Social media is what I would consider the antithesis of mainstream marketing. By no surprise, corporations have still managed to entwine themselves in the experience and are finding it quite effective. Suddenly social media is mainstream.

However, there is a recognized resistance to mass-publicized conferences in the world of social media. You may often hear of bloggers, podcasters and other social media-ers congregating and sharing their expertise. Much like the medium itself, these gatherings are informal and generally unplanned.

But, what if there was an organized event with social media companies sharing expertise and exchanging ideas? The opportunity to mix and mingle could yield big results for those looking to step up their game.

One such conference does exist in Atlanta. SoCon07 is appropriately dubbed “the UN-conference.” And it will be anything but mainstream. Held at Kennesaw State University, the conference will feature a keynote from Chris Klaus (founder of social entertainment world Kaneva). But, the remainder of the conference will be based on group discussions; with topics including Podcasting, Citizen Journalism, Reinventing Journalism, Online User Experience and more.

Attendees are encouraged to match their interests with the topics at the conference. Discussions will be divided based on interest, with “topic leaders” guiding the conversations in intimate groups. The idea of SoCon07 is to create social networking at a conference –there is even a pub-crawl at the end of the event.

Our very own Raghu Kakarala will be a topic leader for User Experience, and Spunlogic is a Sponsor of the event. Leave it to social media to redefine the way we experience a conference.