What’s an Idea Market?
September 26, 2007
It’s always cool to be there at the beginning of something new and watch it grow.
I can’t quite say that of myself and blogging. I wasn’t there at the very beginning. But with almost 4 1/2 years under my belt now, I certainly was a relatively early adopter. I’ve seen many exciting changes and much growth in the blogosphere, and continue to see more on a near-daily basis.
With Matt Homann’s Idea Market idea, on the other hand, I was there when he first threw out the idea to a group of lunching St. Louis bloggers, and I was there for the very first Idea Market itself.
So I’m particularly pleased today to pass on to you an excellent newspaper article about the Idea Market, and to heartily endorse Matt and the Idea Market concept.
No, the Idea Market isn’t where you go to buy ideas. More like to swap them, and brainstorm, and meet lots of cool, smart, creative people in the process.
In the St. Clair County [Illinois] Journal, Larry Ingram writes:
It’s part think tank and part focus group — with lots of networking thrown in as well.
As an innovation consultant, retreat facilitator and conference planner, Homann devised the Idea Market in St. Louis about a year ago. . . . He sees the idea market as filling a need for fun after work exercises that stretch the brain and allow a chance to network at the same time.
Many of the business “networking” events he has attended left him wanting. “Often it can be a handshake and business card event,” he said.
Homann found that while pushing people into an activity, they have fun and get to know each other as well. “I found that while doing other retreats and conferences, when people actually meet and do something together, they learn a lot about each other and are far more likely to be engaged with one another, and ultimately do business with each other,” he said.
Homann said his idea markets are a lot different than what people do in a typical business after hours event, which can center on “what do you do and what can you do for me.”
“Then people will often move on to someone else if there is not something mutually beneficial,” he said. Contrast that with the Idea Market, where the focus is usually outside one’s job. “It’s lets build something, let’s do something fun together,” he said. . . .
Homann said some of the people who come to the idea market events are natural entrepreneurs. “But a lot of people come because they don’t get that (creative) interaction during their day jobs,” he said.
Homann maintains a Web site, www.realbigthinking.com, with a blog for innovative business people, www.nonbillablehour.com. He also hosts the St. Louis Idea Market, which can be accessed through www.meetup.com.
The Idea Market is something you have to experience to fully “get.” Its success is due to Matt’s creativity and enthusiasm, as well as to the great people who show up.
While the Idea Market works well as a networking event that’s more than just chit-chat, elevator speeches, and business-card exchanges, I think it would be really exciting to try in a large organization, one large enough that the people are often not well acquainted with each other.
It would essentially serve as internal networking that could also make progress towards achieving corporate goals.
For example, in a large law firm, cross-selling clients of one department to use lawyers from other departments is a major potential source of new business. Such cross-selling may be facilitated by an Idea Market in which the lawyers in various departments work together on some of Matt’s exercises, which help them develop an appreciation of each other as smart, creative people in a way that a firm golf outing probably doesn’t. Then, a cross-selling referral can be much more genuine.
Finally, from a personal perspective, Matt’s exercises are just what it takes to get me into conversation. I’m an introverted extrovert or vice versa — it takes something to get me going in a conversation, and once I do I can really get going. Matt usually gets me going. . . .Related Posts
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