“If you're feeling inspired, you'll share your idea with the crowd. If you're not, you can hang back and hear from others. We'll all chime in with our wisdom, and at the end of the night, we'll be better connected, better informed and better prepared to make our dreams and ideas a reality.” –Ami, founder of ideablob

With Ami moderating, BlobLive kicked off at 7pm at Rembrandt’s in Fairmount with a great bar, tasty appetizers, and a buzzing crowd. This is the second BlobLive event Innovation Philadelphia has attended and this time we took the mic first as the business partner for the evening. We sought advice for one of our new program initiatives, PhillyCreativeJobs.com. Specifically how do we reach both employers and jobseekers with a tiny (aka zero) budget? The suggestions from the audience centered on social media, networking and just plain hitting the streets. Thanks for all of the advice!

Many nebulous and not so nebulous ideas broached the stage last night. One was putting music therapy machines in schools and she asked specifically for ideas on funding. Another was a consulting service that would help biz owners or orgs explain complicated ideas, such as engineering products or government policies, to the general target market. Ami encouraged the group to act on the idea and one entrepreneur left with the language to explain their complicated idea. This was a great opportunity to discuss among the group the importance of acting on ideas. An entrepreneur has great thoughts, but if one doesn’t jump right in, the thought becomes meaningless. Lesson: Start forming your idea into a reality. Just start now.

Every BlobLive event is intertwined with social media. Audience members tweet throughout the event with #bloblive, moving them up the hashtag charts. Curious people who can’t make it to the event watch a live video stream from the comfort of their home, coffee shop or wherever they are. Ami’s 8 year old son now has a twitter name, @miniblob, and joined us from home (although a bit late) with some fun comments. My favorite: “hanging out with bigblob and grandpablob grandmablob mommyblob and miniblobet.”

This event is truly inspiring and pulls entrepreneurs out of the lonely life of upstarts, focusing on their computer screens in coffee shops, and forces interaction with open-minded folks. The ideas of others are inspiring. Even if you don’t have an idea and just want to feel inspired, this is a calendar worthy event. The next opportunity is THIS Monday April 20th at Kildare’s Manayunk  www.ideablob.com  Be there or be a blob.