Preface: Again, I apologize to everyone for the paucity in posts. As some of you might know, I have been working incessantly on a project and that has kept me from being able to gain any traction on blogging here. As the blogging gets tougher, I have decided to add a tweet specific to the blog so that I can still share quick updates on devices and such.

You can follow "devicology" on twitter:

Of course, there are not many tweets there yet, but watch the space for more.

Looking for innovative ideas?

Ideas, they say are dime a dozen. Well, who is to say what the current exchange rate is? If you are looking at a start-up or even a project that needs you to design a device, a mechanism, a set of mechanisms and/or processes and methods, you need innovative ideas. Many times you need to be innovative to beat your competition, and sometimes, simply because the solution demands creative thinking.

But, how do we get good ideas? Some people seem to have a practiced way of getting to ideas, so is "ideation" something that you are born with?

Wrong!

Brainstorming!

Brainstorming is the best way to open up your creativity and come up with innovative ideas for your projects, your companies and so on.

While there are many opinions floating around, the baseline is simple - encourage creativity and "out of the box" thinking, do not judge while the session is still on and do not "direct" the meeting.

Of course, I have a few other ideas that I would like to throw in - keep the topics broad first, narrow them later, or in later sessions, provide avenues for creative exploration through colors, toys and such, and feed your people!

Brainstorming is an exercise - so the more you train appropriately that is, the better you can get at it. Take it from me, I have seen this lead project ideas to great success in many different situations - this is the point of the workshop - practice, exercise!

Set at the Crossroads Cafe in San Francisco on September 13, 2010 thanks to the efforts of Eri Gentry, the founder of BioCurious ( http://biocurious.org/index.php?title=Main_Page ), we will discuss the rules for a couple of minutes, brainstorm a broad topic as a group exercise and then given enough interest, we will break into smaller groups and discuss further topics.

Here is the link for the event:

http://www.meetup.com/BioCurious/calendar/14576734/

I hope you can join us!

About BioCurious:

BioCurious is THE DIYBio group for Silicon Valley and in general, the Bay Area. Currently the group is seeking funding to find a near permanent home. You can find out more about them here:

Yours truly's previous FDA regulation class and pitch appear in the video as well...