One thing I learned at phreaknic is that a couple of seriously cool hacker spaces have popped up in the SouthEast, including this one in Nashville:

The Hacker Consortium is being formed to give like minded persons the ability to meet, discuss, and work on projects in a comfortable working environment. We've all tried to work on projects and expand our skills from our home, and sometimes from the office, but there always seems to be distractions from family members, or office mates. The "Hacker Space" exists to give an enviroment where you can work, or play with persons that understand what you are trying to accomplish, and may even lend positive advice and help out where they can. Would you rather read a 500 page book, or have someone help you get to the meat of the issue and lend some experienced information to you?

This group in Huntsville has also done a number of really cool projects. I kind of think of these things like country clubs for geeks. If someone was organizing such a thing in Atlanta I would gladly pay into it. I suspect with Georgia Tech in the vicinity a club like this could be very successful here. It looks like someone is looking into it.