, Global14.com.

But what he did afterward was just as interesting. He invited all of the attendees to the 20th Anniversary dinner for his label, So So Def Recordings, that was tonight. I couldn't make it due to a family emergency but several were able to make it:

  

In my opinion this is an important event since its one of the few times that two of the major entrepreneurial communities in Atlanta actually interact. And its an interaction that should happen more often. It shouldn't have to wait on someone like Jermaine Dupri making it happen. Each community can benefit from the other. The music business can use and help drive the technology businesses and those businesses could definitely use some exposure to the style and entertainment industry. We have 5 major film studios but all of the technology in those studios comes from outside Atlanta.

The next time we have an Atlanta startup event we should contact Mr. Dupri and invite his team and community. Events like this should be the rule, not the exception.