Recently some members of the Dayton Marketing Community met up for the 1st (of what will hopefully be many) Big Idea Breakfast – something I thought up a few days prior while writing my morning pages. The concept for the event was as follows:
This meeting is part networking part innovation part caffeination part collaboration and all fun. Have a great idea? Share it with the world. Find people to help you bring this idea to life.
The meeting will start with open networking and socializing until everyone wakes up and gets fully caffeinated. (let‘s say 20 to 30 minutes.) Following that each person will be given one minute to articulate a “big idea.” That will leave us with a little time to talk about some of our favorite ideas and perhaps bring some to life… that part will be up to you.
The ideas could range from ways to advance your career, to ways to improve the community, to saving energy, saving money, saving time, new tips, new business ideas, whatever you want.
The big idea behind the big idea breakfast is that we all have a lot of interesting thoughts and ideas. By sharing them with others we are forced to more thoroughly examine these thoughts. By others hearing them, they may have a shared interest in bringing them to life. Because everyone is sharing, it may be that some ideas actually support others. This could represent the seed for innovation and growth – the ideas that create our collective future.
Well, the event was a lot of fun. Not only were some great ideas shared by presenters, but then they were made even better through the vibrant discussion that followed. I used my flip cam to film the presentations, and then chopped it up on my Mac and put it on the web. You can view them here.
My idea was something called “The Marketers’ Farm.”
The name is a take off on the Farmers’ Market. The idea is more like a farm system in baseball, but for young marketing professionals in the area. This would be accomplished by assembling cross functional teams from area universities and pairing them with local non-profits and business mentors. They would then engage in a competition with the winning team receiving public recognition at the end. The students would gain connections and experience, the non-profits would get much needed help, and businesses would get the chance to see young talent in action – with the option to hire that talent down the road. This would be a very effective way to keep college graduates and other young professionals in the area, a necessity for the long term viability of the region.
Other ideas included – Bridging Art and Commerce, Localize, Mentor Connect, Social Branding, Twitter for Market Research, You Box, Coopetition Advertising, Start-Up Funding, Corporate Image Consulting, Positively Dayton, Central Community Calendar, Home Services and Cross Selling Cold Calls
The response from those who attended was overwhelmingly positive. Thanks to all who participated. I hope to get the next one on the schedule soon.
