Eat, Drink, and Be Innovative

John Robb has an interesting short post over at Global Guerrillas talking about “highly decentralized hot spots of local innovation.” Say what? Allow us to translate: that’s apparently geek speak for “cool restaurant that acts as a magnet for forward thinkers who wish to gather and exchange ideas.” Robb is talking about how, in the “old days” of Silicon Valley startups, innovators and VCs could often be found congregating at one place — namely an eatery called Buck’s of Woodside. Now, he says, you can find places like this scattered all over. And he offers the example of Claire’s, a Vermont restaurant, to make his point.

But it’s the conversation the post inspires — dare we call this collaboration? — that really gets things going. In particular, commenter Duncan Kinder takes the time to school Robb on the history of innovators swapping creative juices over a plateful and a cuppa over the past umpteen centuries. He even includes helpful source links.

Kinder cites Plato’s Symposium, a philosophical dialogue written about the nature of love, which was set (as were real life symposiums) over supper and wine. And he notes the Florentine Camerata, a sort of coworking model for Renaissance musicians. And then there’s the Mermaid Club — a bunch of Elizabethan poets who gathered at a tavern regularly to throw back brew and couplets spew.

Do note Kinder has more than a passing interest in the history of folks gathering to swap ideas. As he himself points out — also with a link — he’s compiled a list on Amazon called Philosophically Correct Entertainment offering up other examples of the predecessors to that smart group thinking that informs the success of coworking.

Photo by kino-eye