Launching Atlanta AI Dinner: Just Good People and Better Conversation

I’ve been to enough “AI networking events” to know the drill. You walk into a room full of people clutching business cards, half-listening to conversations while scanning name tags for their next mark. Someone inevitably corners you to pitch their revolutionary data platform that’s “totally different from everything else out there.”

I’ve had fantastic conversations at these, met great people, and even have actually found good vendors. But it’s not always the vibe.

The best events I’ve been to with peers were always the least formal.

What Atlanta AI Dinner Actually Is

So here’s what we’re doing instead: Atlanta AI Dinner is exactly what it sounds like. A group of AI folks in Atlanta getting together occasionally to eat food and talk about the work we’re actually doing. No vendor presentations. No sponsored happy hours with stale networking energy. Just people who are genuinely building with AI, sharing ideas over a decent meal.

It’s invitation-only, which I know sounds exclusive, but it keeps the group focused and the conversations real. We’re looking for people who are actually working in AI, whether that’s researchers, engineers, founders, or leaders at companies doing interesting work with machine learning and AI systems.

The Anti-Pitch Zone

Here’s what you won’t find at these dinners:

• Sales presentations disguised as “thought leadership”
• Vendors trying to sell you their latest AI-powered whatever
• Generic networking small talk about “leveraging synergies”
• Anyone asking you to scan a QR code to download their app

What you will find is people talking about the actual challenges they’re facing. The models that aren’t working as expected. The deployment issues keeping them up at night. The ethical considerations they’re wrestling with. The breakthrough moments that made all the debugging worth it.

Small Groups, Real Conversations

We keep the groups deliberately small. Large networking events inevitably devolve into surface-level conversations where everyone’s performing their elevator pitch. When you’re sitting around a table with 6-8 people, you actually get to dig into the interesting stuff.

The goal is a table where everyone can hear everyone else.

You Buy Your Own Dinner

This might be the most important part: everyone pays for their own meal. No sponsors, no company picking up the tab in exchange for “just a quick presentation.” When there’s no commercial agenda lurking behind the dinner, people can actually relax and be honest about what they’re working on.

It also means we can pick restaurants based on where we actually want to eat, not where some vendor booked a private room with mediocre catering.

There’s Also a Discord

Because sometimes the best conversations happen between dinners, we’ve got a Discord server where people can continue discussions, share interesting papers, ask quick questions, or organize smaller meetups. It’s the same vibe as the dinners - just people talking shop.

Getting Involved

If this sounds like your kind of thing, shoot me an email at the address on the Atlanta AI Dinner website. I’m looking for people who are actually doing AI work in Atlanta - not necessarily the biggest names or the loudest voices, just people who are in the trenches building interesting things.

The whole point is to create the kind of AI community I actually want to be part of. One where the conversations are real, the people are genuine, and nobody’s trying to sell you anything except maybe splitting the appetizer.

If you would like to be involved just reach out to me on any of the linked socials, or at the email on the group’s website. Looking forward to some good meals and even better conversations.