April BlobLive Event
by Nelly Arnold, 23 April 2009

Nelly Arnold is the Program Manager for PhillyCreativeJobs.com, a program of Innovation Philadelphia and Philly Creative Guide. Nelly's background spans business development, project management, and marketing roles in both not-for-profit and for-profit companies in the Visual Art and Construction industries. She also specializes in social media and blogging, writing national articles for young professional women. She is a graduate of The Hill School in Pottstown, PA and The University of Montana in Missoula, MT.

"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 and tasty appetizers. This is the second BlobLive 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 the 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 the idea to put 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 some help in finding the language to explain their idea. This was a great opportunity to discuss among the group the importance of acting on ideas. An entrepreneur can have great ideas, and generally does, but if one doesn't jump right in, the purpose is lost. Lesson: Start forming the idea into a reality. Just start.

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 can watch a live video stream from the comfort of their home, coffee shop, or wherever they are. BlobLive describes the event as relaxed. 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, grandpablob, grandmablob, mommyblob and miniblobet."

This event is truly inspiring and brings entrepreneurs out of the lonely life of upstarts, focusing on their computer screens in coffee shops, and forces interaction. 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 a blob.